AZ-104 Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Practice Test 11 — 15 Questions

Question 1

An application on an Azure VM needs more CPU and memory. The administrator wants to keep the same OS disk and installed apps, without redeploying the server. What should be done?

Accepted Answer

Resize the VM to a larger size. Resizing the VM (Option A) allows you to change the VM size to a SKU with more CPU and memory while preserving the OS disk, installed applications, and all data. This operation can be performed on a stopped (deallocated) VM and does not require redeployment or reimaging, making it the correct choice for scaling up resources without disruption to the existing configuration.

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Reimage the VM

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Move the VM into a different availability zone

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Create a new storage account

Question 2

Two legacy application VMs must survive planned maintenance and a single host failure. The vendor requires both VMs to stay in the same region, and a datacenter outage is not part of the requirement. What should the administrator use?

Accepted Answer

An availability set that places the VMs in separate fault and update domains.. An availability set protects against planned maintenance and single host failures by placing VMs in separate fault domains (different physical hardware) and update domains (different maintenance windows). This ensures that during planned Azure maintenance, only one VM is rebooted at a time, and if a host fails, only VMs in that fault domain are affected. Since the requirement specifies a single host failure (not a datacenter outage) and both VMs must stay in the same region, an availability set is the correct choice.

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Availability zones with one VM in each zone.

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A virtual machine scale set in a single zone.

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A proximity placement group for both VMs.

Question 3

A team needs to deploy 25 identical Ubuntu VMs every month from source control. The deployment must be repeatable, and each VM must include a system-assigned managed identity at creation time. Which approach should be used?

Accepted Answer

A Bicep template deployment.. A Bicep template is an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solution that declaratively defines Azure resources, including VMs with system-assigned managed identities. It ensures repeatable, version-controlled deployments of 25 identical Ubuntu VMs every month, meeting the requirements for automation and identity assignment at creation time.

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Azure portal manual creation of each VM.

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An Azure Policy assignment at the subscription level.

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An Azure Monitor alert rule that triggers VM creation.

Question 4

Based on the exhibit, which OS disk option best fits a development VM that is rebuilt often and does not need the disk contents to survive deallocation?

Accepted Answer

An ephemeral OS disk.. An ephemeral OS disk is created on the local VM host and not stored in Azure Storage, so it provides lower latency and is automatically deleted when the VM is deallocated. This makes it ideal for development VMs that are rebuilt often and do not require disk persistence across deallocations.

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A Standard HDD managed OS disk.

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A premium managed data disk used as the OS disk.

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A shared disk attached to multiple VMs.

Question 5

A team deploys a Linux VM that must read secrets from Azure Key Vault without storing any usernames, passwords, or client secrets on the VM. What should the administrator enable on the VM?

Accepted Answer

A system-assigned managed identity. A system-assigned managed identity enables the Linux VM to authenticate to Azure Key Vault without any stored credentials. Azure automatically creates a service principal in Entra ID for the VM, and the VM can obtain an access token from the Azure Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) endpoint (169.254.169.254) to authenticate to Key Vault. This eliminates the need to store usernames, passwords, or client secrets on the VM.

Answer

A storage account access key

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A service endpoint on the VM subnet

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A user account in Entra ID with a stored password

Question 6

A production application runs on three Azure VMs in the same region. The business requires the service to stay available if one entire datacenter in the region becomes unavailable because of a power or network outage. Which configuration best meets the requirement?

Accepted Answer

Deploy the VMs across availability zones.. Availability Zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. By deploying VMs across three zones, the application can survive the failure of an entire datacenter because the other zones remain operational. This meets the requirement for high availability against a full datacenter outage.

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Place the VMs in the same availability set.

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Use a proximity placement group for the VMs.

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Attach the VMs to the same Azure Load Balancer backend pool.

Question 7

A production application runs on three Azure VMs in a region that supports availability zones. The business wants the application to remain available if one datacenter in the region fails. What should the administrator use?

Accepted Answer

Availability zones. Availability zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Deploying the three VMs across different zones ensures that if one datacenter fails, the application remains available because the other zones continue to operate. This directly meets the requirement for resilience against a single datacenter failure.

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An availability set

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A managed disk snapshot

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A proximity placement group

Question 8

An operations team must deploy 20 identical application VMs every sprint from source control and wants the deployment definition to be readable and repeatable. Which approach should they use?

Accepted Answer

Use a Bicep template stored in source control. B is correct because Bicep is a domain-specific language (DSL) for deploying Azure resources declaratively. Storing a Bicep template in source control ensures the deployment definition is readable (using concise syntax) and repeatable (via idempotent deployments), meeting the team's requirement for 20 identical VMs every sprint.

Answer

Manually create each VM in the Azure portal

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Capture a screenshot of the portal settings for future reference

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Use Azure Policy to create the VMs automatically

Question 9

The operations team wants 3 to 8 identical Linux VM instances, with more instances added when average CPU stays above 70 percent for 10 minutes and removed when load falls. Which three settings should be configured? Select three.

Accepted Answer

Use a virtual machine scale set for the identical application instances.. A virtual machine scale set (VMSS) is the correct Azure service for deploying and managing a group of identical, load-balanced Linux VMs that can automatically scale in and out based on demand. It supports autoscaling rules that adjust the instance count within a defined range, meeting the requirement for 3 to 8 identical instances with automatic addition when average CPU exceeds 70% for 10 minutes and removal when load falls.

Answer

Place the VMs in an availability set instead of using a scale set.

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Clone the VM manually whenever CPU rises and remove clones by hand later.

Question 10

A development VM is recreated from scratch every week. The team wants the operating system disk to boot as quickly as possible and does not need the OS disk contents to survive deallocation. Which disk choice should the administrator make?

Accepted Answer

An ephemeral OS disk. An ephemeral OS disk is created on the local VM host storage, not on Azure managed storage, which eliminates network latency and provides significantly faster boot times. Since the team does not need the OS disk contents to survive deallocation and recreates the VM weekly, ephemeral disks are ideal as they are reset to the original image state on each deployment.

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A Premium SSD managed OS disk

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A Standard SSD managed OS disk

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The VM temporary disk as the operating system disk

Question 11

Based on the exhibit, a Windows VM must install IIS and run a configuration script automatically right after deployment. The administrator does not want to sign in to the VM manually. Which Azure feature should be used?

Accepted Answer

Virtual machine extension, such as the Custom Script Extension.. The Custom Script Extension (CSE) is the correct Azure feature because it allows you to run PowerShell or Bash scripts on a VM after deployment without manual sign-in. By specifying the script in the VM's deployment template or via Azure CLI/Portal, IIS can be installed and the configuration script executed automatically during provisioning. This aligns with the requirement for zero-touch post-deployment automation.

Answer

Azure Policy with a modify effect.

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An availability set.

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A private endpoint.

Question 12

Based on the exhibit, the team wants a readable, repeatable deployment definition stored in source control. Which approach should they use for the Azure resources?

Accepted Answer

Bicep because it provides a concise declarative syntax for Azure deployments.. Bicep is a domain-specific language (DSL) that provides a concise, declarative syntax for deploying Azure resources. It is designed to be more readable than ARM templates and can be stored in source control, enabling repeatable, version-controlled deployments. This directly meets the team's requirement for a readable, repeatable deployment definition.

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Azure Policy because it enforces the deployment automatically.

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A runbook in Azure Automation because it is always easier to read than templates.

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A resource lock because it prevents unauthorized changes to the deployment.

Question 13

A stateless web application needs a group of identical Azure VMs that can automatically add more instances during the workday and remove them at night based on CPU usage. What should the administrator deploy?

Accepted Answer

A virtual machine scale set with autoscale rules. A virtual machine scale set (VMSS) with autoscale rules is the correct solution because it provides a group of identical, load-balanced VMs that can automatically scale out (add instances) during high CPU usage in the workday and scale in (remove instances) at night based on CPU thresholds. This matches the stateless, elastic requirement perfectly, as VMSS is designed for horizontal scaling of identical instances with autoscale policies tied to metrics like CPU percentage.

Answer

An availability set with two VMs

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A single VM with a larger disk

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An Azure Policy assignment to increase CPU capacity

Question 14

A stateless web tier must survive a datacenter outage in a region that supports availability zones, and the number of instances should increase during business hours. Which three actions should the administrator take? Select three.

Accepted Answer

Deploy the workload as a virtual machine scale set instead of a standalone VM.. A virtual machine scale set (VMSS) provides automatic scaling and high availability across multiple instances, which is essential for a stateless web tier that must survive a datacenter outage. By deploying as a scale set instead of a standalone VM, the administrator gains the ability to distribute instances across availability zones and configure autoscale rules to adjust capacity based on demand, meeting both the resilience and elasticity requirements.

Answer

Place all instances in a single availability set and scale them manually.

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Deploy only one zonal VM and use snapshots to recover if the datacenter fails.

Question 15

A stateless API must run 4 to 12 identical Windows VMs, scale out automatically when average CPU stays above 70% for 10 minutes, and distribute instances to improve resiliency. Deployments are defined in Bicep. Which Azure compute service should be used?

Accepted Answer

A virtual machine scale set with autoscale enabled. A virtual machine scale set (VMSS) with autoscale enabled is the correct choice because it supports running multiple identical Windows VMs, can automatically scale out when average CPU exceeds 70% for 10 minutes, and distributes instances across fault domains and availability zones for resiliency. Bicep deployments natively define VMSS configurations, making it the ideal compute service for stateless, scalable API workloads.

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A single Azure VM with an autoscale setting

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An availability set with manual VM resizing

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Azure Container Instances running one container per request