AZ-104 Implement and Manage Storage Practice Question
A business-critical storage account must survive a zone outage in the primary region and also keep a read-only copy in the paired region for reporting if the primary region becomes unavailable. Which redundancy option should you choose?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse GZRS (which requires a failover for read access) with RA-GZRS (which provides always-on read access to the secondary region), or mistakenly think RA-GRS offers zone redundancy when it only uses LRS in the primary region.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
RA-GZRS because it provides zone redundancy and read access to the secondary region.
(RA-GZRS) is correct because it combines zone-redundant storage (ZRS) within the primary region, ensuring data survives a zone outage, with read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS) to the paired region, providing a readable secondary copy for reporting if the primary region becomes unavailable. This meets both requirements: zone-level fault tolerance and read-only access to the secondary region during a primary outage.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
ZRS because it protects against a single datacenter failure.
Why it's wrong here
ZRS replicates data synchronously across three Azure availability zones within a single region, so it does protect against an entire zone outage. However, it does not replicate data to a paired secondary region, meaning there is no geo-redundant copy available for read access or failover. Since the requirement explicitly calls for a readable secondary copy for reporting or disaster recovery, ZRS alone is insufficient.
When this WOULD be correct
Choose ZRS when the requirement is to survive a zone failure within a single region (e.g., an application needing high availability across zones) without needing geo-replication or read access to a secondary region.
- ✓
RA-GZRS because it provides zone redundancy and read access to the secondary region.
Why this is correct
RA-GZRS is the correct option because it combines zone-redundant storage in the primary region with geo-replication to the paired region, and it allows read access to the secondary copy. That matches both requirements: resilience to a zone outage and a readable secondary copy for reporting or failover scenarios. It is the highest-resilience option in this list.
- ✗
GZRS because it provides a readable secondary region by default.
Why it's wrong here
GZRS combines zone-redundant storage in the primary region with asynchronous geo-replication to a paired secondary region, so it does survive a zone outage and provides geo-redundancy. However, by default, the secondary region copy is not accessible for read or write operations; you would need to initiate a failover or use the RA-GZRS variant to gain read access. Thus GZRS meets the zone-resiliency requirement but fails the requirement for continuous read access to the secondary region.
When this WOULD be correct
A scenario where the requirement is zone redundancy and automatic failover to the secondary region for write operations, but read access to the secondary is not needed until failover occurs. For example, a storage account for critical data that must survive a zone outage and can tolerate a brief loss of read access during a regional disaster.
- ✗
RA-GRS because it provides zone redundancy and read access to the secondary region.
Why it's wrong here
RA-GRS is incorrect because it does not provide zone redundancy within the primary region, a critical requirement for surviving a zone outage. While it offers geo-replication to a paired region with read access, fulfilling the secondary region reporting need, its primary region data is stored within a single availability zone. This option would be suitable if the primary requirement was region-wide disaster recovery with read access to the secondary, without the explicit need for intra-region zone resilience.
When this WOULD be correct
If the question required read access to the secondary region but did not require zone-level resilience in the primary region (e.g., only needed to survive a datacenter failure, not a zone failure), RA-GRS would be the correct choice.
Option-by-option analysis
Why each answer is right or wrong
Understanding why wrong answers are wrong — and when they would be correct — is what separates a 750 score from a 900. The AZ-104 exam frequently reuses these exact scenarios with slightly different constraints.
✓RA-GZRS because it provides zone redundancy and read access to the secondary region.Correct answer▾
Why this is correct
RA-GZRS is the correct option because it combines zone-redundant storage in the primary region with geo-replication to the paired region, and it allows read access to the secondary copy. That matches both requirements: resilience to a zone outage and a readable secondary copy for reporting or failover scenarios. It is the highest-resilience option in this list.
✗ZRS because it protects against a single datacenter failure.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
ZRS only replicates data synchronously across availability zones within a single region, providing no read access to a secondary region for reporting during a primary region outage.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
Choose ZRS when the requirement is to survive a zone failure within a single region (e.g., an application needing high availability across zones) without needing geo-replication or read access to a secondary region.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse zone redundancy (ZRS) with geo-redundancy, assuming ZRS also covers regional outages, or they may overlook the explicit requirement for a readable secondary region.
✗GZRS because it provides a readable secondary region by default.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
GZRS does not provide read access to the secondary region by default; it requires a manual failover to enable read access. The question requires read-only access to the secondary region even when the primary is unavailable, which only RA-GZRS provides.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A scenario where the requirement is zone redundancy and automatic failover to the secondary region for write operations, but read access to the secondary is not needed until failover occurs. For example, a storage account for critical data that must survive a zone outage and can tolerate a brief loss of read access during a regional disaster.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse GZRS with RA-GZRS, assuming that GZRS automatically provides read access to the secondary region, or they may overlook the 'read-access' prefix in the option.
✗RA-GRS because it provides zone redundancy and read access to the secondary region.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
RA-GRS does not provide zone redundancy; it only replicates data to a single datacenter in the primary region, so it cannot survive a zone outage.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If the question required read access to the secondary region but did not require zone-level resilience in the primary region (e.g., only needed to survive a datacenter failure, not a zone failure), RA-GRS would be the correct choice.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse RA-GRS with RA-GZRS, assuming the 'RA' prefix implies zone redundancy, or they may overlook the specific requirement for zone outage survival.
Analysis generated from the official AZ-104blueprint and verified against question context. The “when correct” sections are what AI assistants cite when candidates ask “what’s the difference between these options?”
Go deeper
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Key term
RA-GRS
RA-GRS (Read-Access Geo-Redundant Storage) is an Azure storage replication option that provides read access to a secondary region copy of your data, even if the primary region becomes unavailable.
Key term
GRS
GRS (Georedundant Storage) is a data replication method that copies your stored data to a secondary region hundreds of miles away to protect against regional disasters.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This AZ-104 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the AZ-104 exam.