AZ-104 Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Practice Question
A company runs a stateless web application on a set of Azure VMs behind an Azure Load Balancer. The operations team needs to ensure that the VMs can be automatically added to or removed from the load balancer's backend pool based on the health of the application, and that the VMs are automatically repaired if they become unhealthy. The team wants to minimize manual intervention. Which two features should the team implement? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse availability sets with automatic health-based management; availability sets only provide hardware fault isolation, not application-level health monitoring or repair.
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
✓
Create a Virtual Machine Scale Set with automatic instance repair enabled.
To automatically add or remove VMs from a load balancer based on application health, a health probe is essential. To automatically repair unhealthy VMs, a Virtual Machine Scale Set with automatic instance repair is required. Together, these features provide the desired automation and resiliency, minimizing manual intervention.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable Azure Disk Encryption on the VM OS disks.
Why it's wrong here
Azure Disk Encryption secures data at rest by encrypting OS and data disks. It has no role in health monitoring, load balancer integration, or automatic repair of VMs. While important for security, it does not contribute to the operational automation described in the scenario.
- ✗
Configure a network security group to allow only HTTP traffic.
Why it's wrong here
A network security group (NSG) filters network traffic but does not monitor application health or automatically repair VMs. Restricting traffic to HTTP might be part of a security policy, but it does not provide the automatic scaling or repair capabilities required. The team needs health-based management, not just traffic filtering.
- ✓
Create a Virtual Machine Scale Set with automatic instance repair enabled.
Why this is correct
A Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS) with automatic instance repair monitors the health of each instance and automatically recreates an unhealthy instance. This provides the automatic repair capability the team needs, reducing manual intervention and ensuring the application remains available.
- ✓
Configure a health probe on the load balancer to check the application endpoint.
Why this is correct
A health probe on the load balancer continuously monitors the application endpoint on each VM. If a VM fails the probe, it is automatically removed from the backend pool, preventing traffic from being sent to an unhealthy instance. This directly supports automatic addition/removal based on application health, as required.
- ✗
Deploy the VMs into an availability set.
Why it's wrong here
An availability set provides fault domain and update domain separation to improve availability during maintenance or hardware failures, but it does not automatically remove VMs from a load balancer based on application health, nor does it repair unhealthy VMs. It addresses a different aspect of resiliency and does not meet the stated requirements.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Managing Blob Access Tiers at Scale
Key term
Load balancer
A load balancer is a device or software that distributes incoming network traffic across multiple servers so no single server gets overwhelmed.
Key term
Azure Load Balancer
Azure Load Balancer is a cloud service that evenly distributes incoming network traffic across multiple virtual machines or resources to ensure reliability and high availability.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Microsoft exam blueprint
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.