AZ-104 Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Practice Question
This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of deploy and manage azure compute. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
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?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
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.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
A Premium SSD managed OS disk
Why it's wrong here
Premium SSD is durable, but it is not the fastest choice for a disposable OS disk.
✓
An ephemeral OS disk
Why this is correct
Ephemeral OS disks use local storage and provide very fast boot with no persistence requirement.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
A Standard SSD managed OS disk
Why it's wrong here
Standard SSD is durable, but it still stores the OS disk persistently and boots more slowly.
✗
The VM temporary disk as the operating system disk
Why it's wrong here
The temporary disk is not intended to be used as the official persistent OS disk choice.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often choose Premium SSD for 'fastest boot' without realizing that ephemeral OS disks bypass network storage entirely, offering even lower latency for boot operations, and that the temporary disk cannot be used as an OS disk despite its local nature.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Ephemeral OS disks leverage the local NVMe or SSD storage of the Azure host, achieving read/write speeds up to 10x faster than managed disks for boot operations. They are supported on specific VM series (e.g., Dsv3, Esv3) and require the VM size to have a cache size at least as large as the OS disk. A key subtlety is that ephemeral disks cannot be used with certain features like Azure Backup or encryption at rest, and the OS disk is automatically deleted when the VM is deallocated or stopped.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-104 question in full detail.
Deploy and Manage Azure Compute — This question tests Deploy and Manage Azure Compute — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: 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.
What should I do if I get this AZ-104 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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