Question 1mediummultiple choice
Full question →mediummultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A DevOps pipeline runs on an on-premises build server and must deploy ARM templates to a resource group in Azure without using a user password. The server is not in Azure, so managed identity is not available. What should the administrator create?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Distractor review
A system-assigned managed identity on the build server.
System-assigned managed identities are only available on supported Azure resources, not on an on-premises server.
B
Distractor review
A user-assigned managed identity attached to the on-premises server.
User-assigned managed identities can be shared across Azure resources, but they still must be attached to Azure-supported resources.
C
Best answer
A service principal for the pipeline, with certificate-based or federated authentication.
An on-premises build server cannot use Azure managed identity directly, so the correct approach is to create a service principal and grant it the required RBAC permissions. Using certificate-based or federated authentication avoids storing a user password and supports secure non-interactive deployment from outside Azure.
D
Distractor review
A shared access signature for the target resource group.
A SAS applies to storage resources and does not provide deployment access to Azure Resource Manager.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
Related practice questions
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More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A route table contains these entries: 10.0.0.0/8 with next hop Virtual appliance, and 10.1.1.0/24 with next hop Virtual network gateway. Which next hop will Azure use for traffic to 10.1.1.5?
Question 2
You are deploying a stateless web application on Azure virtual machines. The solution must automatically add and remove instances based on CPU demand and allow all instances to be managed as one logical group. Which Azure compute feature should you deploy?
Question 3
You are deploying a Windows Server VM for an internal app. The VM must support Secure Boot and vTPM later, its OS disk must survive host moves, and the team wants the lowest-cost managed disk tier that still behaves like a normal writable OS disk. Which two choices should you make? Select two.
Question 4
You need to deploy several identical virtual machines and ensure that the failure of a single Azure host does not affect all of them. Which feature should you use?
Question 5
You need to connect VNet-Hub and VNet-Spoke so that resources in both virtual networks can communicate privately over the Microsoft backbone. Both virtual networks are in the same region. What should you configure?
Question 6
You need to create a storage account that provides the lowest-cost redundant storage for non-critical data and only needs protection against local disk or server failure within a single datacenter. Which redundancy option should you choose?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this AZ-104 question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: A service principal for the pipeline, with certificate-based or federated authentication. — When automation runs outside Azure, managed identity is not available, so a service principal is the appropriate non-user identity. For a build server deploying ARM templates, the service principal can be granted only the necessary RBAC role on the target resource group. Using certificate-based or federated authentication avoids embedding a password in the pipeline and still supports secure, repeatable deployment from an external system. Why others are wrong: System-assigned managed identity is not available on an on-premises server. User-assigned managed identity still requires an Azure-supported host resource, so it cannot be attached to a local build server. A shared access signature is only for storage access and has no role in ARM deployment authentication, so it cannot satisfy the requirement.
What should I do if I get this AZ-104 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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