AZ-104 Implement and Manage Storage Practice Question
A finance team stores PDF statements in Azure Blob Storage. The workload must survive a zone failure in the primary region, and if the entire region becomes unavailable, auditors still need read-only access to the copies in the secondary region. Which redundancy option should you choose?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse GRS with RA-GRS, forgetting that standard GRS does not allow direct reads from the secondary region without a manual or automatic failover, while RA-GZRS (and RA-GRS) explicitly provide that read access.
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 combines zone redundancy with geo-replication and read access to the secondary region.
RA-GZRS (Read-Access Geo-Zone-Redundant Storage) is the correct choice because it combines zone redundancy (synchronous replication across Azure availability zones within the primary region) with geo-replication (asynchronous replication to a secondary region), and crucially enables read access to the secondary region even when the primary is unavailable. This meets the requirement to survive a zone failure (via ZRS) and provide read-only access during a full regional outage (via the read-access geo-replication endpoint).
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 keeps copies across zones but does not replicate to another region.
Why it's wrong here
ZRS is incorrect because while it synchronously replicates data across multiple availability zones within one region, it does not replicate to a paired secondary region. If the entire primary region experiences an outage, ZRS offers no geo-redundant copy to fail over to, and there is no secondary endpoint from which to read data for audit or continuity purposes.
When this WOULD be correct
ZRS would be correct if the requirement was to survive a zone failure within the primary region without needing cross-region replication, such as for a low-latency application that must remain available during a zone outage but does not require disaster recovery in another region.
- ✓
RA-GZRS, because it combines zone redundancy with geo-replication and read access to the secondary region.
Why this is correct
RA-GZRS is designed for exactly this requirement. It replicates data across zones in the primary region and also asynchronously replicates to a paired secondary region. The read-access feature means you can still retrieve data from the secondary endpoint if the primary region is unavailable, which is useful for audit or continuity scenarios.
- ✗
LRS, because it keeps three copies in a single datacenter and is sufficient for regional resilience.
Why it's wrong here
LRS is incorrect because it maintains three synchronous copies within a single physical data center, protecting only against drive or node failures. It provides no resilience against an entire availability zone outage (if the data center is zone-aligned, a zone failure takes all copies offline) and no geo-replication, so it cannot satisfy a regional disaster recovery or secondary-region read access requirement.
When this WOULD be correct
A question where the requirement is only to protect against local hardware failures within a single datacenter, with no need for zone or regional resilience, and cost is the primary constraint.
- ✗
GRS, because it provides geo-replication and always allows direct reads from the secondary region.
Why it's wrong here
GRS is incorrect because although it asynchronously replicates blobs to a paired secondary region for geo-redundancy, the secondary copy is not directly readable unless you specifically enable read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS/RA-GZRS). Additionally, standard GRS uses LRS in the primary region, so it lacks zone redundancy, meaning a zone-wide failure in the primary region could still impact availability before geo-failover occurs.
When this WOULD be correct
If the requirement were to have geo-replication for disaster recovery without needing read access to the secondary region during normal operations, and failover would be initiated manually or automatically only when the primary region is down, then 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 combines zone redundancy with geo-replication and read access to the secondary region.Correct answer▾
Why this is correct
RA-GZRS is designed for exactly this requirement. It replicates data across zones in the primary region and also asynchronously replicates to a paired secondary region. The read-access feature means you can still retrieve data from the secondary endpoint if the primary region is unavailable, which is useful for audit or continuity scenarios.
✗ZRS, because it keeps copies across zones but does not replicate to another region.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
ZRS replicates data synchronously across availability zones in a single region, but does not provide geo-replication to a secondary region. The question requires read-only access in a secondary region after a full regional outage, which ZRS cannot fulfill.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
ZRS would be correct if the requirement was to survive a zone failure within the primary region without needing cross-region replication, such as for a low-latency application that must remain available during a zone outage but does not require disaster recovery in another region.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may choose ZRS because it offers zone redundancy, which partially addresses the 'zone failure' requirement, but they overlook the additional need for geo-replication and read access in a secondary region.
✗LRS, because it keeps three copies in a single datacenter and is sufficient for regional resilience.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
LRS only replicates data within a single datacenter, so it cannot survive a zone failure (which spans multiple datacenters in an availability zone) and provides no geo-replication for regional disaster recovery.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A question where the requirement is only to protect against local hardware failures within a single datacenter, with no need for zone or regional resilience, and cost is the primary constraint.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think LRS is sufficient because it provides three copies, overlooking that these copies are in the same datacenter and thus vulnerable to zone-level or regional outages.
✗GRS, because it provides geo-replication and always allows direct reads from the secondary region.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
GRS does not provide read access to the secondary region unless a failover occurs, whereas the question requires auditors to have read-only access to the secondary region even when the primary region is available.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If the requirement were to have geo-replication for disaster recovery without needing read access to the secondary region during normal operations, and failover would be initiated manually or automatically only when the primary region is down, then GRS would be the correct choice.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse GRS with RA-GRS, assuming that geo-replication automatically allows reads from the secondary, or they may overlook the 'read-access' requirement in the question.
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?”
Quick reference
Azure Blob Storage Tier Comparison
| Tier | Storage Cost | Retrieval Cost | Latency | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hot | Highest | Lowest | Immediate | Active data, frequent reads |
| Cool | Lower | Higher | Immediate | Data accessed < once / month |
| Cold | Lower still | Higher | Immediate | Data accessed < once / quarter |
| Archive | Lowest | Highest + rehydration delay | Hours | Long-term compliance retention |
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Managed Identities for Azure Resources
Key term
Blob storage
Blob storage is a cloud service for storing large amounts of unstructured data, such as text or binary data, like documents, images, and videos.
Key term
Availability
Availability is the measure of how often a system or service is operational and accessible when needed, typically expressed as a percentage of uptime.
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JA
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.