AZ-104 Implement and Manage Storage Practice Question
A healthcare application stores files that must be protected against a single datacenter outage in the region. The team does not need a secondary region for read access, and they want the simplest resilient option. Which storage redundancy should they choose?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse 'protecting against a single datacenter outage' with needing geo-redundancy, but ZRS within a region is sufficient and simpler when no secondary region read access is required.
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
✓
Zone-redundant storage (ZRS)
Zone-redundant storage (ZRS) replicates data synchronously across three Azure availability zones within a single region, protecting against a complete datacenter outage without requiring a secondary region. This meets the requirement for the simplest resilient option that guards against a single datacenter failure while avoiding the complexity and cost of geo-replication.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Locally redundant storage (LRS)
Why it's wrong here
Locally redundant storage (LRS) keeps three synchronous copies of your data within a single physical datacenter (a single storage scale unit in one availability zone). It protects against individual disk or node failures, but if that entire datacenter or zone experiences an outage, all copies become unavailable and can be lost. Since the scenario explicitly requires protection from a datacenter outage, LRS is insufficient because it cannot survive a failure of the single datacenter that holds all three copies.
When this WOULD be correct
If the question stated that the application only needs protection against local hardware failures (e.g., disk or server failures) within a single datacenter, and cost is the primary concern, LRS would be the simplest and cheapest option.
- ✓
Zone-redundant storage (ZRS)
Why this is correct
Zone-redundant storage (ZRS) synchronously replicates your data across three Azure availability zones in the same region, so if one zone's datacenter fails, the storage account remains available and no data is lost. This directly meets the scenario's requirement to protect files against a datacenter-level outage while staying within a single region. The replication is automatic and transparent, and you keep using the same endpoint without any manual failover, making ZRS the appropriate and cost-effective choice here.
- ✗
Geo-zone-redundant storage (GZRS)
Why it's wrong here
Geo-zone-redundant storage (GZRS) extends ZRS by also asynchronously replicating data to a paired secondary region, protecting against an entire region being lost. That cross-region copy is more than the scenario requires, because the stated requirement is only to survive a datacenter or zone outage, not a regional disaster. Moreover, GZRS increases cost and introduces cross-region replication latency, and it does not provide read access to the secondary region unless you choose the read-access variant.
- ✗
Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS)
Why it's wrong here
Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS) asynchronously replicates data to a paired secondary region and gives read-only access to that secondary endpoint. This provides regional disaster recovery, which is more than the scenario needs, and because replication is asynchronous there is a possibility that recent writes are not yet available on the secondary during a failover. RA-GRS also uses LRS in the primary region, so it does not provide zone-level redundancy for the primary-region copies; therefore it is not the right match for a requirement focused on surviving a single zone or datacenter failure.
When this WOULD be correct
A question where the application requires read access to data in a secondary region for disaster recovery or high availability, and the primary region is unavailable. For example: 'An app needs read-only access to storage during a regional outage. Which redundancy option provides this?'
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.
✓Zone-redundant storage (ZRS)Correct answer▾
Why this is correct
Zone-redundant storage (ZRS) synchronously replicates your data across three Azure availability zones in the same region, so if one zone's datacenter fails, the storage account remains available and no data is lost. This directly meets the scenario's requirement to protect files against a datacenter-level outage while staying within a single region. The replication is automatic and transparent, and you keep using the same endpoint without any manual failover, making ZRS the appropriate and cost-effective choice here.
✗Locally redundant storage (LRS)Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
LRS replicates data within a single datacenter, so it does not protect against a single datacenter outage in the region. The question requires resilience to a datacenter failure, which LRS cannot provide.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If the question stated that the application only needs protection against local hardware failures (e.g., disk or server failures) within a single datacenter, and cost is the primary concern, LRS would be the simplest and cheapest option.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may choose LRS because it is the simplest and cheapest redundancy option, and they overlook the requirement for datacenter outage protection, mistakenly thinking LRS provides sufficient resilience.
✗Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS)Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
RA-GRS provides read access to a secondary region, but the question explicitly states that a secondary region is not needed and only requires protection against a single datacenter outage within the region. RA-GRS is overkill and adds complexity.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A question where the application requires read access to data in a secondary region for disaster recovery or high availability, and the primary region is unavailable. For example: 'An app needs read-only access to storage during a regional outage. Which redundancy option provides this?'
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse 'geo-redundant' with 'zone-redundant' and think that any geo option provides better resilience, or they may assume that read-access is always beneficial without considering the specific requirement of not needing a secondary region.
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
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Managed Identities for Azure Resources
Key term
Replication
Replication is the process of copying and synchronizing data across multiple servers or storage devices to ensure availability, reliability, and fault tolerance.
Key term
Region
A region is a distinct geographic location where a cloud provider operates multiple data centers that are connected by low-latency networks and provide cloud services.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every AZ-104 question from scratch — 1,049 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.