AZ-104 Implement and Manage Storage Practice Question
A legal team stores scanned contracts in Blob Archive. Auditors will need to open several files next week for about five days and then the documents should return to the lowest practical storage cost. Which two actions should the administrator plan? Select two.
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume Archive blobs can be read directly (like a normal download) or that changing redundancy (RA-GRS) somehow bypasses the offline nature of Archive, when in fact rehydration is mandatory and redundancy settings only affect replication, not tier accessibility.
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
✓
Initiate a rehydration to the Cool tier before the review window.
Blobs in the Archive tier are offline and cannot be read directly; they must first be rehydrated to a hot or cool tier. Rehydrating to the Cool tier is appropriate for a five-day access window and avoids the higher cost of the Hot tier. After the review, moving the blobs back to Archive (Option D) ensures the lowest practical storage cost for long-term retention.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Download the blobs directly from Archive with a normal read operation.
Why it's wrong here
A normal read or download operation on an Archive-tier blob fails because archived blobs are intentionally taken offline; attempting such an operation returns an HTTP error code such as 409 (BlobArchiveNotReadable) or 404 in some SDK versions. You must first rehydrate the blob by changing its access tier to Cool or Hot (or by doing a Copy operation to a new online blob), and then wait for the background rehydration to complete before the data can be downloaded. The rehydration process can take many hours, so a direct download attempt at the time of the auditor's review is not a viable retrieval method. The correct workflow is to plan rehydration ahead of the review window.
When this WOULD be correct
If the blobs were stored in the Cool or Hot tier (not Archive), a normal read operation would work. For example, a question where data is in Cool tier and needs to be accessed immediately without rehydration.
- ✓
Initiate a rehydration to the Cool tier before the review window.
Why this is correct
Rehydrating an archived blob involves changing its access tier from Archive to an online tier such as Cool. Cool tier is the appropriate choice for auditor access because it offers extremely low per-GB storage costs while still making data immediately readable, and the review window is a short, infrequent-access period. Because rehydration from Archive can take up to 15 hours with standard priority, you must initiate it well before the start of the review window to ensure files are online in time. This approach balances retrieval latency and cost, avoiding the higher expense of a Hot-tier rehydration.
- ✗
Set the blobs to the Hot tier permanently as soon as the review starts.
Why it's wrong here
Permanently setting the blobs to the Hot tier as soon as the review begins is wasteful because Hot incurs higher storage and early-deletion charges than Cool, while auditors only need intermittent read access for a short period. Even if the data were previously in Archive, rehydrating to Hot would make it online, but Hot's per-gigabyte cost is significantly higher than Cool's for data that is infrequently accessed. Keeping compliance data in Hot permanently would continuously inflate costs for years after the review is completed, which contradicts the purpose of using Archive storage in the first place. The correct move is to rehydrate to Cool for the review window and then return to Archive afterward.
When this WOULD be correct
This option would be correct if the question specified that the blobs need to be accessed frequently and immediately after the review, with no requirement to minimize long-term storage costs. For example, if auditors need ongoing access to the contracts for several months.
- ✓
Move the blobs back to Archive after the review window ends.
Why this is correct
After the audit review ends, the files are no longer needed for frequent or immediate access, so returning them to the Archive tier is the correct cost-optimization step. Archive provides the lowest monthly storage price of all tiers, but blobs sit offline and incur a rehydration delay if accessed again. By moving the blobs back to Archive, you ensure ongoing retention of compliance data at the lowest possible cost, especially if the legal team expects to keep these scans for years. A lifecycle management policy can be configured to automate the transition back to Archive after a specified number of days, removing manual effort.
- ✗
Change the storage account redundancy to RA-GRS so the files can be read.
Why it's wrong here
The redundancy setting (such as RA-GRS) determines how many copies of blob data are kept and whether a secondary read-only region is available, but it does nothing to make Archive-tier blobs immediately readable. Archive blobs remain offline regardless of the replication strategy; even with geo-redundant storage, the archived blob still cannot be accessed until a rehydration operation is performed to a Hot or Cool tier. Additionally, changing redundancy settings can trigger a manual replication operation that adds cost and time, and it will not solve the fundamental problem of archive blobs being offline. Read access to the secondary region also still depends on the blob being in an online tier.
When this WOULD be correct
If the question required ensuring high availability and disaster recovery for frequently accessed data (e.g., Hot tier blobs) with read access from a secondary region, then changing to RA-GRS would be correct.
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.
✓Initiate a rehydration to the Cool tier before the review window.Correct answer▾
Why this is correct
Rehydrating an archived blob involves changing its access tier from Archive to an online tier such as Cool. Cool tier is the appropriate choice for auditor access because it offers extremely low per-GB storage costs while still making data immediately readable, and the review window is a short, infrequent-access period. Because rehydration from Archive can take up to 15 hours with standard priority, you must initiate it well before the start of the review window to ensure files are online in time. This approach balances retrieval latency and cost, avoiding the higher expense of a Hot-tier rehydration.
✗Download the blobs directly from Archive with a normal read operation.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Blobs in Archive tier are offline and cannot be read directly; a normal read operation fails. You must first rehydrate the blob to an online tier (e.g., Cool) before downloading.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If the blobs were stored in the Cool or Hot tier (not Archive), a normal read operation would work. For example, a question where data is in Cool tier and needs to be accessed immediately without rehydration.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may assume Archive blobs are still readable like other tiers, not realizing Archive is offline and requires rehydration before any read operation.
✗Set the blobs to the Hot tier permanently as soon as the review starts.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Setting blobs to Hot tier permanently increases costs significantly, as Archive is the cheapest tier for long-term storage. The requirement is to return to the lowest practical storage cost after the review, not to keep them in Hot tier.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
This option would be correct if the question specified that the blobs need to be accessed frequently and immediately after the review, with no requirement to minimize long-term storage costs. For example, if auditors need ongoing access to the contracts for several months.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think Hot tier provides the fastest access and assume it's necessary for the review, overlooking the cost implications and the ability to rehydrate temporarily to Cool tier.
✗Change the storage account redundancy to RA-GRS so the files can be read.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
RA-GRS provides geo-redundant read access, but Archive blobs are offline and cannot be read directly regardless of redundancy. The blobs must first be rehydrated to an online tier.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If the question required ensuring high availability and disaster recovery for frequently accessed data (e.g., Hot tier blobs) with read access from a secondary region, then changing to RA-GRS would be correct.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse redundancy options with access capabilities, thinking RA-GRS allows reading archived blobs, or they overestimate the role of redundancy in making offline data accessible.
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
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Key term
Hot tier
Hot tier is a storage category used for data that is accessed frequently and needs fast retrieval, typically stored on high-performance hardware like SSDs.
Key term
Cool tier
Cool tier is a low-cost, online-only storage access tier in Microsoft Azure Blob Storage designed for data that is infrequently accessed and stored for at least 30 days.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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