The answer is to deploy the two VMs across two availability zones, placing one VM in each zone. This is correct because availability zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking, so if one datacenter fails, the other VM remains available. On the AZ-104 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of high-availability architecture versus fault domains or availability sets, which protect against rack-level failures but not entire datacenter outages. A common trap is confusing availability zones with availability sets—remember that zones protect against datacenter failure, while sets protect against hardware failure within a single datacenter. For a quick memory tip, think “zones stop zone-down, sets stop server-down.”
AZ-104 Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Practice Question
This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of deploy and manage azure compute. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 line-of-business app runs on two VMs in an Azure region that supports availability zones. The business wants protection from a datacenter failure and wants the VMs placed in different physical locations within the region. Which deployment choice should be used?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Two availability zones with one VM in each zone
Availability zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Placing one VM in each of two zones ensures that if one datacenter fails, the other VM remains available. This directly meets the requirement for protection from a datacenter failure with VMs in different physical locations.
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.
✗
An availability set with two fault domains
Why it's wrong here
An availability set protects against host and maintenance events, but not against a full zone outage.
✓
Two availability zones with one VM in each zone
Why this is correct
Availability zones place resources in separate physical datacenters within a region, improving resilience to zone failure.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
A proximity placement group for both VMs
Why it's wrong here
A proximity placement group reduces latency between resources, but it does not provide disaster resilience.
✗
A single larger VM size with Premium SSD
Why it's wrong here
Increasing size can improve capacity, but one VM still remains a single point of failure.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse availability sets (which protect against rack failures) with availability zones (which protect against datacenter failures), leading them to choose an availability set when the question explicitly requires different physical locations within the region.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure availability zones are unique physical locations within a region, each with one or more datacenters. To use them, the VM must be deployed with the 'zones' property set to a specific zone number (e.g., 1, 2, or 3). The SLA for a multi-VM deployment across availability zones is 99.99%, compared to 99.95% for an availability set. Under the hood, Azure ensures that zone-deployed VMs use distinct network gateways and storage clusters, providing true fault isolation.
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
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
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: Two availability zones with one VM in each zone — Availability zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Placing one VM in each of two zones ensures that if one datacenter fails, the other VM remains available. This directly meets the requirement for protection from a datacenter failure with VMs in different physical locations.
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.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. Based on the exhibit, a workload must remain available even if one datacenter in an Azure region becomes unavailable. The region supports zone deployment. What should the administrator configure?
easy
A.An availability set.
✓ B.Availability zones.
C.A resource lock.
D.A user-defined route.
Why B: Availability zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Deploying the workload across two or more zones ensures that if one datacenter fails, the other zones continue to operate, maintaining availability. This directly meets the requirement of surviving a single datacenter outage within a region that supports zone deployment.
Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
Question Discussion
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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.
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