AZ-104 Monitor and Maintain Azure Resources Practice Question

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

• ✗

  In the VM's network interface settings, because backup retention follows the NIC configuration.

  Why it's wrong here

  The network interface on a VM controls properties such as IP address assignment, DNS settings, network security group association, and accelerated networking. Backup retention is a property of the backup policy that governs how long recovery points are kept in the Recovery Services vault, and it is completely independent of any NIC configuration. Altering NIC settings may change network connectivity or performance, but it has no effect on the schedule, number, or retention duration of backup recovery points. Thus, retention cannot be modified through the VM's network interface settings.

  When this WOULD be correct

  If the question asked about configuring network security group (NSG) rules or IP address settings for a VM, then the NIC settings would be the correct place to change those configurations.

• ✓

  In the backup policy associated with the Recovery Services vault.

  Why this is correct

  Retention settings for Azure VM backups are controlled in the backup policy within the Recovery Services vault. The policy defines how often backups occur and how long recovery points are retained. To move from 7 days to 30 days of daily retention, the administrator updates the backup policy and applies it to the protected VM. This is the correct place because retention is a vault-level backup behavior, not a VM networking or storage setting.

• ✗

  In Azure Policy, by assigning a retention compliance initiative to the subscription.

  Why it's wrong here

  Azure Policy is an governance service that can audit or enforce organizational standards across resources using effects like deny, audit, append, or deployIfNotExists. While you could create a custom policy to deploy a backup policy with a specific retention period, that policy would only create or update the backup policy resource—it is not the actual configuration location for retention. The retention duration for Azure VM backups is always defined directly in the backup policy associated with the Recovery Services vault, not by assigning an Azure Policy initiative. In this scenario, the administrator must edit the existing backup policy in the vault itself, not apply a policy at the subscription level.

  When this WOULD be correct

  An exam scenario where an organization needs to enforce a minimum backup retention period across all subscriptions using a custom Azure Policy initiative that audits or deploys backup policies with specific retention settings.

• ✗

  In a storage account lifecycle rule attached to the VM disks.

  Why it's wrong here

  Storage account lifecycle rules apply only to blobs in a storage account, enabling automatic tiering or deletion based on age. Azure VM backup recovery points are stored in the Recovery Services vault, not in the storage account that holds the VM's disks, and managed disks are not directly subject to blob lifecycle policies. Even if you were using unmanaged disks, a lifecycle rule would affect the blob data of the disk, not the backup snapshots or recovery points in the vault. Therefore, configuring a lifecycle rule on the VM's storage account cannot change backup retention.

  When this WOULD be correct

  For a question about automatically deleting or archiving old VM disk snapshots stored in a storage account (not Recovery Services vault), a lifecycle rule would be the correct setting.

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.

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?”

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