Question 1mediummultiple choice
Full question →mediummultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A stateless API must automatically add or remove identical VM instances when CPU usage crosses thresholds. The team also wants Microsoft to distribute instances across fault domains when possible. Which service should the administrator deploy?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Distractor review
An availability set
An availability set improves placement for existing VMs, but it does not provide built-in autoscaling based on demand.
B
Distractor review
Azure Load Balancer
A load balancer distributes traffic, but it does not create or remove VM instances automatically.
C
Best answer
A virtual machine scale set
A virtual machine scale set is designed for identical VM instances that can scale out and scale in automatically. It fits stateless workloads well and supports placement across fault domains in supported configurations, which helps improve resiliency while also meeting the demand-based scaling requirement.
D
Distractor review
Azure App Service
App Service can autoscale web applications, but the question specifically requires VM instances and fault-domain-oriented VM deployment behavior.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
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.
- Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
- Underline the problem statement mentally.
- 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.
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More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A route table contains these entries: 10.0.0.0/8 with next hop Virtual appliance, and 10.1.1.0/24 with next hop Virtual network gateway. Which next hop will Azure use for traffic to 10.1.1.5?
Question 2
You are deploying a stateless web application on Azure virtual machines. The solution must automatically add and remove instances based on CPU demand and allow all instances to be managed as one logical group. Which Azure compute feature should you deploy?
Question 3
You are deploying a Windows Server VM for an internal app. The VM must support Secure Boot and vTPM later, its OS disk must survive host moves, and the team wants the lowest-cost managed disk tier that still behaves like a normal writable OS disk. Which two choices should you make? Select two.
Question 4
You need to deploy several identical virtual machines and ensure that the failure of a single Azure host does not affect all of them. Which feature should you use?
Question 5
You need to connect VNet-Hub and VNet-Spoke so that resources in both virtual networks can communicate privately over the Microsoft backbone. Both virtual networks are in the same region. What should you configure?
Question 6
You need to create a storage account that provides the lowest-cost redundant storage for non-critical data and only needs protection against local disk or server failure within a single datacenter. Which redundancy option should you choose?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this AZ-104 question test?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: A virtual machine scale set — A virtual machine scale set is the correct service because the workload needs identical VM instances that can be added or removed automatically based on CPU thresholds. VM scale sets are built for this type of stateless tier and can distribute instances across fault domains to improve resiliency. This is different from a load balancer, which only routes traffic, or an availability set, which does not handle scaling decisions. The requirement is clearly VM-based elasticity plus placement awareness. Why others are wrong: An availability set only helps with resiliency for manually managed VMs and does not autoscale. A load balancer is traffic distribution only, not lifecycle management. App Service does autoscale, but it is a platform web hosting service, not a VM-based deployment model as required here.
What should I do if I get this AZ-104 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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