- A
Place both VMs in a single availability set.
Why wrong: An availability set improves resilience against host maintenance and failures, but it does not protect against a full datacenter or zone outage.
- B
Deploy one VM and rely on Azure Backup for recovery.
Why wrong: Backup helps restore data after a failure, but it does not keep the application online during an outage.
- C
Place the VMs in separate availability zones in the same region.
Availability zones place workloads in physically separate datacenters within the same region. That design protects against a full zone or datacenter outage and also gives you a stronger isolation boundary than an availability set. Because the app has two VMs behind a load balancer, you can distribute them across zones and maintain service if one zone becomes unavailable.
- D
Deploy both VMs without any fault-domain configuration.
Why wrong: A plain deployment leaves both VMs exposed to the same underlying infrastructure failures and maintenance events.
Quick Answer
The answer is to place the VMs in separate availability zones within the same region. This is correct because availability zones are physically distinct datacenters with independent power, cooling, and networking, providing true isolation against a full datacenter outage, while also ensuring each VM resides in its own fault and update domain to avoid sharing a maintenance boundary. On the AZ-104 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of the difference between availability zones, which protect against datacenter-level failures, and availability sets, which only protect against rack-level hardware failures within a single datacenter. A common trap is choosing availability sets because they also separate fault domains, but they cannot survive a full datacenter outage since all VMs remain in one building. For the memory tip, remember: zones are for datacenter disasters, sets are for rack-level hiccups.
AZ-104 Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Practice Question
This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of deploy and manage azure compute. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 stateless web app runs on two Ubuntu VMs behind an Azure Load Balancer. The region supports availability zones. The business wants the app to survive a full datacenter outage and also avoid having both VMs on the same maintenance boundary. Which deployment should you choose?
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
Place the VMs in separate availability zones in the same region.
Option C is correct because deploying the VMs in separate availability zones ensures they are placed in physically distinct datacenters within the same region, protecting against a full datacenter outage. Additionally, each availability zone has its own fault and update domains, so the VMs will never share the same maintenance boundary, meeting both business requirements.
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.
- ✗
Place both VMs in a single availability set.
Why it's wrong here
An availability set improves resilience against host maintenance and failures, but it does not protect against a full datacenter or zone outage.
- ✗
Deploy one VM and rely on Azure Backup for recovery.
Why it's wrong here
Backup helps restore data after a failure, but it does not keep the application online during an outage.
- ✓
Place the VMs in separate availability zones in the same region.
Why this is correct
Availability zones place workloads in physically separate datacenters within the same region. That design protects against a full zone or datacenter outage and also gives you a stronger isolation boundary than an availability set. Because the app has two VMs behind a load balancer, you can distribute them across zones and maintain service if one zone becomes unavailable.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Deploy both VMs without any fault-domain configuration.
Why it's wrong here
A plain deployment leaves both VMs exposed to the same underlying infrastructure failures and maintenance events.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse availability sets (which protect within a datacenter) with availability zones (which protect across datacenters), and fail to recognize that only zones can survive a full datacenter outage while also avoiding shared maintenance boundaries.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Availability zones are physically separate locations within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. When you deploy VMs into different zones, the Azure Load Balancer can be configured as zone-redundant or zonal to distribute traffic across zones. Under the hood, each zone has its own set of fault domains (up to 3) and update domains, ensuring that planned maintenance or unplanned failures in one zone do not affect the other zone, achieving a 99.99% SLA for multi-zone deployments.
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.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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Deploy and Manage Azure Compute — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this AZ-104 question test?
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: Place the VMs in separate availability zones in the same region. — Option C is correct because deploying the VMs in separate availability zones ensures they are placed in physically distinct datacenters within the same region, protecting against a full datacenter outage. Additionally, each availability zone has its own fault and update domains, so the VMs will never share the same maintenance boundary, meeting both business requirements.
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 →
Same concept, more angles
3 more ways this is tested on AZ-104
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. A line-of-business web tier consists of two Azure VMs in a region that supports availability zones. The business requirement is to survive a full datacenter outage in that region without deploying to a second region. What should the administrator use?
hard- A.An availability set with multiple update domains
- ✓ B.Availability zones with the VMs placed in different zones
- C.A proximity placement group for both VMs
- D.A single-zone virtual machine scale set
Why B: Availability zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Placing the two VMs in different zones ensures that if one entire datacenter fails, the other VM remains operational, meeting the requirement to survive a full datacenter outage without deploying to a second region.
Variation 2. A company runs two identical Linux VMs for a stateless web app in an Azure region that supports availability zones. The business requires protection from a full datacenter outage, not just planned host maintenance. Which deployment choice best meets this requirement?
medium- A.Place both VMs in an availability set.
- ✓ B.Deploy the VMs across availability zones.
- C.Use a proximity placement group for both VMs.
- D.Deploy both VMs in a single-zone virtual machine scale set.
Why B: Option B is correct because deploying the two VMs across different availability zones ensures that each VM resides in a physically separate datacenter within the region. This architecture protects against a full datacenter outage, as an availability zone failure affects only one zone, leaving the other VM operational. Availability zones provide a 99.99% SLA for VMs when two or more instances are deployed across zones, which aligns with the requirement for protection beyond planned host maintenance.
Variation 3. A business wants a line-of-business VM workload to keep running if one Azure datacenter in the region goes offline. Which two deployment choices should the administrator use? Select two.
easy- ✓ A.Deploy the VMs in different availability zones.
- B.Place the VMs in the same availability set.
- ✓ C.Choose an Azure region that supports availability zones.
- D.Use a proximity placement group for the VMs.
- E.Use a snapshot of the operating system disk.
Why A: Option A is correct because deploying VMs across different availability zones protects against a single datacenter failure. Each availability zone is a physically separate datacenter within an Azure region, with independent power, cooling, and networking. If one zone goes offline, the VM in the other zone remains operational, ensuring business continuity for the line-of-business workload.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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