AZ-104 Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Practice Question
This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of deploy and manage azure compute. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 application is hosted on an Azure virtual machine scale set. Traffic is predictable: CPU usage stays below 20% overnight, then rises above 70% during business hours. The administrator wants the instance count to increase automatically when average CPU stays high for 10 minutes and to decrease after demand drops. What should be configured?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Autoscale rules on the virtual machine scale set.
Autoscale rules on the virtual machine scale set allow the administrator to define a scale-out condition (e.g., average CPU > 70% for 10 minutes) and a scale-in condition (e.g., average CPU < 20% for a specified duration). This matches the requirement for automatic, metric-based scaling based on predictable traffic patterns.
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.
✗
A proximity placement group for the scale set instances.
Why it's wrong here
This affects placement and latency, not automatic instance count changes.
✗
Manual scale operations only.
Why it's wrong here
Manual scaling cannot react automatically to the changing CPU pattern described.
✓
Autoscale rules on the virtual machine scale set.
Why this is correct
Autoscale rules can add or remove VMSS instances based on CPU thresholds and time conditions.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
An availability set with three update domains.
Why it's wrong here
An availability set improves maintenance resilience but does not provide dynamic scaling.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may confuse availability sets or proximity placement groups with autoscaling, thinking they provide automatic instance count adjustments, when in fact they only address placement or fault tolerance.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure VMSS autoscale uses Azure Monitor metrics (e.g., Percentage CPU) with a default aggregation of 'Average' over a specified time grain (e.g., 10 minutes). The scale-out rule triggers when the metric exceeds a threshold (e.g., 70%) for the defined duration, while the scale-in rule triggers when the metric falls below a lower threshold (e.g., 20%). A common subtlety is that autoscale uses a 'cool-down' period (default 5 minutes) after a scaling event to prevent flapping, which must be considered in production.
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: Autoscale rules on the virtual machine scale set. — Autoscale rules on the virtual machine scale set allow the administrator to define a scale-out condition (e.g., average CPU > 70% for 10 minutes) and a scale-in condition (e.g., average CPU < 20% for a specified duration). This matches the requirement for automatic, metric-based scaling based on predictable traffic patterns.
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.
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Question Discussion
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