AZ-104 Implement and Manage Storage Practice Question
A support engineer finds a blob that was moved to the Archive tier by a lifecycle rule and must download it today. Which two actions are required before the blob can be read? Select two.
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates think they can directly download or copy an archived blob without rehydration, overlooking that Archive tier blobs are offline and require a tier change operation to become readable.
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
✓
Change the blob access tier from Archive to Hot or Cool.
A blob in the Archive tier is offline and cannot be read directly. You must change its access tier to Hot or Cool (a process called rehydration) to make it available for download. This tier change initiates an asynchronous operation that moves the blob from the archived state to an online tier.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Change the blob access tier from Archive to Hot or Cool.
Why this is correct
Changing the blob's access tier from Archive to Hot or Cool initiates the rehydration process, which moves the data from offline storage to online storage. Because archived blobs are stored offline, a tier change to Hot or Cool is required before the blob's contents can be read. This operation is asynchronous: the blob remains offline until the background rehydration job finishes, which can take up to 15 hours depending on the rehydration priority you set.
- ✓
Wait until the rehydration operation finishes.
Why this is correct
After you issue the tier-change request, Azure marks the blob as rehydrate-pending and does not yet expose its contents for reading. You must wait for the rehydration operation to finish, at which point the blob transitions to an online tier and becomes accessible. Use the blob's properties or the List Blobs API to confirm that the tier has changed from Archive before attempting to read or download the blob, otherwise the read will fail.
- ✗
Download the blob directly from Archive without any tier change.
Why it's wrong here
Directly downloading a blob from the Archive tier is not supported because archive data is stored offline and not immediately available on storage nodes. A normal download request will fail with an error (such as 409 Conflict or 403 Forbidden depending on the API version) until the blob is rehydrated to an online tier. You must first issue a Set Blob Tier or Copy operation that triggers rehydration; only then can client-side download attempts succeed.
When this WOULD be correct
If the blob is in the Cool or Hot tier, or if the question specifies that the blob is already in the process of rehydration and the rehydration is complete, then downloading directly without a tier change would be correct.
- ✗
Disable the lifecycle management policy for the storage account.
Why it's wrong here
Disabling the lifecycle management policy only stops future automated tier transitions; it does not alter the current tier of a blob that is already archived. The blob remains in the Archive tier and offline until you manually rehydrate it or perform a copy operation that triggers rehydration. Since lifecycle policies act only on future transitions based on age or last-modified time, disabling them has no effect on the current state of an already-archived blob.
When this WOULD be correct
If a question asks how to prevent future blobs from being automatically moved to the Archive tier, disabling the lifecycle management policy would be a correct action to stop the rule from applying.
- ✗
Create a new container and copy the archived blob into it.
Why it's wrong here
Creating a new container and copying the archived blob into it does not bypass the Archive tier because copying from an archived source requires rehydrating the source blob first. The source blob is offline, so Azure cannot read its data to perform the copy unless it is first rehydrated or the copy request includes a rehydration priority. Even if the destination blob is in the Hot tier, the original archived blob must still be rehydrated before the copy operation can succeed.
When this WOULD be correct
If the question asked how to move an archived blob to a different storage account while keeping it in the Archive tier, copying it to a new container in a different account would be valid. However, the blob would still be in Archive and require rehydration before reading.
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.
✓Change the blob access tier from Archive to Hot or Cool.Correct answer▾
Why this is correct
Changing the blob's access tier from Archive to Hot or Cool initiates the rehydration process, which moves the data from offline storage to online storage. Because archived blobs are stored offline, a tier change to Hot or Cool is required before the blob's contents can be read. This operation is asynchronous: the blob remains offline until the background rehydration job finishes, which can take up to 15 hours depending on the rehydration priority you set.
✗Download the blob directly from Archive without any tier change.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Blobs in the Archive tier are offline and cannot be read directly. They must first be rehydrated to Hot or Cool tier, which takes time, before any download is possible.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If the blob is in the Cool or Hot tier, or if the question specifies that the blob is already in the process of rehydration and the rehydration is complete, then downloading directly without a tier change would be correct.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may mistakenly believe that Archive blobs are still accessible for read operations, similar to blobs in other tiers, or they may overlook the requirement for rehydration before access.
✗Disable the lifecycle management policy for the storage account.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Disabling the lifecycle management policy does not change the access tier of the blob; the blob remains in the Archive tier and is still unavailable for reading until rehydrated.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If a question asks how to prevent future blobs from being automatically moved to the Archive tier, disabling the lifecycle management policy would be a correct action to stop the rule from applying.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think that disabling the policy will immediately revert the blob's tier or allow access, misunderstanding that lifecycle policies only affect future operations, not already archived blobs.
✗Create a new container and copy the archived blob into it.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Creating a new container and copying the archived blob does not change its Archive tier status; the blob remains in the Archive tier and cannot be read until rehydrated. The correct process is to change the tier to Hot or Cool and wait for rehydration.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If the question asked how to move an archived blob to a different storage account while keeping it in the Archive tier, copying it to a new container in a different account would be valid. However, the blob would still be in Archive and require rehydration before reading.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think that copying the blob to a new container automatically changes its tier or bypasses the rehydration requirement, not realizing that the copy operation preserves the source tier.
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?”
Quick reference
Azure Blob Storage Tier Comparison
| Tier | Storage Cost | Retrieval Cost | Latency | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hot | Highest | Lowest | Immediate | Active data, frequent reads |
| Cool | Lower | Higher | Immediate | Data accessed < once / month |
| Cold | Lower still | Higher | Immediate | Data accessed < once / quarter |
| Archive | Lowest | Highest + rehydration delay | Hours | Long-term compliance retention |
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Access Reviews in Entra ID
Key term
Blob
A blob is a large piece of unstructured data, like a photo or video, stored in the cloud with a unique identifier.
Key term
Archive tier
Archive tier is an ultra-low-cost Azure Blob Storage access tier designed for long-term retention of data that is rarely accessed and can tolerate hours of retrieval latency.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every AZ-104 question from scratch — 1,049 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.