A VM-based application needs to read from Azure Storage without storing a password, access key, or other secret in code or configuration. The identity should also be removed automatically if the VM is deleted. What should you enable?
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.
Best answer
A system-assigned managed identity
A system-assigned managed identity is attached to the VM itself, enabling secretless access and automatic cleanup when the VM is deleted.
Distractor review
A user-assigned managed identity
A user-assigned identity can be reused, but it is not automatically removed when one VM is deleted.
Distractor review
A storage account access key
An access key works for authentication, but it is a secret that must be stored and rotated manually.
Distractor review
A shared access signature
A SAS token grants limited access, but it is still a credential that must be issued, managed, and eventually expired.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
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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?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: A system-assigned managed identity — A system-assigned managed identity is ideal when a single VM needs access to Azure resources without secrets. The identity is created for that specific VM, and Azure manages its lifecycle. Because it is tied to the VM, it is automatically removed when the VM is deleted. This makes it a secure and low-maintenance choice for applications that need credential-free access. Why others are wrong: A user-assigned managed identity is reusable across resources, so it does not match the requirement for automatic removal with the VM. A storage account key and a SAS token both rely on secrets or credentials, which the question explicitly wants to avoid. They also require more operational care than a managed identity.
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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