A VM-hosted application must read blobs from Azure Storage without storing any keys or passwords. Which two identity types can the VM use to authenticate to Azure Storage? Select two.
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
System-assigned managed identity, because it is tied to one VM and can request tokens without stored secrets.
A system-assigned managed identity is attached to one resource and avoids storing any secret in the application.
Best answer
User-assigned managed identity, because it can be reused by multiple resources without embedding credentials.
A user-assigned managed identity can be shared and still provides secretless authentication to storage.
Distractor review
Storage account shared key, because it is the preferred credential when you want to avoid passwords.
A shared key is a secret credential, so it does not meet the no-secrets requirement.
Distractor review
Basic authentication with a storage account name and password, because Azure Storage supports that model directly.
Azure Storage does not use basic username and password authentication for blob access.
Distractor review
Anonymous public access, because it lets the VM read blobs without any authentication at all.
Anonymous access is only suitable for public content and is not a secure identity-based approach.
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: System-assigned managed identity, because it is tied to one VM and can request tokens without stored secrets. — Both managed identity types let a VM authenticate to Azure Storage without embedding secrets. A system-assigned managed identity is best when the identity should follow the life cycle of one VM. A user-assigned managed identity is useful when the same identity must be reused across resources. In both cases, Azure handles token issuance, so no account keys or passwords are stored in code or configuration. Why others are wrong: A shared key is a secret and should not be used when the requirement is to avoid credentials. Azure Storage does not support basic username-and-password authentication. Anonymous public access avoids secrets, but it is not an identity-based and secure access pattern for a private application workload.
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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