Question 1mediummultiple choice
Full question →mediummultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A VM-hosted automation tool must call Azure APIs without storing a password or certificate on disk. The identity should disappear automatically when the VM is deleted. Which identity should the administrator assign?
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.
A
Distractor review
A user-assigned managed identity
A user-assigned managed identity avoids secrets, but it is not automatically removed when one VM is deleted.
B
Distractor review
A service principal with a client secret
A service principal with a secret still requires secret storage and lifecycle management, which the requirement wants to avoid.
C
Best answer
A system-assigned managed identity
A system-assigned managed identity is tied directly to the VM lifecycle, so it is created with the VM and removed when the VM is deleted. It allows the automation tool to authenticate to Azure services without storing passwords, secrets, or certificates on disk, which is the secure pattern requested.
D
Distractor review
A storage account access key
A storage key is not an Azure identity and would not provide the secure, scoped Azure API authentication the scenario requires.
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 the correct answer because it is bound to the VM itself. The identity is automatically provisioned for the resource and deleted when the resource is deleted, which fits the requirement to avoid lingering credentials. It also lets the automation tool authenticate to Azure services without secrets on disk, improving security and reducing credential management overhead. This is the preferred pattern for one-to-one resource authentication in Azure. Why others are wrong: A user-assigned managed identity is also secretless, but it has a separate lifecycle and does not disappear with one VM. A service principal with a secret introduces secret management work and higher risk. A storage account key is not suitable for general Azure API authentication and is much broader than needed.
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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