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 web front end must automatically add or remove instances based on demand. The application is stateless and all instances should be managed as one group. Which Azure service should you use?
Why wrong: A single VM does not provide instance-based scaling or group management for a stateless workload.
B
Virtual Machine Scale Set
A Virtual Machine Scale Set is designed for multiple similar VMs that need to scale together. It is a good fit for stateless workloads because instances can be added or removed without special per-VM configuration. You can also combine it with autoscale rules to respond to changing demand automatically.
C
Availability set
Why wrong: An availability set improves resilience, but it does not automatically scale instances up or down.
D
Managed disk snapshots
Why wrong: Snapshots protect data copies, but they do not provide elastic compute scaling or instance orchestration.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Virtual Machine Scale Set
Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) automatically scale the number of VM instances in or out based on demand or a defined schedule, making them ideal for stateless, horizontally scalable applications. They manage all instances as a single group behind a load balancer, ensuring uniform configuration and seamless scaling without manual intervention.
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 single Azure VM with a larger size
Why it's wrong here
A single VM does not provide instance-based scaling or group management for a stateless workload.
✓
Virtual Machine Scale Set
Why this is correct
A Virtual Machine Scale Set is designed for multiple similar VMs that need to scale together. It is a good fit for stateless workloads because instances can be added or removed without special per-VM configuration. You can also combine it with autoscale rules to respond to changing demand automatically.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Availability set
Why it's wrong here
An availability set improves resilience, but it does not automatically scale instances up or down.
✗
Managed disk snapshots
Why it's wrong here
Snapshots protect data copies, but they do not provide elastic compute scaling or instance orchestration.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse availability sets (which only provide fault tolerance) with auto-scaling, or mistakenly think that a single large VM can handle variable load by resizing, when the question explicitly requires automatic addition/removal of instances as a group.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
VMSS uses an autoscale profile with rules based on metrics like CPU percentage, memory, or custom Azure Monitor metrics to trigger scale-out and scale-in operations. Each instance is created from a uniform VM configuration (image, size, extensions), and the scale set integrates with Azure Load Balancer or Application Gateway to distribute traffic. Under the hood, the scale set orchestrator manages VM lifecycle, health probes, and instance count, ensuring that new instances are provisioned and old ones are deallocated without downtime.
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: Virtual Machine Scale Set — Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) automatically scale the number of VM instances in or out based on demand or a defined schedule, making them ideal for stateless, horizontally scalable applications. They manage all instances as a single group behind a load balancer, ensuring uniform configuration and seamless scaling without manual intervention.
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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