AZ-104 Manage Azure Identities and Governance Practice Question
You need to allow a support engineer to restart virtual machines in the RG-App resource group, but the engineer must not be able to create, delete, or resize the virtual machines. What should you do?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often assume the Virtual Machine Contributor role is restrictive enough for restart-only tasks, but it actually includes full VM management permissions, making a custom role necessary for precise access control.
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
✓
Create a custom role that includes restart permissions and assign it at the RG-App scope
The Virtual Machine Contributor role includes permissions to restart VMs but also allows creating, deleting, and resizing VMs, which violates the requirement. A custom role with only the Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/restart/action permission assigned at the RG-App scope grants the exact restart capability without broader management rights.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Assign the Virtual Machine Contributor role at the RG-App scope
Why it's wrong here
Virtual Machine Contributor allows the support engineer to both view and manage VMs, including restart, but it also grants permissions to create, delete, change networking, configure extensions, and manage disks, etc. This is broader than the only action requested, so it violates least privilege and introduces unnecessary operational risk.
When this WOULD be correct
If the requirement were to allow a support engineer to manage VMs (including restart, create, delete, resize) but not manage the resource group or other resources, assigning the Virtual Machine Contributor role at the RG-App scope would be correct.
- ✓
Create a custom role that includes restart permissions and assign it at the RG-App scope
Why this is correct
A custom role is necessary because no built-in role provides only the Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/restart/action. Defining a role with just that action and assigning it at the RG-App scope limits the support engineer to restarting VMs in that specific resource group, following the principle of least privilege.
- ✗
Assign the Contributor role at the subscription scope
Why it's wrong here
Contributor grants full management access across the entire subscription, including all resource groups and resource types. It includes restart permissions but also allows creating, deleting, and modifying any resource, which vastly exceeds the requirement and unnecessarily widens the potential security blast radius if the support engineer's account is compromised.
When this WOULD be correct
If the question required granting a user full management access to all resources in a subscription, including the ability to create, delete, and resize virtual machines, then assigning the Contributor role at the subscription scope would be correct.
- ✗
Assign the Reader role at the RG-App scope
Why it's wrong here
Reader at the RG-App scope is a read-only role that allows listing and viewing VM properties but contains no action such as Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/restart/action. Since restarting a VM is a management-plane write operation, the support engineer would receive an AuthorizationFailed error when attempting to restart.
When this WOULD be correct
If the requirement was to allow the engineer to view virtual machine properties and status in RG-App without making any changes, assigning the Reader role at the RG-App scope would be correct.
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.
✓Create a custom role that includes restart permissions and assign it at the RG-App scopeCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
A custom role is necessary because no built-in role provides only the Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/restart/action. Defining a role with just that action and assigning it at the RG-App scope limits the support engineer to restarting VMs in that specific resource group, following the principle of least privilege.
✗Assign the Virtual Machine Contributor role at the RG-App scopeWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
The Virtual Machine Contributor role includes permissions to create, delete, and resize VMs, which violates the requirement to restrict those actions.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If the requirement were to allow a support engineer to manage VMs (including restart, create, delete, resize) but not manage the resource group or other resources, assigning the Virtual Machine Contributor role at the RG-App scope would be correct.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think Virtual Machine Contributor is a narrowly scoped role that only allows restart, but it actually grants broader VM management permissions.
✗Assign the Contributor role at the subscription scopeWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
The Contributor role at the subscription scope grants full management access to all resources in the subscription, including the ability to create, delete, and resize virtual machines, which violates the requirement to restrict the engineer from performing those actions.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If the question required granting a user full management access to all resources in a subscription, including the ability to create, delete, and resize virtual machines, then assigning the Contributor role at the subscription scope would be correct.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think that assigning a broad role like Contributor at a higher scope is simpler and still meets the requirement, not realizing that it grants excessive permissions beyond just restarting VMs.
✗Assign the Reader role at the RG-App scopeWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
The Reader role only allows read-only access to resources, so it does not include permissions to restart virtual machines, which is a write operation.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If the requirement was to allow the engineer to view virtual machine properties and status in RG-App without making any changes, assigning the Reader role at the RG-App scope would be correct.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think that since restarting is a basic operation, the Reader role might include it, or they confuse read access with the ability to perform actions like restart.
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?”
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Privileged Identity Management (PIM)
Key term
Scope
In IT, scope defines the boundaries, goals, and deliverables of a project, assessment, or engagement, specifying what is included and what is excluded.
Key term
Resource group
A logical container in Microsoft Azure that holds related resources for an application or solution, enabling unified management, security, and billing.
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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.