AZ-104 Monitor and Maintain Azure Resources Practice Question
A virtual machine is already protected by Azure Backup. The current policy runs daily at 23:00 and keeps daily recovery points for 30 days. The business now wants the same schedule but wants new daily recovery points retained for 90 days. No new vault or re-registration should occur. What should the administrator do?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse vault redundancy settings with retention duration, or assume that a new vault is required to change retention, when in fact Azure Backup policies can be edited in place to adjust retention for future recovery points.
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
✓
Edit the existing backup policy and change the daily retention for future recovery points.
Azure Backup allows you to modify an existing backup policy to change the retention duration for future recovery points without creating a new vault or re-registering the VM. By editing the policy and setting the daily retention to 90 days, all new daily recovery points will be retained for the longer period, while existing recovery points remain unaffected by the change.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Create a new Recovery Services vault and enable backup again with the longer retention period.
Why it's wrong here
Creating a new Recovery Services vault and re-enabling backup is an unnecessary, disruptive action. It would force a new initial backup (typically a full copy) and abandon the existing recovery points stored in the original vault, resulting in additional cost and loss of historical restore points. The existing protected item can stay in its current vault; simply edit the backup policy attached to it to change the daily retention rule. This keeps the recovery chain intact and applies the new retention to future recovery points without requiring re-registration or vault migration.
When this WOULD be correct
This option would be correct if the question required isolating the backup data for compliance reasons (e.g., separate vault for different departments) or if the existing vault was corrupted or in a different region, necessitating a new vault for the backup.
- ✓
Edit the existing backup policy and change the daily retention for future recovery points.
Why this is correct
Backup retention is controlled by the backup policy attached to the protected VM. Updating the policy to retain daily recovery points for 90 days changes how future backups are kept without re-registering the workload or creating a new vault. Existing recovery points keep their original retention behavior, while newly created recovery points follow the updated rule. This is the normal, low-impact administrative change.
- ✗
Take nightly managed disk snapshots because snapshots automatically inherit the Recovery Services vault retention period.
Why it's wrong here
Managed disk snapshots are independent Azure resources that are not stored in or governed by a Recovery Services vault. Their retention is set when the snapshot is created, and they do not inherit the vault's backup policy or retention values. Relying on snapshots also changes restore semantics because they are usually crash-consistent rather than application-consistent, and they incur separate storage charges. Since the VM is already protected by Azure Backup, the correct way to extend retention is to modify the existing backup policy, not introduce an unrelated snapshot schedule.
When this WOULD be correct
If the requirement were to create crash-consistent backups independent of Azure Backup, with custom retention managed separately (e.g., via Azure Policy or automation), and the question explicitly allowed using snapshots instead of vault-based backups.
- ✗
Change the vault redundancy setting to increase the number of retained recovery points.
Why it's wrong here
Vault redundancy (Locally Redundant Storage or Geo-Redundant Storage) controls how the vault's data is replicated across regions for durability and disaster recovery, not how many days or recovery points are retained. Retention values are defined exclusively in the backup policy's retention rules, such as a daily retention of 90 days. Moreover, for Recovery Services vaults, the storage redundancy setting can only be changed before any backup items are configured, so altering it after protection is typically not even possible. Therefore, changing redundancy is neither the correct mechanism nor an available action to extend recovery point retention.
When this WOULD be correct
An administrator needs to ensure backup data is replicated to a paired region for disaster recovery compliance. Changing vault redundancy from Locally Redundant Storage (LRS) to Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS) 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.
✓Edit the existing backup policy and change the daily retention for future recovery points.Correct answer▾
Why this is correct
Backup retention is controlled by the backup policy attached to the protected VM. Updating the policy to retain daily recovery points for 90 days changes how future backups are kept without re-registering the workload or creating a new vault. Existing recovery points keep their original retention behavior, while newly created recovery points follow the updated rule. This is the normal, low-impact administrative change.
✗Create a new Recovery Services vault and enable backup again with the longer retention period.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
The question explicitly states 'No new vault or re-registration should occur', so creating a new Recovery Services vault violates that constraint. The existing vault and policy can be modified to extend retention without a new vault.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
This option would be correct if the question required isolating the backup data for compliance reasons (e.g., separate vault for different departments) or if the existing vault was corrupted or in a different region, necessitating a new vault for the backup.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think that creating a new vault is the simplest way to change retention without modifying existing backups, or they may not realize that existing policies can be edited to extend retention for future recovery points.
✗Take nightly managed disk snapshots because snapshots automatically inherit the Recovery Services vault retention period.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Managed disk snapshots do not automatically inherit Recovery Services vault retention policies; they have their own independent lifecycle and are not integrated with Azure Backup policies.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If the requirement were to create crash-consistent backups independent of Azure Backup, with custom retention managed separately (e.g., via Azure Policy or automation), and the question explicitly allowed using snapshots instead of vault-based backups.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse managed disk snapshots with Azure Backup recovery points, assuming snapshots are automatically governed by the vault's retention settings, or think snapshots are a valid alternative to backup policies.
✗Change the vault redundancy setting to increase the number of retained recovery points.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Changing the vault redundancy setting (e.g., from LRS to GRS) affects data replication, not the retention period of recovery points. Retention is controlled by the backup policy, not redundancy.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
An administrator needs to ensure backup data is replicated to a paired region for disaster recovery compliance. Changing vault redundancy from Locally Redundant Storage (LRS) to Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS) would be correct.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse 'redundancy' with 'retention' due to similar terminology, or assume that increasing redundancy inherently extends how long backups are kept.
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
Managed Identities for Azure Resources
Key term
Azure Backup
Azure Backup is a cloud-based service from Microsoft that protects your data by creating and storing backups of files, folders, virtual machines, databases, and entire servers in the Azure cloud.
Key term
Backup policy
A backup policy is a documented set of rules that defines what data to back up, how often, where to store it, and how long to keep it, ensuring data can be restored after loss.
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on AZ-104
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A virtual machine is already protected by Azure Backup. The business wants the VM backed up every day at 11:00 PM and wants daily recovery points retained for 30 days, without re-onboarding the VM. What should the administrator modify?
medium- A.Create a new Recovery Services vault and re-register the VM
- ✓ B.Modify the backup policy associated with the protected VM
- C.Install a new VM extension to change retention behavior
- D.Take a manual snapshot of the VM disk every night
Why B: Azure Backup uses backup policies to define the backup schedule and retention rules for protected resources. By modifying the existing policy associated with the VM, you can change the backup time to 11:00 PM and set daily recovery point retention to 30 days without needing to re-onboard the VM or create a new vault.
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.