AZ-104 Implement and Manage Storage Practice Question
An analytics platform stores daily export files in Azure Blob Storage. The business wants the storage account to survive a failure of any one availability zone and also keep a replicated copy in a paired region for disaster recovery. No one needs to read from the secondary region unless a disaster recovery event occurs. Which redundancy option should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse GZRS with RA-GZRS, assuming that geo-redundant storage always provides read-access to the secondary region, but GZRS does not—only RA-GZRS does, and the question explicitly states no one needs to read from the secondary region unless a disaster recovery event occurs.
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
✓
GZRS
C is correct because GZRS (Geo-Zone-Redundant Storage) combines zone-redundant storage (ZRS) within the primary region, ensuring the storage account survives any single availability zone failure, with geo-redundant replication to a paired region for disaster recovery. The secondary region copy is read-only unless a failover is initiated, matching the requirement that no one reads from the secondary region unless a disaster recovery event occurs.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
ZRS
Why it's wrong here
ZRS replicates data synchronously across three availability zones within a single region, so it provides no protection against a region-wide outage and does not maintain a copy in a paired region for disaster recovery. It is tempting because it meets the requirement to survive any one zone failure, but the scenario explicitly demands a secondary-region replica for DR, which only geo-redundant options (GRS or GZRS) provide. ZRS would be correct if the business needed only intra-region zone resilience without any cross-region failover capability.
When this WOULD be correct
ZRS would be correct if the requirement is to survive a failure of any one availability zone within a single region, with no need for cross-region replication or disaster recovery to a paired region.
- ✗
GRS
Why it's wrong here
GRS asynchronously replicates the primary blob data to a paired region for disaster recovery, but the primary copy is not distributed across availability zones—it is committed to a single zone as LRS. If that zone fails, the platform loses access to its primary export files, and GRS does not permit read access to the secondary region until a Microsoft-initiated failover, so it fails the explicit requirement to tolerate any single primary-zone failure. Unlike RA-GRS, there is no continuously readable secondary copy to mitigate the outage.
When this WOULD be correct
A question where the requirement is to survive a regional disaster (not a zonal failure) and no read access to the secondary region is needed unless a disaster occurs. For example: 'A company needs to protect against a regional outage and does not require read access to the secondary region. Which redundancy option should be used?'
- ✓
GZRS
Why this is correct
GZRS is designed for workloads that need both zone resilience and geo-replication without requiring read access to the secondary region. It keeps the primary copy spread across zones in the region and replicates that data to a paired region for disaster recovery. That matches the requirement exactly.
- ✗
RA-GRS
Why it's wrong here
RA-GRS gives you a readable secondary endpoint in a paired region, but the primary region copy is backed by LRS and lives in a single availability zone. A zone outage in the primary region therefore makes that primary copy unavailable, and because replication to the secondary is asynchronous, the secondary may be too stale to serve as the sole surviving copy. It does not satisfy the requirement that the platform survive any one of the three primary-region availability zones failing.
When this WOULD be correct
A scenario where the business requires both geo-redundancy for disaster recovery and the ability to read data from the secondary region at any time (e.g., for reporting or low-latency reads) would make RA-GRS the correct choice.
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.
✓GZRSCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
GZRS is designed for workloads that need both zone resilience and geo-replication without requiring read access to the secondary region. It keeps the primary copy spread across zones in the region and replicates that data to a paired region for disaster recovery. That matches the requirement exactly.
✗ZRSWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
ZRS replicates data synchronously across three availability zones within a single region, but it does not provide a copy in a paired region for disaster recovery, which is explicitly required.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
ZRS would be correct if the requirement is to survive a failure of any one availability zone within a single region, with no need for cross-region replication or disaster recovery to a paired region.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse ZRS with GZRS because both offer zone-level resilience, but they overlook the additional requirement for a paired region copy for disaster recovery.
✗GRSWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
GRS provides zone-redundant storage only in the primary region, not across availability zones, and replicates to a paired region for disaster recovery. However, it does not survive a failure of any one availability zone because GRS uses LRS in the primary region, which is not zone-redundant.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A question where the requirement is to survive a regional disaster (not a zonal failure) and no read access to the secondary region is needed unless a disaster occurs. For example: 'A company needs to protect against a regional outage and does not require read access to the secondary region. Which redundancy option should be used?'
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse GRS with GZRS, thinking that GRS also provides zone redundancy because it has 'redundant' in the name, or they may overlook the requirement to survive a zonal failure and focus only on the disaster recovery aspect.
✗RA-GRSWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
RA-GRS provides read access to the secondary region, but the question states no one needs to read from the secondary region unless a disaster recovery event occurs, so the extra read access is unnecessary and not the best fit.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A scenario where the business requires both geo-redundancy for disaster recovery and the ability to read data from the secondary region at any time (e.g., for reporting or low-latency reads) would make RA-GRS the correct choice.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse RA-GRS with GZRS, thinking that read-access geo-redundancy is needed for disaster recovery, but the question explicitly says no read access is required in the secondary region unless a disaster occurs.
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?”
Quick reference
Azure Blob Storage Tier Comparison
| Tier | Storage Cost | Retrieval Cost | Latency | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hot | Highest | Lowest | Immediate | Active data, frequent reads |
| Cool | Lower | Higher | Immediate | Data accessed < once / month |
| Cold | Lower still | Higher | Immediate | Data accessed < once / quarter |
| Archive | Lowest | Highest + rehydration delay | Hours | Long-term compliance retention |
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Managed Identities for Azure Resources
Key term
Zone-redundant storage
Zone-redundant storage is a data replication method that stores copies of your data in multiple physical locations within a cloud region, so your data remains safe and available even if one entire data center fails.
Key term
Blob storage
Blob storage is a cloud service for storing large amounts of unstructured data, such as text or binary data, like documents, images, and videos.
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Courseiva writes every AZ-104 question from scratch — 1,049 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.