Question 1hardmulti select
Full question →hardmulti selectObjective-mapped
An Azure application and an Azure Automation account need Azure access without any stored secrets. The same identity should be reusable and should not require manual secret rotation. Which two identity choices meet the requirement? Select two.
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
Best answer
System-assigned managed identity attached to the resource that needs access.
System-assigned managed identities eliminate secrets and are automatically managed for the lifetime of the resource.
B
Best answer
User-assigned managed identity that can be attached to multiple Azure resources.
User-assigned managed identities are reusable and centrally managed, which fits shared automation scenarios well.
C
Distractor review
Service principal with a client secret stored in an app setting.
A client secret is a stored credential and requires ongoing rotation and protection outside Azure identity management.
D
Distractor review
Shared administrator username and password stored in a Key Vault secret.
This still depends on a password-based credential and is not the preferred secret-free Azure identity approach.
E
Distractor review
SAS token generated once and reused indefinitely by both resources.
A long-lived SAS token is a secret and is not a robust identity choice for ongoing automation.
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: System-assigned managed identity attached to the resource that needs access. — Managed identities are the Azure-native way to avoid storing credentials for workloads that need to authenticate to Azure services. A system-assigned managed identity is appropriate when the identity should live and die with a specific resource. A user-assigned managed identity is appropriate when the same identity must be reused across multiple resources. Both options support RBAC-based access without secrets or manual rotation. Why others are wrong: A service principal with a secret, a shared password, or a reused SAS token still depends on a stored credential that must be protected and rotated. Those approaches create operational overhead and are weaker than managed identities for Azure-hosted workloads. The question specifically asks for identity choices that avoid stored secrets, so the managed identity options are the only correct ones.
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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