AZ-104 Implement and Manage Storage Practice Question
This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of implement and manage storage. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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.
An Azure Files share must stay available if one availability zone in its primary region fails. The business does not need replication to another region. Which redundancy option should you choose for the storage account?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "primary"
Why it matters: Asks for the main purpose or function, not a secondary benefit. Eliminate answers that describe side-effects or partial functions.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Zone-redundant storage (ZRS)
Zone-redundant storage (ZRS) synchronously replicates your Azure Files share across three Azure availability zones within the primary region. This ensures the share remains available if one zone fails, without requiring replication to another region. LRS only replicates within a single data center, while GRS and RA-GRS involve secondary region replication, which the business does not need.
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.
✗
Locally redundant storage (LRS)
Why it's wrong here
LRS keeps copies within one datacenter only, so a zone failure can still affect availability.
✓
Zone-redundant storage (ZRS)
Why this is correct
ZRS stores synchronously replicated copies across availability zones in the same region, so the share remains available if one zone fails.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "primary" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Geo-redundant storage (GRS)
Why it's wrong here
GRS adds replication to a paired region, but it is not the best match when only intra-region zone resilience is required.
✗
Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS)
Why it's wrong here
RA-GRS includes geo-replication and read access to the secondary region, which is more than this requirement asks for.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often choose LRS thinking it provides zone-level redundancy, but LRS only replicates within a single data center, not across zones, making it insufficient for the stated availability requirement.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure ZRS uses synchronous replication across three distinct availability zones, each with independent power, cooling, and networking, providing a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of zero and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) typically within minutes for a zone outage. For Azure Files, ZRS is supported on standard and premium tiers, but note that premium file shares using ZRS incur higher costs due to the cross-zone replication overhead. A real-world scenario is a financial application requiring high availability within a single region for compliance, where ZRS meets the SLA of 99.99% uptime for file shares.
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
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-104 question in full detail.
Implement and Manage Storage — This question tests Implement and Manage Storage — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Zone-redundant storage (ZRS) — Zone-redundant storage (ZRS) synchronously replicates your Azure Files share across three Azure availability zones within the primary region. This ensures the share remains available if one zone fails, without requiring replication to another region. LRS only replicates within a single data center, while GRS and RA-GRS involve secondary region replication, which the business does not need.
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "primary". Asks for the main purpose or function, not a secondary benefit. Eliminate answers that describe side-effects or partial functions.
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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