AZ-104 Monitor and Maintain Azure Resources Practice Question
An employee deleted one spreadsheet from a Windows VM that is protected by Azure Backup. The VM must stay online while the administrator recovers only that file. Which two restore methods are supported? Select two.
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse Azure Backup's file-level recovery with full VM restore or disk restore operations, assuming that granular recovery requires stopping the VM or using a separate disaster recovery service like Azure Site Recovery.
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
✓
Use file recovery from the recovery point in the Azure portal.
Azure Backup's file-level recovery feature in the Azure portal allows you to mount a recovery point as a drive on the running Windows VM, enabling you to browse and copy individual files without restoring the entire VM. This method supports selective file recovery while the VM remains online, meeting the requirement. Option B is also correct because the file recovery script (or PowerShell mount workflow) performs the same mount operation programmatically, providing an alternative way to access and recover the specific spreadsheet from the recovery point.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use file recovery from the recovery point in the Azure portal.
Why this is correct
The Azure portal's File Recovery workflow for VM backups provides a managed, point-in-time interface to mount the selected recovery point as an iSCSI target. It generates a script that, when run on the VM, temporarily exposes the backup's file system without requiring a full VM restore or downtime. This is the most direct and least disruptive method because it lets you copy just the deleted spreadsheet back to its original location.
- ✓
Use the file recovery script or PowerShell mount workflow from the recovery point.
Why this is correct
For automation or environments where the portal is not preferred, the same file-level recovery is available through Azure PowerShell or CLI. Commands such as Restore-AzRecoveryServicesBackupItem with a recovery point return a downloadable script that mounts the backed-up disks as iSCSI targets on the VM or another machine. The mount is session-based and expires after a set time, allowing you to copy the missing file while the production VM remains online and untouched.
- ✗
Restore the entire VM to a new VM and copy the file back manually.
Why it's wrong here
Restoring the entire VM to a new VM from an Azure Backup recovery point is a valid but heavy-handed approach that creates a complete secondary copy of the machine. You would then have to copy the needed file from that new VM back to the original, incurring extra compute cost and administrative overhead. Because Azure Backup offers native file-level recovery, spinning up an entire VM for a single spreadsheet is unnecessary and wastes time, especially when the original VM must stay online.
When this WOULD be correct
This option would be correct if the question asked for a method to recover the entire VM (not just a file) and the original VM could be taken offline or replaced, such as when the VM is corrupted and needs full restoration.
- ✗
Restore the disks from backup and attach them to the running VM.
Why it's wrong here
Restoring a managed disk from a recovery point and attaching it to the running VM can lead to drive-letter conflicts, stale disk signatures, or corruption if the original disk is still attached. To swap the restored disk with the existing one, you typically must stop and deallocate the VM, causing downtime. This approach is broader in scope and risk compared to file-level recovery, which mounts just the backup's contents, letting you retrieve only the missing spreadsheet without touching the VM's live disks.
When this WOULD be correct
This option would be correct if the question asked to recover an entire VM or multiple disks without requiring the original VM to remain online, and the recovery method involved restoring disks to a new VM or replacing the original VM's disks.
- ✗
Use Azure Site Recovery failover to expose the file.
Why it's wrong here
Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is a disaster-recovery replication service that performs failover to a secondary Azure region to ensure business continuity during outages. It does not provide point-in-time backup or granular file-level restore, and a failover would start a full replica VM, which is excessively disruptive and may not even be configured for the damaged VM. Its purpose is to protect against regional downtime, not to recover an accidentally deleted file, so using it here would be inappropriate and could introduce unintended failover traffic.
When this WOULD be correct
This option would be correct if the question asked about recovering an entire VM or application after a regional outage, where the goal is to failover to a secondary site using Azure Site Recovery to restore business continuity.
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.
✓Use file recovery from the recovery point in the Azure portal.Correct answer▾
Why this is correct
The Azure portal's File Recovery workflow for VM backups provides a managed, point-in-time interface to mount the selected recovery point as an iSCSI target. It generates a script that, when run on the VM, temporarily exposes the backup's file system without requiring a full VM restore or downtime. This is the most direct and least disruptive method because it lets you copy just the deleted spreadsheet back to its original location.
✗Restore the entire VM to a new VM and copy the file back manually.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Restoring the entire VM to a new VM is not supported for file-level recovery while the original VM stays online; it creates a separate VM and requires manual file copy, which is not a direct file recovery method from a backup.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
This option would be correct if the question asked for a method to recover the entire VM (not just a file) and the original VM could be taken offline or replaced, such as when the VM is corrupted and needs full restoration.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think that restoring the entire VM and copying the file is a valid file recovery method, overlooking that Azure Backup provides specific file-level recovery options that avoid full VM restoration.
✗Restore the disks from backup and attach them to the running VM.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Restoring disks from backup and attaching them to the running VM is not supported for file-level recovery; it would require stopping the VM to attach the restored disk, which violates the requirement that the VM must stay online.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
This option would be correct if the question asked to recover an entire VM or multiple disks without requiring the original VM to remain online, and the recovery method involved restoring disks to a new VM or replacing the original VM's disks.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think that restoring disks and attaching them is a quick way to access files, but they overlook the need to keep the VM online and the complexity of attaching a restored disk to a running VM without downtime.
✗Use Azure Site Recovery failover to expose the file.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Azure Site Recovery is a disaster recovery solution for replicating entire workloads to a secondary region, not for granular file recovery from a backup. It does not provide access to individual files within a backup of a single VM.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
This option would be correct if the question asked about recovering an entire VM or application after a regional outage, where the goal is to failover to a secondary site using Azure Site Recovery to restore business continuity.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse Azure Site Recovery with Azure Backup, thinking both can restore files, or they may assume that failover can expose the underlying disks to copy files from.
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 portal
The Azure portal is a web-based, unified console that lets you build, manage, and monitor everything from simple web apps to complex cloud deployments using a graphical user interface.
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.
About these practice questions
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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.