- A
An availability set with the VMs placed in different update domains.
Why wrong: Availability sets protect against host maintenance and some hardware failures, but not a full datacenter outage.
- B
Two VMs placed in different availability zones within the region.
Availability zones place resources in separate datacenters inside the same region, so the workload can survive a complete zone or datacenter failure. For a requirement that explicitly includes datacenter-level resilience, zones are the correct choice. They provide stronger isolation than availability sets, which only protect against update domain and fault domain issues within a datacenter.
- C
A proximity placement group so both VMs stay physically close together.
Why wrong: A proximity placement group improves latency, but it does not provide failure isolation for datacenter outages.
- D
A single VM with Premium SSD storage and automatic restart.
Why wrong: A single VM is still a single point of failure and cannot meet the availability requirement.
Quick Answer
The answer is to deploy the two VMs in different availability zones within the same region. This is correct because availability zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Placing VMs in different zones ensures that if an entire datacenter fails, the app continues running in the other zone, providing true high availability against a datacenter-level outage. On the AZ-104 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of the key difference between availability zones and availability sets: zones protect against datacenter failures, while sets protect against hardware failures within a single datacenter. A common trap is confusing an availability set (which spreads VMs across fault domains in one datacenter) with zones. Remember the memory tip: “Zones are for datacenter disasters; sets are for rack-level risks.”
AZ-104 Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Practice Question
This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of deploy and manage azure compute. 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 online transaction app uses two identical VMs in an Azure region that supports availability zones. The business wants the app to stay available if an entire datacenter in the region fails. What should the administrator deploy?
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
Two VMs placed in different availability zones within the region.
Option B is correct because deploying VMs in different availability zones protects against an entire datacenter failure. Each availability zone is a physically separate datacenter within an Azure region, with independent power, cooling, and networking. If one zone fails, the VM in the other zone remains available, ensuring business continuity for the app.
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.
- ✗
An availability set with the VMs placed in different update domains.
Why it's wrong here
Availability sets protect against host maintenance and some hardware failures, but not a full datacenter outage.
- ✓
Two VMs placed in different availability zones within the region.
Why this is correct
Availability zones place resources in separate datacenters inside the same region, so the workload can survive a complete zone or datacenter failure. For a requirement that explicitly includes datacenter-level resilience, zones are the correct choice. They provide stronger isolation than availability sets, which only protect against update domain and fault domain issues within a datacenter.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
A proximity placement group so both VMs stay physically close together.
Why it's wrong here
A proximity placement group improves latency, but it does not provide failure isolation for datacenter outages.
- ✗
A single VM with Premium SSD storage and automatic restart.
Why it's wrong here
A single VM is still a single point of failure and cannot meet the availability requirement.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse availability sets (which protect against rack-level failures within a single datacenter) with availability zones (which protect against entire datacenter failures), leading them to choose Option A instead of B.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure availability zones are unique physical locations within an Azure region, each with its own independent infrastructure (power, cooling, networking). The SLA for multi-VM deployments across availability zones is 99.99%, compared to 99.95% for availability sets. In a real-world scenario, if a regional disaster affects one zone, traffic can be load-balanced to the other zone using Azure Load Balancer or Traffic Manager, ensuring near-continuous availability.
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.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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Deploy and Manage Azure Compute — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this AZ-104 question test?
Deploy and Manage Azure Compute — This question tests Deploy and Manage Azure Compute — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Two VMs placed in different availability zones within the region. — Option B is correct because deploying VMs in different availability zones protects against an entire datacenter failure. Each availability zone is a physically separate datacenter within an Azure region, with independent power, cooling, and networking. If one zone fails, the VM in the other zone remains available, ensuring business continuity for the app.
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.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
3 more ways 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. Based on the exhibit, which deployment change best meets the resilience requirement for the application VMs?
medium- A.Keep both VMs in the same availability set to spread them across update domains only.
- ✓ B.Place each VM in a different availability zone and keep the load balancer in front.
- C.Deploy both VMs into a proximity placement group to reduce latency between them.
- D.Move the VMs into a single availability set and add more managed disks for redundancy.
Why B: Option B is correct because deploying each VM into a different availability zone ensures that the VMs are physically separated across distinct data centers within an Azure region, protecting against zone-level failures. The load balancer in front distributes traffic across the VMs, providing high availability even if one zone goes offline. This meets the resilience requirement by eliminating a single point of failure at the data center level.
Variation 2. Based on the exhibit, the company will deploy two identical web server VMs in East US 2 behind a load balancer. The service must keep running if one datacenter in the region becomes unavailable. Which deployment choice best meets the requirement?
medium- A.Place both VMs in an availability set so Azure can spread them across fault domains.
- ✓ B.Place one VM in each of two availability zones and front them with the load balancer.
- C.Place both VMs in one availability zone because all zones in a region share failure domains.
- D.Deploy a single VM because Azure automatically replicates it across the region.
Why B: Option B is correct because deploying one VM in each of two availability zones within East US 2 ensures that the VMs are physically separated across distinct datacenters, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. If one datacenter (zone) fails, the other zone remains operational, and the load balancer automatically directs traffic to the healthy VM. This meets the requirement of keeping the service running if one datacenter in the region becomes unavailable.
Variation 3. Based on the exhibit, the workload must keep running if an entire datacenter in the region becomes unavailable. The region supports availability zones. What should you deploy?
easy- A.An availability set with one update domain per VM.
- ✓ B.Availability zones with the VMs distributed across zones.
- C.A single VM with a premium SSD data disk.
- D.An Azure proximity placement group.
Why B: Availability zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Deploying VMs across multiple zones ensures that if one entire datacenter fails, the workload continues running in the other zone(s), meeting the requirement for regional datacenter-level resilience.
Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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.
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