Question 1,020 of 1,170
AZ-104 Availability set 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. A key principle to apply: availability set. 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.
You are designing a highly available application on Azure that will run on multiple virtual machines. The solution must meet the following requirements: • Distribute VMs across multiple fault domains and update domains within a single Azure region. • Guarantee that at least one VM instance is available during planned maintenance. • Support automatic recovery of VMs if a physical server fails. • Keep the VMs in the same datacenter to minimize latency. Which three options should you configure? (Choose three.)
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue:
"least"Why it matters: You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.
Clue:
"minimum / minimize"Why it matters: Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.
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
✓
Place the VMs in an availability set.
An availability set distributes VMs across fault and update domains, ensuring at least one VM is available during planned maintenance and that VMs are in the same datacenter. Managed disks are required to support automatic recovery if a physical server fails, as they provide independent fault domains and higher durability. A proximity placement group guarantees that all VMs are placed in the same datacenter to minimize latency. The Azure Load Balancer with health probe is not required for these requirements; it primarily handles traffic distribution and application-level health monitoring.
Key principle: Availability set
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Candidates often mistakenly include an Azure Load Balancer because it provides health probing and traffic distribution, but the question focuses on infrastructure-level high availability (fault/update domains, automatic recovery, same datacenter). The three correct choices are availability set, managed disks, and proximity placement group.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
An availability set in Azure uses fault domains (up to 3) and update domains (up to 20) to isolate VMs from hardware failures and planned maintenance events. Managed disks ensure that each VM's disk is stored in a separate storage scale unit, preventing a single storage failure from affecting all VMs. A proximity placement group is a logical grouping that ensures VMs are physically close together within an Azure datacenter, reducing network latency to single-digit milliseconds, which is critical for latency-sensitive applications like high-frequency trading or real-time analytics.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Availability set
- Managed disks
- Proximity placement group
- Fault domain
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
Availability set
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.
Review availability set, then practise related AZ-104 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.
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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 — Availability set.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Place the VMs in an availability set. — An availability set distributes VMs across fault and update domains, ensuring at least one VM is available during planned maintenance and that VMs are in the same datacenter. Managed disks are required to support automatic recovery if a physical server fails, as they provide independent fault domains and higher durability. A proximity placement group guarantees that all VMs are placed in the same datacenter to minimize latency. The Azure Load Balancer with health probe is not required for these requirements; it primarily handles traffic distribution and application-level health monitoring.
What should I do if I get this AZ-104 question wrong?
Review availability set, then practise related AZ-104 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "least", "minimum / minimize". You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Availability set
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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