- A
Place both VMs in a single availability set.
Why wrong: An availability set improves resilience against host maintenance and failures, but it does not protect against a full datacenter or zone outage.
- B
Deploy one VM and rely on Azure Backup for recovery.
Why wrong: Backup helps restore data after a failure, but it does not keep the application online during an outage.
- C
Place the VMs in separate availability zones in the same region.
Availability zones place workloads in physically separate datacenters within the same region. That design protects against a full zone or datacenter outage and also gives you a stronger isolation boundary than an availability set. Because the app has two VMs behind a load balancer, you can distribute them across zones and maintain service if one zone becomes unavailable.
- D
Deploy both VMs without any fault-domain configuration.
Why wrong: A plain deployment leaves both VMs exposed to the same underlying infrastructure failures and maintenance events.
AZ-104 Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Practice Question
This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of deploy and manage azure compute. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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.
A stateless web app runs on two Ubuntu VMs behind an Azure Load Balancer. The region supports availability zones. The business wants the app to survive a full datacenter outage and also avoid having both VMs on the same maintenance boundary. Which deployment should you choose?
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 separate availability zones in the same region.
Option C is correct because deploying the VMs in separate availability zones ensures they are placed in physically distinct datacenters within the same region, protecting against a full datacenter outage. Additionally, each availability zone has its own fault and update domains, so the VMs will never share the same maintenance boundary, meeting both business requirements.
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.
- ✗
Place both VMs in a single availability set.
Why it's wrong here
An availability set improves resilience against host maintenance and failures, but it does not protect against a full datacenter or zone outage.
When this WOULD be correct
A question that asks for high availability within a single datacenter (e.g., 'survive a server rack failure') without requiring multi-datacenter resilience, and the region does not support availability zones.
- ✗
Deploy one VM and rely on Azure Backup for recovery.
Why it's wrong here
Backup helps restore data after a failure, but it does not keep the application online during an outage.
When this WOULD be correct
If the question asked for a cost-effective disaster recovery solution for a non-critical app where some downtime is acceptable, and the business wants to recover data after a regional failure, then deploying one VM with Azure Backup would be correct.
- ✓
Place the VMs in separate availability zones in the same region.
Why this is correct
Availability zones place workloads in physically separate datacenters within the same region. That design protects against a full zone or datacenter outage and also gives you a stronger isolation boundary than an availability set. Because the app has two VMs behind a load balancer, you can distribute them across zones and maintain service if one zone becomes unavailable.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Deploy both VMs without any fault-domain configuration.
Why it's wrong here
A plain deployment leaves both VMs exposed to the same underlying infrastructure failures and maintenance events.
When this WOULD be correct
This option would be correct in a scenario where the application is not critical, cost is the primary constraint, and the business accepts the risk of downtime during maintenance or failures, such as for a development or test environment.
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.
✓Place the VMs in separate availability zones in the same region.Correct answer▾
Why this is correct
Availability zones place workloads in physically separate datacenters within the same region. That design protects against a full zone or datacenter outage and also gives you a stronger isolation boundary than an availability set. Because the app has two VMs behind a load balancer, you can distribute them across zones and maintain service if one zone becomes unavailable.
✗Place both VMs in a single availability set.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
An availability set protects against rack-level failures within a single datacenter, not a full datacenter outage. The requirement to survive a full datacenter outage demands availability zones, which span separate physical locations.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A question that asks for high availability within a single datacenter (e.g., 'survive a server rack failure') without requiring multi-datacenter resilience, and the region does not support availability zones.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates often confuse availability sets with availability zones, thinking both provide similar disaster recovery capabilities, or they underestimate the scope of a 'full datacenter outage'.
✗Deploy one VM and rely on Azure Backup for recovery.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Azure Backup provides disaster recovery for data and VMs, but it does not ensure high availability or prevent downtime during a datacenter outage; recovery takes time and the app would be unavailable.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If the question asked for a cost-effective disaster recovery solution for a non-critical app where some downtime is acceptable, and the business wants to recover data after a regional failure, then deploying one VM with Azure Backup would be correct.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse disaster recovery (Backup) with high availability, thinking that backup can quickly restore the app in another location, but fail to consider the recovery time and lack of automatic failover.
✗Deploy both VMs without any fault-domain configuration.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Deploying both VMs without fault-domain configuration does not protect against a full datacenter outage or maintenance events, as both VMs could be placed on the same physical host or within the same datacenter, violating the requirement for high availability.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
This option would be correct in a scenario where the application is not critical, cost is the primary constraint, and the business accepts the risk of downtime during maintenance or failures, such as for a development or test environment.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think that simply deploying VMs without any configuration is sufficient for basic availability, or they may overlook the need for explicit fault-domain placement to meet high-availability requirements.
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?”
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse availability sets (which protect within a datacenter) with availability zones (which protect across datacenters), and fail to recognize that only zones can survive a full datacenter outage while also avoiding shared maintenance boundaries.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Availability zones are physically separate locations within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. When you deploy VMs into different zones, the Azure Load Balancer can be configured as zone-redundant or zonal to distribute traffic across zones. Under the hood, each zone has its own set of fault domains (up to 3) and update domains, ensuring that planned maintenance or unplanned failures in one zone do not affect the other zone, achieving a 99.99% SLA for multi-zone deployments.
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
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
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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: Place the VMs in separate availability zones in the same region. — Option C is correct because deploying the VMs in separate availability zones ensures they are placed in physically distinct datacenters within the same region, protecting against a full datacenter outage. Additionally, each availability zone has its own fault and update domains, so the VMs will never share the same maintenance boundary, meeting both business requirements.
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 →
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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