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.
Exhibit
Requirement note:
- ProductionApp must stay online during a single datacenter outage.
- Region: East US 2
- The region supports multiple availability zones.
- Two Windows VMs will host the app tier.
Based on the exhibit, which deployment choice should the administrator use to keep the application available if one datacenter in the Azure region fails?
Exhibit
Requirement note:
- ProductionApp must stay online during a single datacenter outage.
- Region: East US 2
- The region supports multiple availability zones.
- Two Windows VMs will host the app tier.
A
Place both VMs in the same availability set.
Why wrong: An availability set protects against host maintenance and hardware failure, but not a full datacenter outage.
B
Deploy the VMs across separate availability zones.
Availability zones place resources in physically separate datacenters within the region. If one datacenter fails, the other zone can continue serving traffic. This matches the requirement for surviving a single datacenter outage and is the preferred Azure design when zone support is available.
C
Use a proximity placement group for both VMs.
Why wrong: A proximity placement group improves latency by placing resources close together. It does not provide resilience against a datacenter failure.
D
Use a larger VM size for each virtual machine.
Why wrong: A larger VM size can improve performance, but it does not change the failure domain or add resilience.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Deploy the VMs across separate availability zones.
Availability zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Deploying VMs across separate availability zones ensures that if one datacenter fails, the application remains available in the other zone, providing resilience against datacenter-level failures.
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 the same availability set.
Why it's wrong here
An availability set protects against host maintenance and hardware failure, but not a full datacenter outage.
When this WOULD be correct
If the question required high availability for VMs within a single datacenter (e.g., to protect against hardware failure or maintenance within the same datacenter), placing VMs in the same availability set would be correct.
✓
Deploy the VMs across separate availability zones.
Why this is correct
Availability zones place resources in physically separate datacenters within the region. If one datacenter fails, the other zone can continue serving traffic. This matches the requirement for surviving a single datacenter outage and is the preferred Azure design when zone support is available.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use a proximity placement group for both VMs.
Why it's wrong here
A proximity placement group improves latency by placing resources close together. It does not provide resilience against a datacenter failure.
✗
Use a larger VM size for each virtual machine.
Why it's wrong here
A larger VM size can improve performance, but it does not change the failure domain or add resilience.
When this WOULD be correct
In a scenario where the application is experiencing performance bottlenecks due to insufficient compute resources and the question asks for a solution to improve throughput or reduce latency without changing the number of VMs.
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.
✓Deploy the VMs across separate availability zones.Correct answer▾
Why this is correct
Availability zones place resources in physically separate datacenters within the region. If one datacenter fails, the other zone can continue serving traffic. This matches the requirement for surviving a single datacenter outage and is the preferred Azure design when zone support is available.
✗Place both VMs in the same 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 against a full datacenter failure. If one datacenter fails, all VMs in the same availability set (which are in that datacenter) become unavailable.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If the question required high availability for VMs within a single datacenter (e.g., to protect against hardware failure or maintenance within the same datacenter), placing VMs in the same availability set would be correct.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates often confuse availability sets with availability zones, thinking that an availability set provides redundancy across datacenters, when it only provides redundancy within a single datacenter.
✗Use a larger VM size for each virtual machine.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Larger VM sizes improve performance but do not provide redundancy or fault isolation; if a datacenter fails, all VMs in that datacenter are affected regardless of size.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
In a scenario where the application is experiencing performance bottlenecks due to insufficient compute resources and the question asks for a solution to improve throughput or reduce latency without changing the number of VMs.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may mistakenly believe that larger VMs are more resilient or that higher capacity inherently protects against failures, confusing performance scaling with availability.
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 against rack failures) with availability zones (which protect against datacenter failures), leading them to incorrectly choose an availability set for datacenter-level resilience.
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, and are connected through high-speed, private fiber-optic links. When deploying VMs across zones, Azure automatically distributes them to ensure no single point of failure at the datacenter level. In a real-world scenario, if a regional disaster affects one zone, the application continues to run in the other zone, but you must also consider data replication (e.g., managed disks with zone-redundant storage) to maintain data consistency.
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.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-104 question in full detail.
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: Deploy the VMs across separate availability zones. — Availability zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Deploying VMs across separate availability zones ensures that if one datacenter fails, the application remains available in the other zone, providing resilience against datacenter-level failures.
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 →
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
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.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.