AZ-104 Manage Azure Identities and Governance Practice Question
This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of manage azure identities and governance. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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
Policy compliance details
Assignment name: Deny-Public-Storage
Scope: Subscription / Contoso-Prod
Effect: Deny
Condition: Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/publicNetworkAccess = 'Enabled'
Compliance state:
- stapp01: Non-compliant, creation denied
- stlegacy01: Non-compliant, existing exception requested by application team
Request note:
- Keep stlegacy01 publicly reachable until migration is complete
- Do not change the policy for all other resources
Based on the exhibit, a policy assigned at the subscription denies storage accounts that allow public network access. One existing storage account in RG-Legacy must remain publicly reachable for 30 days while a migration is completed. What should the administrator use?
Policy compliance details
Assignment name: Deny-Public-Storage
Scope: Subscription / Contoso-Prod
Effect: Deny
Condition: Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/publicNetworkAccess = 'Enabled'
Compliance state:
- stapp01: Non-compliant, creation denied
- stlegacy01: Non-compliant, existing exception requested by application team
Request note:
- Keep stlegacy01 publicly reachable until migration is complete
- Do not change the policy for all other resources
A
Create a policy exemption for stlegacy01 at the resource scope.
A policy exemption is the correct tool when one known resource must temporarily be excluded from a policy assignment. It preserves the policy for everything else while documenting the exception for stlegacy01. This is ideal for a time-bound migration because it avoids weakening the policy across the subscription.
B
Remove the policy assignment from the subscription until the migration finishes.
Why wrong: Removing the assignment disables the control for all storage accounts, not just the legacy one. That creates a governance gap and allows any other storage account to become public. The requirement is to keep the policy active everywhere except one resource.
C
Change the policy effect from Deny to Audit.
Why wrong: Audit would stop blocking noncompliant storage accounts, which would violate the requirement to enforce the control for all other resources. The organization needs one exception, not a weaker baseline for the entire subscription.
D
Move the legacy storage account to a separate subscription and assign the policy there.
Why wrong: Moving the resource to another subscription is disruptive and does not directly address the governance need. It is also unnecessary when Azure Policy exemptions already support temporary, scoped exceptions. The question asks for the simplest correct governance action.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Create a policy exemption for stlegacy01 at the resource scope.
A policy exemption at the resource scope is the correct approach because it allows the administrator to selectively exclude the specific storage account (stlegacy01) from the subscription-level policy that denies public network access. This exemption can be configured with an expiration date of 30 days, ensuring the legacy account remains publicly reachable during the migration while the policy continues to apply to all other resources. Policy exemptions are designed for exactly this scenario—temporary exceptions for compliance or migration needs—without altering the policy definition or assignment.
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.
✓
Create a policy exemption for stlegacy01 at the resource scope.
Why this is correct
A policy exemption is the correct tool when one known resource must temporarily be excluded from a policy assignment. It preserves the policy for everything else while documenting the exception for stlegacy01. This is ideal for a time-bound migration because it avoids weakening the policy across the subscription.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Remove the policy assignment from the subscription until the migration finishes.
Why it's wrong here
Removing the assignment disables the control for all storage accounts, not just the legacy one. That creates a governance gap and allows any other storage account to become public. The requirement is to keep the policy active everywhere except one resource.
✗
Change the policy effect from Deny to Audit.
Why it's wrong here
Audit would stop blocking noncompliant storage accounts, which would violate the requirement to enforce the control for all other resources. The organization needs one exception, not a weaker baseline for the entire subscription.
✗
Move the legacy storage account to a separate subscription and assign the policy there.
Why it's wrong here
Moving the resource to another subscription is disruptive and does not directly address the governance need. It is also unnecessary when Azure Policy exemptions already support temporary, scoped exceptions. The question asks for the simplest correct governance action.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse policy exemptions with policy exclusions (which are set at assignment scope and apply to entire resource groups or subscriptions), leading them to think they must modify the assignment or move resources instead of using the precise exemption mechanism designed for temporary exceptions.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure Policy exemptions are stored as separate objects in the policy assignment hierarchy and can be scoped to a specific resource, resource group, or management group. They support an 'expiresOn' property in ISO 8601 format (e.g., '2025-06-01T00:00:00Z'), allowing automatic expiration after the migration window. Under the hood, the Azure Policy engine evaluates exemptions before effects, so a resource with an applicable exemption is skipped entirely during compliance evaluation, meaning the Deny effect is never triggered for that resource.
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.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-104 question in full detail.
Manage Azure Identities and Governance — This question tests Manage Azure Identities and Governance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Create a policy exemption for stlegacy01 at the resource scope. — A policy exemption at the resource scope is the correct approach because it allows the administrator to selectively exclude the specific storage account (stlegacy01) from the subscription-level policy that denies public network access. This exemption can be configured with an expiration date of 30 days, ensuring the legacy account remains publicly reachable during the migration while the policy continues to apply to all other resources. Policy exemptions are designed for exactly this scenario—temporary exceptions for compliance or migration needs—without altering the policy definition or assignment.
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.
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Question Discussion
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