Question 1easymultiple choice
Full question →easymultiple choiceObjective-mapped
Exhibit
az vm create --resource-group rg-app --name vm01 --image Ubuntu2204 --admin-username azureadmin Application note: - The VM starts a service that retrieves a Key Vault secret at boot time. - Security policy forbids storing credentials on the machine. - Only one VM needs this identity.
Based on the exhibit, an Azure VM must read secrets from Azure Key Vault during startup. No passwords, certificates, or client secrets may be stored on the VM. What should you configure?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Distractor review
Assign a user-assigned managed identity to the VM so it can be shared later.
A user-assigned identity works, but it is not the simplest choice when only one VM needs access. It is designed to be reused across multiple resources and managed independently from the VM lifecycle.
B
Best answer
Enable a system-assigned managed identity on the VM.
A system-assigned managed identity is the best fit because it gives the VM an Azure identity without storing secrets on the machine. It is tied directly to that VM, so it is easy to create, use, and automatically remove when the VM is deleted. This matches the requirement for startup access to Key Vault and avoids any embedded credentials.
C
Distractor review
Create a service principal and store its client secret in the VM configuration.
A service principal with a stored secret violates the requirement not to keep credentials on the VM. It also increases operational risk because the secret must be protected and rotated manually.
D
Distractor review
Use a shared access signature in the startup script to authenticate to Key Vault.
A SAS token is for storage access, not for authenticating to Azure Key Vault. It also introduces time-bound secret handling, which the scenario explicitly wants to avoid.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
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More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A route table contains these entries: 10.0.0.0/8 with next hop Virtual appliance, and 10.1.1.0/24 with next hop Virtual network gateway. Which next hop will Azure use for traffic to 10.1.1.5?
Question 2
You are deploying a stateless web application on Azure virtual machines. The solution must automatically add and remove instances based on CPU demand and allow all instances to be managed as one logical group. Which Azure compute feature should you deploy?
Question 3
You are deploying a Windows Server VM for an internal app. The VM must support Secure Boot and vTPM later, its OS disk must survive host moves, and the team wants the lowest-cost managed disk tier that still behaves like a normal writable OS disk. Which two choices should you make? Select two.
Question 4
You need to deploy several identical virtual machines and ensure that the failure of a single Azure host does not affect all of them. Which feature should you use?
Question 5
You need to connect VNet-Hub and VNet-Spoke so that resources in both virtual networks can communicate privately over the Microsoft backbone. Both virtual networks are in the same region. What should you configure?
Question 6
You need to create a storage account that provides the lowest-cost redundant storage for non-critical data and only needs protection against local disk or server failure within a single datacenter. Which redundancy option should you choose?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this AZ-104 question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Enable a system-assigned managed identity on the VM. — A system-assigned managed identity is the correct choice because the VM needs an Azure-native identity to authenticate to Key Vault without any stored secrets. Azure creates and manages the identity for that VM automatically. This approach is simple for a single machine, satisfies the security requirement, and removes the need to place passwords or client secrets on the operating system. Why others are wrong: A user-assigned identity would also avoid secrets, but it is mainly useful when the same identity must be shared across multiple resources. A service principal requires a client secret or certificate, which the scenario forbids. A SAS token is not used for Key Vault authentication and does not meet the requirement for secure Azure identity-based access.
What should I do if I get this AZ-104 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
Discussion
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