AZ-104 Monitor and Maintain Azure Resources Practice Question
This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of monitor and maintain azure resources. 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.
Exhibit
Azure Monitor > Alerts
Alert rule: cpu-prod-vm
Scope: /subscriptions/1234/resourceGroups/rg-prod/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/vm01
Condition: Average Percentage CPU > 80 for 5 minutes
Evaluation frequency: 1 minute
Actions: None
Status: Enabled
Based on the exhibit, the alert rule is firing, but the operations team is not receiving any notification. What should you change to make the alert send an email when the condition is met?
Azure Monitor > Alerts
Alert rule: cpu-prod-vm
Scope: /subscriptions/1234/resourceGroups/rg-prod/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/vm01
Condition: Average Percentage CPU > 80 for 5 minutes
Evaluation frequency: 1 minute
Actions: None
Status: Enabled
A
Increase the evaluation frequency to 15 minutes so Azure sends a summary notification.
Why wrong: A longer evaluation frequency would reduce how often the rule checks the metric. It would not create a notification target, so the team would still not receive email when the alert fires.
B
Attach an action group that includes the required email recipient.
Azure Monitor alerts need an action group to deliver notifications or trigger automation. In this case the rule is already evaluating correctly, but no action is configured, so the alert has nowhere to send the notification. Attaching an action group with the operations email address fixes the issue without changing the threshold or scope.
C
Create a diagnostic setting on the virtual machine and send logs to a storage account.
Why wrong: Diagnostic settings are for exporting resource logs and metrics to destinations such as Log Analytics, storage, or Event Hubs. They do not by themselves create alert notifications for a metric threshold.
D
Move the virtual machine into a different resource group so the alert can notify the team.
Why wrong: Resource group placement does not control whether an alert sends email. Alerts are driven by the rule, its condition, and the attached action group, not by which resource group contains the VM.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Attach an action group that includes the required email recipient.
An alert rule in Azure Monitor requires an action group to define the notification actions (e.g., email, SMS) when the alert fires. Without an action group attached to the alert rule, no notifications are sent, even if the condition is met. Option B correctly identifies that attaching an action group containing the required email recipient will enable email notifications.
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.
✗
Increase the evaluation frequency to 15 minutes so Azure sends a summary notification.
Why it's wrong here
A longer evaluation frequency would reduce how often the rule checks the metric. It would not create a notification target, so the team would still not receive email when the alert fires.
✓
Attach an action group that includes the required email recipient.
Why this is correct
Azure Monitor alerts need an action group to deliver notifications or trigger automation. In this case the rule is already evaluating correctly, but no action is configured, so the alert has nowhere to send the notification. Attaching an action group with the operations email address fixes the issue without changing the threshold or scope.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Create a diagnostic setting on the virtual machine and send logs to a storage account.
Why it's wrong here
Diagnostic settings are for exporting resource logs and metrics to destinations such as Log Analytics, storage, or Event Hubs. They do not by themselves create alert notifications for a metric threshold.
✗
Move the virtual machine into a different resource group so the alert can notify the team.
Why it's wrong here
Resource group placement does not control whether an alert sends email. Alerts are driven by the rule, its condition, and the attached action group, not by which resource group contains the VM.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often assume increasing evaluation frequency or moving resources will fix notification delivery, but the core requirement is that an action group must be attached to the alert rule to define the notification channel.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Action groups in Azure Monitor are a collection of notification preferences (email, SMS, webhook, ITSM, etc.) that are triggered when an alert fires. Each alert rule can have one or more action groups attached. Under the hood, Azure Monitor uses the action group's configured endpoints (e.g., SMTP for email) to deliver the notification. A common subtlety is that action groups must be explicitly associated with the alert rule; simply having an action group in the same subscription does not automatically link it.
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.
Monitor and Maintain Azure Resources — This question tests Monitor and Maintain Azure Resources — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Attach an action group that includes the required email recipient. — An alert rule in Azure Monitor requires an action group to define the notification actions (e.g., email, SMS) when the alert fires. Without an action group attached to the alert rule, no notifications are sent, even if the condition is met. Option B correctly identifies that attaching an action group containing the required email recipient will enable email notifications.
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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