AZ-104 Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Practice Question
Exhibit
Region capabilities: - East US 2: supports Availability Zones Requirements: - Deploy two identical web server VMs - Keep the service available if one datacenter fails - Use Azure Load Balancer for traffic distribution
Based on the exhibit, the company will deploy two identical web server VMs in East US 2 behind a load balancer. The service must keep running if one datacenter in the region becomes unavailable. Which deployment choice best meets the requirement?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse availability sets (which protect against rack-level failures within one datacenter) with availability zones (which protect against full datacenter outages), leading them to choose Option A as a sufficient solution.
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 one VM in each of two availability zones and front them with the load balancer.
Deploying one VM in each of two availability zones within East US 2 ensures that the VMs are physically separated across distinct datacenters, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. If one datacenter (zone) fails, the other zone remains operational, and the load balancer automatically directs traffic to the healthy VM. This meets the requirement of keeping the service running if one datacenter in the region becomes unavailable.
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 an availability set so Azure can spread them across fault domains.
Why it's wrong here
An availability set distributes VMs across fault domains and update domains contained within one datacenter boundary (or within one availability zone). While this design protects against local hardware failures, such as a failed rack, and enables safe maintenance windows, it does nothing to protect against the loss of the entire datacenter because fault domains are not isolated across building boundaries. The requirement explicitly calls for surviving a datacenter outage, which only zone-level placement can satisfy.
When this WOULD be correct
If the requirement were to protect against hardware failures (e.g., server rack or network switch failure) within a single datacenter, placing VMs in an availability set would be correct. For example, a question stating 'The VMs must remain available if a server rack fails' would make this option correct.
- ✓
Place one VM in each of two availability zones and front them with the load balancer.
Why this is correct
Availability zones place each VM in a separate datacenter boundary, which protects against one zone failure. If you distribute the web servers across zones, the load balancer can continue sending traffic to the remaining healthy instance when a zone becomes unavailable. This design matches the requirement to survive a datacenter outage within the region.
- ✗
Place both VMs in one availability zone because all zones in a region share failure domains.
Why it's wrong here
An availability zone is itself an isolated failure domain with independent power, cooling, and networking; placing both VMs in the same zone means they share that zone's physical infrastructure. If that zone goes offline, both VMs fail simultaneously, so the workload has no resilience against a datacenter-level loss. The premise that zones share failure domains is backwards—each zone is designed to fail independently from the others, which is exactly why the correct design distributes VMs across zones.
When this WOULD be correct
Option C would be correct if the requirement was to protect against a regional failure (e.g., entire region goes down) by using a single zone, but the question asks about a datacenter failure within a region. Alternatively, if the exam scenario stated that the load balancer can only distribute traffic within one zone, then placing both VMs in that zone would be necessary.
- ✗
Deploy a single VM because Azure automatically replicates it across the region.
Why it's wrong here
A single Azure VM is a fixed compute instance running in exactly one datacenter; Azure does not automatically replicate the VM to another datacenter or region. Even if you configure zone-redundant managed disks, the virtual machine itself remains a single point of failure without a second instance and a load balancer. The assumption of automatic regional replicas is incorrect and offers no protection from a datacenter outage.
When this WOULD be correct
If the requirement were to minimize cost for a non-critical application that can tolerate downtime, and the question explicitly stated that automatic replication is not needed, deploying a single VM would be the simplest and cheapest option.
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 one VM in each of two availability zones and front them with the load balancer.Correct answer▾
Why this is correct
Availability zones place each VM in a separate datacenter boundary, which protects against one zone failure. If you distribute the web servers across zones, the load balancer can continue sending traffic to the remaining healthy instance when a zone becomes unavailable. This design matches the requirement to survive a datacenter outage within the region.
✗Place both VMs in an availability set so Azure can spread them across fault domains.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
An availability set protects against hardware failures within a single datacenter but does not provide resilience if an entire datacenter becomes unavailable, as it spans only fault domains within one datacenter.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If the requirement were to protect against hardware failures (e.g., server rack or network switch failure) within a single datacenter, placing VMs in an availability set would be correct. For example, a question stating 'The VMs must remain available if a server rack fails' would make this option correct.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates often confuse availability sets with availability zones, thinking that spreading across fault domains provides datacenter-level redundancy, not just rack-level.
✗Place both VMs in one availability zone because all zones in a region share failure domains.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Option C is wrong because placing both VMs in one availability zone does not protect against a datacenter failure within that zone; if the zone's datacenter fails, both VMs are affected. The requirement is to survive a single datacenter failure, which requires spreading across zones.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
Option C would be correct if the requirement was to protect against a regional failure (e.g., entire region goes down) by using a single zone, but the question asks about a datacenter failure within a region. Alternatively, if the exam scenario stated that the load balancer can only distribute traffic within one zone, then placing both VMs in that zone would be necessary.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may mistakenly think that all zones in a region share failure domains (as stated in the option) or that a single zone provides sufficient redundancy, not realizing that availability zones are isolated from each other and a zone can fail independently.
✗Deploy a single VM because Azure automatically replicates it across the region.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Azure does not automatically replicate a single VM across a region; a single VM is a single point of failure and cannot survive a datacenter outage.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If the requirement were to minimize cost for a non-critical application that can tolerate downtime, and the question explicitly stated that automatic replication is not needed, deploying a single VM would be the simplest and cheapest option.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse Azure's built-in high availability features (like availability zones or sets) with automatic replication, or mistakenly believe that Azure VMs are inherently regionally redundant.
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?”
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Azure Virtual Machine Deployment
Key term
Availability
Availability is the measure of how often a system or service is operational and accessible when needed, typically expressed as a percentage of uptime.
Key term
Load balancer
A load balancer is a device or software that distributes incoming network traffic across multiple servers so no single server gets overwhelmed.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.