AZ-104 Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Practice Question
This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of deploy and manage azure compute. 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
Environment notes:
- Region: East US 2
- Workload: two identical web VMs behind a load balancer
- Requirement: the application must keep running if one datacenter in the region becomes unavailable
- Current plan: both VMs would be placed in the same availability set
Based on the exhibit, which deployment change best meets the resilience requirement for the application VMs?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "best"
Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
Environment notes:
- Region: East US 2
- Workload: two identical web VMs behind a load balancer
- Requirement: the application must keep running if one datacenter in the region becomes unavailable
- Current plan: both VMs would be placed in the same availability set
A
Keep both VMs in the same availability set to spread them across update domains only.
Why wrong: An availability set helps with maintenance and host failures, but it does not protect against a full datacenter outage.
B
Place each VM in a different availability zone and keep the load balancer in front.
Availability zones provide isolation across datacenters within the same region. By placing the two VMs in different zones, the workload can continue if one zone or datacenter becomes unavailable. The load balancer can direct traffic to the surviving VM. This design matches the stated requirement more closely than an availability set, which only spreads VMs across fault and update domains inside a single datacenter cluster.
C
Deploy both VMs into a proximity placement group to reduce latency between them.
Why wrong: A proximity placement group is for low-latency placement, not for fault isolation across datacenters.
D
Move the VMs into a single availability set and add more managed disks for redundancy.
Why wrong: Managed disks improve storage durability, but they do not provide compute resilience against datacenter failure.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Place each VM in a different availability zone and keep the load balancer in front.
Option B is correct because deploying each VM into a different availability zone ensures that the VMs are physically separated across distinct data centers within an Azure region, protecting against zone-level failures. The load balancer in front distributes traffic across the VMs, providing high availability even if one zone goes offline. This meets the resilience requirement by eliminating a single point of failure at the data center level.
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.
✗
Keep both VMs in the same availability set to spread them across update domains only.
Why it's wrong here
An availability set helps with maintenance and host failures, but it does not protect against a full datacenter outage.
✓
Place each VM in a different availability zone and keep the load balancer in front.
Why this is correct
Availability zones provide isolation across datacenters within the same region. By placing the two VMs in different zones, the workload can continue if one zone or datacenter becomes unavailable. The load balancer can direct traffic to the surviving VM. This design matches the stated requirement more closely than an availability set, which only spreads VMs across fault and update domains inside a single datacenter cluster.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Deploy both VMs into a proximity placement group to reduce latency between them.
Why it's wrong here
A proximity placement group is for low-latency placement, not for fault isolation across datacenters.
✗
Move the VMs into a single availability set and add more managed disks for redundancy.
Why it's wrong here
Managed disks improve storage durability, but they do not provide compute resilience against datacenter failure.
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-level failures within a single data center) with availability zones (which protect against full data center outages), leading them to choose Option A thinking it provides sufficient 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. When using a Standard SKU load balancer with zone-redundant frontend IP, traffic is automatically distributed across VMs in different zones. Under the hood, Azure uses a distributed control plane to ensure that zone failures do not affect VMs in other zones, and the load balancer health probes (HTTP/TCP) detect VM unavailability to reroute traffic within seconds.
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: Place each VM in a different availability zone and keep the load balancer in front. — Option B is correct because deploying each VM into a different availability zone ensures that the VMs are physically separated across distinct data centers within an Azure region, protecting against zone-level failures. The load balancer in front distributes traffic across the VMs, providing high availability even if one zone goes offline. This meets the resilience requirement by eliminating a single point of failure at the data center level.
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "best". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
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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