This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of implement and manage storage. Compare every option against the stated constraints before choosing — the best answer satisfies all requirements, not just the most obvious one. 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.
You need to choose a storage redundancy option that provides the lowest cost and protects data against local hardware failure within a single datacenter only. Which redundancy option should you select?
LRS
LRS provides local redundancy within a single datacenter at the lowest cost.
ZRS
Why wrong: ZRS protects against availability zone failure and costs more than LRS.
GRS
Why wrong: GRS adds geo-replication to a secondary region.
GZRS
Why wrong: GZRS provides both zone and geo redundancy, which exceeds the requirement.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
LRS
LRS (Locally Redundant Storage) replicates data three times within a single datacenter (or availability zone) in the same region, protecting against local hardware failures such as disk or server crashes. It is the lowest-cost redundancy option because it does not incur the additional replication costs of cross-zone or cross-region copying. This meets the requirement of protecting data against local hardware failure within a single datacenter only.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
LRS
Why this is correct
LRS provides local redundancy within a single datacenter at the lowest cost.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
ZRS
Why it's wrong here
ZRS protects against availability zone failure and costs more than LRS.
GRS
Why it's wrong here
GRS adds geo-replication to a secondary region.
GZRS
Why it's wrong here
GZRS provides both zone and geo redundancy, which exceeds the requirement.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse LRS with ZRS, mistakenly thinking ZRS is also single-datacenter, when in fact ZRS spans multiple datacenters (availability zones) and costs more, failing the 'lowest cost' and 'single datacenter' constraints.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, LRS uses a write-across quorum model within a single storage scale unit, ensuring three synchronous copies on separate fault domains (racks) within the same datacenter. This provides 11 nines of durability (99.999999999%) against local hardware failures but offers no protection against a full datacenter outage. In a real-world scenario, LRS is ideal for non-critical, transient data or development/test environments where cost is the primary constraint and geo-redundancy is unnecessary.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
What to study next
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FAQ
Implement and Manage Storage — This question tests Implement and Manage Storage — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: LRS — LRS (Locally Redundant Storage) replicates data three times within a single datacenter (or availability zone) in the same region, protecting against local hardware failures such as disk or server crashes. It is the lowest-cost redundancy option because it does not incur the additional replication costs of cross-zone or cross-region copying. This meets the requirement of protecting data against local hardware failure within a single datacenter only.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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.
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