This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of monitor and maintain azure resources. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 collect guest operating system performance counters and Windows event logs from several Azure virtual machines into a central queryable platform. Which Azure component should you configure?
A Log Analytics workspace
A Log Analytics workspace centralizes collected data for querying and retention.
A Recovery Services vault
Why wrong: A Recovery Services vault is used for backup and recovery, not log analytics.
An Azure Policy initiative
Why wrong: Policy can enforce settings but is not the destination for collected performance and event data.
A route table
Why wrong: A route table controls network routing, not log collection.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
A Log Analytics workspace
A Log Analytics workspace is the correct Azure component for collecting guest OS performance counters and Windows event logs from Azure VMs. It serves as a central repository where diagnostic data from Azure Monitor agents (such as the Log Analytics agent or Azure Monitor Agent) is ingested, stored, and made available for querying via Kusto Query Language (KQL). This enables you to analyze performance metrics and event logs across multiple VMs in a unified, queryable platform.
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.
A Log Analytics workspace
Why this is correct
A Log Analytics workspace centralizes collected data for querying and retention.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
A Recovery Services vault
Why it's wrong here
A Recovery Services vault is used for backup and recovery, not log analytics.
An Azure Policy initiative
Why it's wrong here
Policy can enforce settings but is not the destination for collected performance and event data.
A route table
Why it's wrong here
A route table controls network routing, not log collection.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse a Log Analytics workspace with a Recovery Services vault, mistakenly thinking that backup vaults can also store and query performance data, when in fact Recovery Services vaults are solely for backup and disaster recovery operations.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, the Log Analytics workspace relies on the Log Analytics agent (or the newer Azure Monitor Agent) to collect data via the Windows Event Log and Performance Counter data sources configured in the workspace. The agent sends data over HTTPS (port 443) to the workspace's ingestion endpoint, where it is stored in tables like 'Perf' and 'Event' for KQL queries. A real-world scenario is troubleshooting a VM performance issue: you can query the 'Perf' table across all VMs to identify CPU spikes correlated with specific event IDs in the 'Event' table, without needing to RDP into each VM individually.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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.
What to study next
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FAQ
Monitor and Maintain Azure Resources — This question tests Monitor and Maintain Azure Resources — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: A Log Analytics workspace — A Log Analytics workspace is the correct Azure component for collecting guest OS performance counters and Windows event logs from Azure VMs. It serves as a central repository where diagnostic data from Azure Monitor agents (such as the Log Analytics agent or Azure Monitor Agent) is ingested, stored, and made available for querying via Kusto Query Language (KQL). This enables you to analyze performance metrics and event logs across multiple VMs in a unified, queryable platform.
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
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