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.
You need to deploy 30 identical Azure virtual machines for a web application and scale the instance count automatically based on CPU demand. Which Azure compute feature should you use?
An availability set
Why wrong: Availability sets improve resiliency but do not autoscale.
A Virtual Machine Scale Set
Scale Sets provide grouped deployment and autoscaling.
A Recovery Services vault
Why wrong: Recovery Services vaults are for backup and recovery.
Boot diagnostics
Why wrong: Boot diagnostics is for troubleshooting and not VM fleet scaling.
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 Virtual Machine Scale Set
Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) are designed specifically to deploy and manage a group of identical, load-balanced VMs that can automatically scale in or out based on CPU demand or other metrics. This matches the requirement for 30 identical VMs and autoscaling, making B the correct choice.
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.
An availability set
Why it's wrong here
Availability sets improve resiliency but do not autoscale.
A Virtual Machine Scale Set
Why this is correct
Scale Sets provide grouped deployment and autoscaling.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
A Recovery Services vault
Why it's wrong here
Recovery Services vaults are for backup and recovery.
Boot diagnostics
Why it's wrong here
Boot diagnostics is for troubleshooting and not VM fleet scaling.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse availability sets (which provide high availability) with scale sets (which provide both high availability and autoscaling), leading them to pick A when the question explicitly requires automatic scaling based on demand.
Detailed technical explanation
VMSS uses a scale-in and scale-out policy based on autoscale rules, which can be triggered by metrics like CPU percentage (e.g., >75% for 5 minutes triggers scale-out). Under the hood, VMSS leverages Azure Resource Manager templates and can integrate with Azure Load Balancer or Application Gateway for traffic distribution. A real-world scenario: a retail web app using VMSS to handle Black Friday traffic spikes by automatically adding instances when CPU exceeds 80% and removing them when it drops below 30%.
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
Deploy and Manage Azure Compute — This question tests Deploy and Manage Azure Compute — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: A Virtual Machine Scale Set — Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) are designed specifically to deploy and manage a group of identical, load-balanced VMs that can automatically scale in or out based on CPU demand or other metrics. This matches the requirement for 30 identical VMs and autoscaling, making B the correct choice.
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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