AZ-104 Manage Azure Identities and Governance Practice Question
This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of manage azure identities and governance. 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.
Three Azure VMs in different resource groups need to access the same Azure resources using one identity. The identity must keep working if any VM is deleted and recreated. What should the administrator assign to the VMs?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
A user-assigned managed identity.
A user-assigned managed identity is the correct choice because it is created as a standalone Azure resource and can be assigned to multiple VMs, even across different resource groups. If a VM is deleted and recreated, the user-assigned identity persists independently and can be reassigned to the new VM, ensuring continuous access to Azure resources without reconfiguration.
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.
✗
A system-assigned managed identity on each VM.
Why it's wrong here
A system-assigned identity is tied to one VM and is removed when that VM is deleted.
✓
A user-assigned managed identity.
Why this is correct
A user-assigned managed identity is independent of any single VM, so it can be reused across multiple machines.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
A local administrator account.
Why it's wrong here
Local accounts are not Azure identities and are inappropriate for accessing Azure resources securely.
✗
An Azure Blueprint assignment.
Why it's wrong here
Blueprints help with governance and deployment consistency, but they are not an authentication identity.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often choose system-assigned managed identities (Option A) because they are simpler to configure, but they fail to recognize that system-assigned identities are deleted with the VM, making them unsuitable for scenarios requiring identity persistence across VM deletions and recreations.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
User-assigned managed identities are implemented as Azure AD service principals that can be assigned to multiple Azure resources, including VMs across resource groups. When a VM with a user-assigned identity authenticates to Azure Resource Manager, it uses the Azure Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) endpoint (169.254.169.254) to obtain an access token for the identity's service principal, which is independent of the VM's lifecycle. This design allows the identity to be reused even after the VM is deleted and recreated, as long as the new VM is assigned the same user-assigned identity.
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
A company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-104 question in full detail.
Manage Azure Identities and Governance — This question tests Manage Azure Identities and Governance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: A user-assigned managed identity. — A user-assigned managed identity is the correct choice because it is created as a standalone Azure resource and can be assigned to multiple VMs, even across different resource groups. If a VM is deleted and recreated, the user-assigned identity persists independently and can be reassigned to the new VM, ensuring continuous access to Azure resources without reconfiguration.
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.
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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