AZ-104 Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Practice Question
This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of deploy and manage azure compute. 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.
Two app VMs must stay available during planned host maintenance in the same region. Datacenter-level redundancy is not required, but the VMs should be spread across update domains. What should you configure?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Availability set
An availability set logically groups VMs to protect against planned maintenance events by distributing them across up to 3 fault domains and 20 update domains. This ensures that during host maintenance, only one update domain is taken offline at a time, keeping the other VMs available. Since datacenter-level redundancy is not required, an availability set is the correct choice.
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.
✓
Availability set
Why this is correct
An availability set spreads VMs across fault and update domains to reduce the impact of host maintenance and hardware failure.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Availability zone
Why it's wrong here
Zones provide stronger datacenter-level separation, which is more than the scenario requires.
✗
Azure Backup
Why it's wrong here
Backup helps recovery after data loss, but it does not keep VMs running during maintenance.
✗
Managed disk
Why it's wrong here
Managed disks store VM data, but they do not control placement across maintenance boundaries.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse availability zones (which provide datacenter-level redundancy) with availability sets (which provide intra-datacenter fault and update domain distribution), leading them to select availability zones even when the question explicitly states datacenter-level redundancy is not required.
Trap categories for this question
Scenario analysis trap
Zones provide stronger datacenter-level separation, which is more than the scenario requires.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, an availability set uses a placement group constraint at the Azure Resource Manager level to ensure VMs are allocated to different update domains (logical groups of underlying hardware that undergo maintenance sequentially) and fault domains (shared power and network switches). During planned maintenance, Azure updates one update domain at a time, with a 30-minute cooldown between domains, ensuring that at most one VM in the set is rebooted. In a real-world scenario, if you deploy two VMs without an availability set, they could end up in the same update domain, causing both to reboot simultaneously during maintenance.
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: Availability set — An availability set logically groups VMs to protect against planned maintenance events by distributing them across up to 3 fault domains and 20 update domains. This ensures that during host maintenance, only one update domain is taken offline at a time, keeping the other VMs available. Since datacenter-level redundancy is not required, an availability set is the correct choice.
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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