AZ-104 Monitor and Maintain Azure Resources Practice Question
You have an Azure subscription with a virtual machine scale set named VMSS1 that runs a web application. You need to configure autoscale for VMSS1 based on CPU usage. The autoscale rule must scale out when the average CPU usage exceeds 70% for 5 minutes and scale in when it drops below 30% for 10 minutes. You also need to ensure that the scale set never scales below 2 instances or above 10 instances. Which three actions should you perform? (Choose three.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that the step amount must be specified in the question, but the question only asks for the actions to configure the rules, not the step.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Add a scale-in rule that uses the Percentage CPU metric with a threshold of 30%, a time aggregation of Average, and a duration of 10 minutes.
To meet the requirements, you need an autoscale setting with minimum 2 and maximum 10 instances. Then add a scale-out rule for CPU >70% averaged over 5 minutes, and a scale-in rule for CPU <30% averaged over 10 minutes. The step amount is not specified but typically you would set it to 1 or more; however, the three key actions are the setting and the two rules.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Set the scale-out rule to increase the instance count by 1 and the scale-in rule to decrease the instance count by 1.
Why it's wrong here
This fails because while increasing or decreasing by 1 is a valid action, the question does not specify the step amount. The requirement only specifies thresholds and duration, not the number of instances to add or remove. The action of scaling by 1 is plausible but not explicitly required; the core requirements are the min/max and the rules with correct metrics and durations.
- ✓
Add a scale-in rule that uses the Percentage CPU metric with a threshold of 30%, a time aggregation of Average, and a duration of 10 minutes.
Why this is correct
This is correct because the scale-in rule must trigger when average CPU drops below 30% for 10 minutes. Using the Percentage CPU metric with Average aggregation over 10 minutes matches the condition. The rule will decrease the instance count when the threshold is breached.
- ✓
Create an autoscale setting and set the minimum instance count to 2 and the maximum to 10.
Why this is correct
This is correct because the autoscale setting defines the minimum and maximum number of instances. Setting minimum to 2 and maximum to 10 ensures the scale set never goes below 2 or above 10, meeting the requirement. This is a fundamental configuration for autoscale.
- ✗
Configure the autoscale setting to use a dynamic threshold based on machine learning.
Why it's wrong here
This fails because the requirement specifies explicit static thresholds (70% and 30%). Dynamic thresholds automatically adjust based on historical data and do not allow setting fixed percentages. The scenario requires precise, static thresholds, so dynamic thresholds are not appropriate.
- ✓
Add a scale-out rule that uses the Percentage CPU metric with a threshold of 70%, a time aggregation of Average, and a duration of 5 minutes.
Why this is correct
This is correct because the scale-out rule must trigger when average CPU exceeds 70% for 5 minutes. Using the Percentage CPU metric with Average aggregation over 5 minutes matches the condition. The rule will increase the instance count when the threshold is breached.
Go deeper
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Azure Virtual Machine Deployment
Key term
Azure subscription
An Azure subscription is a logical container in Microsoft Azure that provides billing isolation and access boundaries for your cloud resources and services.
Key term
Subscription
A subscription is a payment model where you pay a recurring fee to access a product or service instead of buying it once and owning it forever.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Microsoft exam blueprint
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