AZ-104 Monitor and Maintain Azure Resources Practice Question

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

• ✓

  Deploy the Azure Monitor Agent on both Azure VMs and on-premises servers.

  Why this is correct

  The Azure Monitor Agent (AMA) is the modern, cross-platform agent that can send telemetry from both Azure VMs and on-premises servers (via Azure Arc) to Log Analytics. Unlike the legacy MMA, it supports Data Collection Rules (DCRs) for fine-grained, per-machine data collection. Deploying AMA on all servers is the required foundation for a consistent hybrid monitoring design.

• ✓

  Create a Log Analytics workspace in the same Azure region as your Azure VMs.

  Why this is correct

  Creating the Log Analytics workspace in the same Azure region as your Azure VMs reduces data ingestion latency and egress costs, and helps satisfy data-residency requirements. The workspace is the destination for all performance and event data collected by DCRs, so its regional alignment with the majority of monitored resources is a key design decision for hybrid environments.

• ✓

  Configure Data Collection Rules (DCRs) to specify which performance counters and events to collect.

  Why this is correct

  Data Collection Rules (DCRs) are the central configuration objects that determine which performance counters, Windows/Linux events, and custom logs Azure Monitor Agent should collect. Without a DCR, AMA will not collect anything, so creating rules is an essential step to avoid over-collecting and incurring unnecessary ingestion costs. For hybrid workloads, separate DCRs can be assigned to Azure VMs and on-prem servers based on their specific workloads.

• ✗

  Install the Microsoft Monitoring Agent (MMA) on all servers and connect to a Log Analytics workspace.

  Why it's wrong here

  The Microsoft Monitoring Agent (MMA) is the legacy Log Analytics agent that is being deprecated in August 2024 and lacks support for DCR-based configuration. It requires defining data sources at the workspace level and applies the same collection settings to all connected machines, making it inflexible for heterogeneous hybrid infrastructures. Choosing MMA over AMA would prevent you from using modern features like event transformation and per-DCR targeting, so it is not the correct deployment path.

• ✗

  Enable Network Watcher to monitor network traffic between on-premises and Azure.

  Why it's wrong here

  Network Watcher provides network-level diagnostic tools such as traffic analytics, connection monitor, and VPN diagnostics, but it does not collect OS-level performance counters or application/event logs from servers. It operates within the Azure network control plane, so it cannot monitor on-premises servers unless they are behind a virtual network gateway, and even then it does not expose CPU/memory metrics. This makes it irrelevant to the requirement of gathering server telemetry from both Azure VMs and on-premises machines.

• ✗

  Create a VM Insights solution in the Azure portal to automatically collect data from all Azure VMs.

  Why it's wrong here

  VM Insights is a monitoring solution designed specifically for Azure VMs (and Arc-enabled servers), but it is not a one-click "solution" that automatically onboards all VMs; you must explicitly enable it per machine or assign an Azure Policy to deploy it at scale. More importantly, it does not natively cover on-premises servers that are not connected through Azure Arc, leaving gaps in a hybrid infrastructure. Its data collection is also driven by predefined DCRs and may not be sufficient for custom performance counters and event logs, so it cannot replace a proper AMA + DCR deployment.

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