Quick Answer
The answer is Azure Monitor metric alerts. This is the correct choice because metric alerts evaluate performance counters like CPU usage at regular intervals and can trigger an action group when a threshold—such as 90%—is breached for a specified duration of five minutes. The action group then invokes an Automation runbook, enabling automatic scaling of your application without manual intervention. On the AZ-305 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of integrating monitoring with automated remediation, a key design principle for resilient solutions. A common trap is confusing metric alerts with log alerts or activity log alerts; remember that metric alerts are optimized for real-time, numerical thresholds on resource metrics, while log alerts query log data and are slower. For this specific need—trigger runbook on high CPU metric alert—metric alerts are the direct, low-latency path. Memory tip: think “metric = numbers, runbook = automation,” so metric alerts plus action groups equal automated scaling.
This AZ-305 practice question tests your understanding of design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions. 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.
Your Azure subscription contains multiple virtual machines (VMs) that run a line-of-business application. You need to configure alerts when the CPU usage exceeds 90% for more than 5 minutes. Additionally, the alert must automatically trigger a runbook to scale out the application. Which Azure service should you use to create this alert?
Azure Automation
Why wrong: Automation runs runbooks but does not create alerts.
Azure Logic Apps
Why wrong: Logic Apps can be triggered by alerts, but the alert itself is created in Azure Monitor.
Azure Monitor metric alert
Metric alerts can trigger action groups that include runbooks.
Azure Autoscale
Why wrong: Autoscale automatically adjusts resources but does not trigger custom runbooks.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Azure Monitor metric alert
Azure Monitor metric alerts can evaluate resource metrics like CPU usage at a specified frequency and trigger actions when a threshold (e.g., 90%) is breached for a given duration (e.g., 5 minutes). The alert can invoke an Automation runbook via an action group, enabling automatic scaling of the application. This is the correct service because it directly supports metric-based alerting with multi-condition evaluation and action group integration.
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.
Azure Automation
Why it's wrong here
Automation runs runbooks but does not create alerts.
Azure Logic Apps
Why it's wrong here
Logic Apps can be triggered by alerts, but the alert itself is created in Azure Monitor.
Azure Monitor metric alert
Why this is correct
Metric alerts can trigger action groups that include runbooks.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Azure Autoscale
Why it's wrong here
Autoscale automatically adjusts resources but does not trigger custom runbooks.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates confuse Azure Monitor metric alerts with Azure Autoscale, assuming Autoscale can both alert and trigger runbooks, when in fact Autoscale only performs scaling actions based on its own rules and does not generate alerts or invoke runbooks.
Detailed technical explanation
Azure Monitor metric alerts use a multi-dimensional metric signal with a threshold rule (e.g., 'greater than 90') and an evaluation window (e.g., 5 minutes of 'Total' aggregation). Under the hood, the alert fires when the time series violates the threshold for the specified 'evaluation frequency' and 'window size', and it can trigger an action group that invokes a webhook, Azure Function, or Automation runbook. In real-world scenarios, this pattern is used for proactive auto-scaling where a runbook performs custom logic (e.g., adding VMs to a load balancer) before the metric triggers a native Autoscale rule.
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
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions — study guide chapter
Learn the concepts, then practise the questions
Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions practice questions
Targeted practice on this topic area only
All AZ-305 questions
999 questions across all exam domains
Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert AZ-305 study guide
Full concept coverage aligned to exam objectives
AZ-305 practice test guide
How to use practice tests most effectively before exam day
Related practice questions
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions.
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to Design data storage solutions.
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to Design business continuity solutions.
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to Design infrastructure solutions.
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC.
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 S3 lifecycle policy questions.
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 RDS Multi-AZ questions.
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 IAM policy.
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 Route 53 failover questions.
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 CloudFront.
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 NAT gateway questions.
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC endpoint questions.
Practice this exam
Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.
FAQ
Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions — This question tests Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Azure Monitor metric alert — Azure Monitor metric alerts can evaluate resource metrics like CPU usage at a specified frequency and trigger actions when a threshold (e.g., 90%) is breached for a given duration (e.g., 5 minutes). The alert can invoke an Automation runbook via an action group, enabling automatic scaling of the application. This is the correct service because it directly supports metric-based alerting with multi-condition evaluation and action group integration.
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.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
This AZ-305 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-305 exam.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.