Azure Dedicated Host: Dedicated Physical Server for Compliance and Licensing
Which Azure service provides a dedicated, hardware-isolated physical server for hosting virtual machines to meet compliance and licensing requirements?
Quick Answer
The answer is Azure Dedicated Host, which provides a dedicated physical server for VMs compliance by offering a single-tenant, hardware-isolated server exclusively for your Azure subscription. This ensures that virtual machines run on a physical machine not shared with any other customer, directly meeting strict compliance and licensing requirements such as Windows Server per-core licensing or SQL Server licensing that mandate dedicated hardware. On the AZ-900 exam, this service tests your understanding of isolation models and licensing scenarios, often appearing as a distractor against Azure Virtual Machines (which run on multi-tenant hardware) or Azure VMware Solution. A common trap is confusing Azure Dedicated Host with Azure Reserved Instances—remember that Dedicated Host gives you the physical server itself, not just a pricing discount. For a quick memory tip, think “Dedicated Host = Dedicated Hardware” to recall that it provides the actual physical server for compliance-driven workloads.
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse Azure Isolated VM sizes (which provide VM-level isolation but not a dedicated physical server) with Azure Dedicated Host, which provides full hardware-level isolation and control.
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
✓
Azure Dedicated Host
Azure Dedicated Host provides a single-tenant, hardware-isolated physical server dedicated to your Azure subscription. This ensures that virtual machines run on a server that is not shared with any other customer, meeting strict compliance and licensing requirements such as those for Windows Server per-core licensing or SQL Server licensing that require dedicated hardware.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Azure Isolated VM sizes
Why it's wrong here
Isolated VM sizes are hardware-isolated for the VM but share physical host management with Microsoft — Dedicated Host gives customer control over the physical host.
- ✓
Azure Dedicated Host
Why this is correct
Dedicated Host provides a physical server solely for one customer, meeting compliance requirements for hardware isolation.
- ✗
Azure Reserved Instances
Why it's wrong here
Reserved Instances are capacity commitments for cost savings — they don't provide physical isolation.
- ✗
Azure Spot VMs
Why it's wrong here
Spot VMs run on spare capacity at discounts — they don't provide physical isolation or compliance guarantees.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Azure Regions and Geographies
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
Tenant
A dedicated and isolated instance of Microsoft Entra ID that an organization receives when signing up for a Microsoft cloud service.
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on AZ-900
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. Which Azure service provides dedicated physical servers for regulatory or licensing requirements where hardware cannot be shared with other customers?
hard- A.Azure Reserved VM Instances
- B.Azure Spot VMs
- ✓ C.Azure Dedicated Host
- D.Azure Isolated VM sizes
Why C: Azure Dedicated Host provides physical servers dedicated to a single Azure subscription, ensuring that hardware is not shared with other customers. This meets regulatory or licensing requirements that mandate hardware isolation, such as specific compliance standards or software licensing agreements that restrict usage to dedicated hardware.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This AZ-900 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-900 exam.