This AZ-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe azure management and governance. 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.
A company wants to ensure that all new Azure storage accounts have a specific encryption setting enabled. They also want to automatically remediate any existing non-compliant storage accounts without manual effort. Which Azure Policy effect should they use?
Append
Why wrong: Append can only add tags or fields, not enable encryption settings.
AuditIfNotExists
Why wrong: AuditIfNotExists logs non-compliance but does not remediate.
DeployIfNotExists
DeployIfNotExists deploys a configuration to enforce the encryption setting on both new and existing resources.
Deny
Why wrong: Deny blocks creation of non-compliant resources but does not remediate existing ones.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
DeployIfNotExists
DeployIfNotExists is the correct effect because it not only evaluates the compliance of storage accounts against the encryption policy but also automatically deploys a remediation task (e.g., enabling encryption via a linked ARM template or Azure function) to bring non-compliant resources into compliance without manual intervention. This effect is specifically designed for scenarios where the resource itself needs to be modified or configured to meet the policy requirement.
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.
Append
Why it's wrong here
Append can only add tags or fields, not enable encryption settings.
AuditIfNotExists
Why it's wrong here
AuditIfNotExists logs non-compliance but does not remediate.
DeployIfNotExists
Why this is correct
DeployIfNotExists deploys a configuration to enforce the encryption setting on both new and existing resources.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Deny
Why it's wrong here
Deny blocks creation of non-compliant resources but does not remediate existing ones.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AuditIfNotExists (which only audits) with DeployIfNotExists (which both audits and automatically remediates), assuming that any 'IfNotExists' effect provides automatic fixing, but only DeployIfNotExists includes the deployment action for remediation.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, DeployIfNotExists uses a linked ARM template or a managed identity to execute a deployment task when a resource is found non-compliant. The policy definition includes a 'deployment' property that specifies the template and parameters, and Azure Policy automatically triggers the deployment as a remediation task. In real-world scenarios, this is critical for enforcing encryption at rest (e.g., Azure Storage Service Encryption) across thousands of existing accounts without manual scripting.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
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FAQ
Describe Azure management and governance — This question tests Describe Azure management and governance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: DeployIfNotExists — DeployIfNotExists is the correct effect because it not only evaluates the compliance of storage accounts against the encryption policy but also automatically deploys a remediation task (e.g., enabling encryption via a linked ARM template or Azure function) to bring non-compliant resources into compliance without manual intervention. This effect is specifically designed for scenarios where the resource itself needs to be modified or configured to meet the policy requirement.
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.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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