Microsoft AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Exam Dumps and Practice Test Questions Set 4 Q46-60

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Question 46

You need to ensure that all Azure virtual machines are automatically backed up daily and retained for 30 days. Which service should you use?

A) Azure Backup
B) Azure Site Recovery
C) Azure Automation
D) Azure Monitor

Answer: A) Azure Backup

Explanation:

Azure Backup is a fully managed service designed to provide reliable, automated backup solutions for Azure virtual machines (VMs) and other workloads. It allows organizations to define backup schedules that ensure data protection without requiring manual intervention, offering both operational simplicity and enhanced reliability. For instance, administrators can configure daily backups of VMs, specifying the exact time of execution, retention policies, and recovery points. This automation ensures that critical data is consistently backed up, minimizing the risk of data loss due to human error or oversight. Furthermore, Azure Backup supports flexible retention policies, allowing organizations to retain daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly backups according to compliance requirements, business continuity needs, or regulatory mandates. By centralizing backup management through Recovery Services Vaults, Azure Backup provides a single point of control for scheduling, monitoring, and restoring backups, enhancing operational efficiency and visibility.

In comparison, Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is primarily focused on disaster recovery rather than routine backups. ASR replicates VMs to a secondary region or on-premises environment to ensure business continuity in the event of a regional outage or catastrophic failure. While it supports failover and failback capabilities, it is not designed to handle scheduled backup operations or retention policies for long-term storage. Organizations relying solely on ASR would not have the granular backup scheduling or retention control that Azure Backup offers, which is crucial for daily backup requirements.

Azure Automation, on the other hand, enables the execution of scripts, runbooks, and scheduled tasks across Azure resources. While it can be configured to perform certain backup operations using custom scripts, it does not provide a native, fully managed backup framework. Implementing backups via Automation would require extensive scripting, error handling, monitoring, and maintenance, introducing complexity and potential for failure. Unlike Azure Backup, Automation does not provide built-in recovery point tracking, retention management, or integration with Recovery Services Vaults, making it unsuitable for reliable daily backup management.

Azure Monitor is focused on observability rather than data protection. It collects logs, metrics, and telemetry from Azure resources and enables alerting based on defined thresholds or anomalies. While Azure Monitor helps maintain operational health and performance insights, it does not perform data backups, manage retention policies, or facilitate recovery of virtual machines. Using Azure Monitor alone would leave organizations without an automated mechanism to restore critical workloads in the event of accidental deletion, corruption, or ransomware attacks.

In summary, Azure Backup is specifically designed to handle scheduled, automated backups of Azure VMs with comprehensive retention policies. It simplifies management, ensures consistency, and provides the necessary tools to restore data when needed. By centralizing backup operations, automating schedules, and providing long-term retention, Azure Backup ensures business continuity, compliance, and data security. Other services like Azure Site Recovery, Azure Automation, and Azure Monitor address disaster recovery, task automation, and observability, respectively, but none provide the same level of integrated, automated, and reliable backup management as Azure Backup, making it the correct solution for daily VM backups with retention.

This approach allows organizations to protect their workloads efficiently, minimize downtime, and maintain operational resilience, highlighting why Azure Backup is the optimal choice for scheduled, automated, and reliable virtual machine protection.

Question 47

You need to ensure that a web application is highly available across multiple regions and distributes traffic based on performance. Which service should you use?

A) Azure Traffic Manager
B) Azure Load Balancer
C) Azure Application Gateway
D) Azure Front Door

Answer: D) Azure Front Door

Explanation:

In modern cloud architectures, delivering applications with high availability, low latency, and optimal performance for users distributed across the globe is a critical requirement. Microsoft Azure offers several networking and traffic management services, each designed to address specific aspects of application delivery and load balancing. Among these services, Azure Front Door stands out as a comprehensive solution for global traffic management and high availability, particularly for multi-region deployments. Azure Front Door provides advanced capabilities such as global load balancing, intelligent routing based on performance, and automatic failover across regions, making it ideal for organizations that require resilient and performant access to web applications.

Azure Front Door operates at the application layer (Layer 7), which enables it to understand HTTP and HTTPS traffic, optimize routing, and deliver content efficiently. By leveraging global Anycast IP addresses, Front Door can direct user requests to the nearest or fastest-performing backend, minimizing latency and improving user experience. Additionally, it provides features like SSL/TLS termination, application acceleration, and caching, which enhance performance and security. These capabilities make Front Door particularly well-suited for web applications that are deployed across multiple Azure regions and need to maintain high availability even if one or more regions experience outages.

In contrast, Azure Traffic Manager is primarily a DNS-based global traffic routing service. It can distribute user requests across multiple regions based on routing methods such as priority, performance, or geographic location. While Traffic Manager effectively provides global failover and ensures users are directed to healthy endpoints, it operates at the DNS level rather than the HTTP/HTTPS layer. This means it does not provide SSL offloading, application acceleration, or Layer 7 routing features. Traffic Manager is valuable for basic global traffic distribution but lacks the performance optimization and web acceleration capabilities that Front Door provides.

Azure Load Balancer offers high availability and load distribution at Layer 4 (TCP/UDP) within a single Azure region. It is effective for distributing traffic among virtual machines or services in the same region and ensures low-latency network-level routing. However, it is not designed for global deployment or cross-region failover. Organizations requiring multi-region resilience and intelligent traffic routing based on application-layer characteristics would find Load Balancer insufficient for global high-availability requirements.

Similarly, Azure Application Gateway is a regional Layer 7 load balancer that includes web application firewall (WAF) capabilities, SSL termination, and URL-based routing. While it provides advanced traffic management and security features within a single region, it does not support global routing across multiple Azure regions. Application Gateway is best suited for scenarios where advanced HTTP/HTTPS traffic management is required within a specific region rather than across a global footprint.

Considering these differences, Azure Front Door is the most appropriate solution for ensuring high availability and performance in multi-region deployments. It combines global load balancing, Layer 7 routing, SSL offloading, web acceleration, and automatic failover into a single service, making it ideal for modern web applications with users distributed worldwide. By using Front Door, organizations can ensure that their applications remain accessible, performant, and resilient even in the event of regional outages, providing a superior user experience and operational reliability compared to alternatives like Traffic Manager, Load Balancer, or Application Gateway.

Question 48

You need to allow an Azure VM to securely access a storage account without using account keys. Which feature should you implement?

A) Managed Identity
B) Shared Access Signature
C) Role-Based Access Control
D) Service Principal with Client Secret

Answer: A) Managed Identity

Explanation:

Managed Identity is a critical feature in Azure that allows resources such as Virtual Machines (VMs), App Services, and Azure Functions to authenticate securely to other Azure services without the need to store credentials in code or configuration files. When a Managed Identity is enabled for an Azure VM, Azure automatically provisions an identity in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) for that VM. This identity can then be assigned permissions to access resources such as Azure Storage Accounts, Key Vault, SQL databases, and other Azure services. By using this approach, the VM can authenticate to these services securely, eliminating the need for developers or administrators to embed connection strings, passwords, or secrets in application code, scripts, or configuration files, which significantly reduces the risk of credential leakage and improves overall security posture.

Shared Access Signatures (SAS) are often used to provide temporary access to Azure Storage resources. While SAS tokens can grant granular permissions for a defined duration, they require careful management and distribution. Unlike Managed Identities, SAS tokens are not tied to a VM’s identity and must be handled manually or programmatically to avoid expiration or misuse. If the SAS token is leaked or mismanaged, it can expose storage resources to unauthorized access. Although SAS tokens are useful for temporary or scoped access, they introduce operational overhead and security concerns compared to the automated and secure authentication provided by Managed Identities.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is a mechanism for defining and assigning permissions to users, groups, or applications in Azure. While RBAC allows fine-grained control over which resources an identity can access and what actions it can perform, RBAC alone does not provide an authentication method. Without an identity such as a Managed Identity, Service Principal, or user account, RBAC permissions cannot be applied. Therefore, RBAC works in combination with authentication but cannot replace a secure, automated identity mechanism.

Service Principals with Client Secrets are another method for programmatic access to Azure resources. A Service Principal is essentially an application identity in Azure AD that can be assigned RBAC permissions. Access is achieved using a client ID and client secret or certificate. While this allows automation and programmatic resource access, it requires storing and managing secrets securely. If the secret is exposed or mishandled, it can lead to unauthorized access to resources. This approach adds operational complexity and increases security risks compared to Managed Identities, which automatically handle secret rotation and eliminate the need for storing credentials.

Managed Identity is therefore the recommended solution for securely authenticating Azure VMs to other Azure resources. It provides seamless, automated authentication, integrates with RBAC for precise permission control, eliminates the need for secrets or tokens, and reduces the operational burden of managing credentials. By leveraging Managed Identities, organizations can ensure secure access, reduce the risk of credential compromise, and simplify identity management across multi-service Azure environments. It is an essential feature for building secure, maintainable, and scalable cloud applications in Azure.

Question 49

You need to enforce that all storage accounts in a subscription deny public network access by default. Which service should you use?

A) Azure Policy
B) Azure Blueprint
C) Network Security Group
D) Azure Monitor

Answer: A) Azure Policy

Explanation:

In modern cloud environments, ensuring consistent configuration and security settings across resources is essential to maintain compliance, reduce risk, and manage operations efficiently. Within Microsoft Azure, Azure Policy provides a robust mechanism for enforcing rules and configurations across resources in a subscription. One practical example of its utility is managing Azure Storage Accounts, where organizations often need to ensure that public network access is denied by default to enhance security. Azure Policy enables administrators to define these rules centrally and enforce them continuously, ensuring that all existing and future storage accounts comply with organizational and regulatory requirements.

Azure Policy works by evaluating resources against assigned rules, which are defined in JSON format as policy definitions. When a resource is created or updated, Azure Policy assesses whether the resource complies with these rules. For instance, a policy can prevent the creation of storage accounts that allow public access, automatically flagging or remediating non-compliant resources. This continuous enforcement is critical because it applies to resources deployed manually, via automation, or through infrastructure-as-code templates. By applying policies at the subscription or resource group level, organizations can maintain consistent security and configuration standards without requiring manual oversight or intervention.

While Azure Blueprints can also enforce policies, its primary purpose is broader. Blueprints are designed to deploy a repeatable set of resources along with associated policies, role assignments, and templates. This makes Blueprints an excellent choice for setting up a new environment with pre-configured resources and compliance controls. However, Blueprints are not a continuous enforcement mechanism. Once resources are deployed, Blueprints do not automatically enforce compliance rules on subsequent changes or new resources unless policies are separately applied. In contrast, Azure Policy ensures ongoing compliance across all resources, making it ideal for maintaining security standards over time.

Network Security Groups (NSGs) provide another layer of security by controlling inbound and outbound network traffic at the subnet or virtual machine level. While NSGs are essential for managing traffic flow and protecting workloads from unauthorized access, they are not applied directly to storage accounts. NSGs cannot enforce configuration compliance or prevent a storage account from being publicly accessible; they focus solely on network-level access control. Therefore, while important, NSGs are complementary to policies rather than a replacement for them.

Azure Monitor is another important Azure service that collects metrics, logs, and diagnostic information from resources, providing insights into performance and operational health. However, Azure Monitor does not enforce configuration compliance or prevent misconfigurations. It is an observational and alerting tool rather than a policy enforcement mechanism. While it can report on non-compliant configurations if integrated with Azure Policy insights, it cannot independently block or remediate resources that violate organizational rules.

Considering these distinctions, Azure Policy is the correct solution for enforcing security and configuration standards across Azure Storage Accounts. It allows administrators to define rules, evaluate compliance, and automatically remediate non-compliant resources across all subscriptions, ensuring that settings such as denying public network access are consistently applied. By using Azure Policy, organizations can maintain a secure, compliant, and well-governed cloud environment without relying on manual checks, making it the most effective and efficient tool for continuous enforcement of resource configurations.

Question 50

You need to monitor the performance and detect memory and CPU issues on Azure VMs. Which service should you configure?

A) Azure Monitor
B) Azure Security Center
C) Azure Backup
D) Azure Policy

Answer: A) Azure Monitor

Explanation:

Azure Monitor is a comprehensive observability service in Microsoft Azure designed to provide deep insights into the performance, health, and operational state of Azure resources, including Virtual Machines (VMs). It collects detailed metrics such as CPU utilization, memory consumption, disk input/output operations, and network traffic, enabling administrators and DevOps teams to gain a real-time understanding of resource utilization and system performance. By aggregating this data, Azure Monitor allows teams to identify performance bottlenecks, diagnose issues, and take proactive measures to ensure that applications and workloads run smoothly. Additionally, Azure Monitor supports the configuration of alerts, which can notify administrators when performance thresholds are exceeded or unusual behavior is detected, allowing for rapid response to potential issues before they impact end users or business operations.

Azure Security Center, now part of Microsoft Defender for Cloud, is focused primarily on security monitoring, threat detection, and vulnerability management. While it provides valuable insights into the security posture of Azure resources and can recommend mitigations, it does not offer the detailed, continuous collection of performance metrics or the ability to trigger alerts specifically based on CPU, memory, or disk usage. Security Center’s emphasis is on protecting resources from threats, enforcing security policies, and detecting suspicious activities, rather than monitoring operational performance or system health. Therefore, relying solely on Security Center would leave gaps in monitoring the actual performance and utilization of VMs.

Azure Backup provides a reliable solution for protecting data, including virtual machines, workloads, and files, by enabling scheduled backups, retention policies, and disaster recovery capabilities. It ensures that data can be restored in the event of accidental deletion, corruption, or ransomware attacks. However, Azure Backup does not continuously collect operational metrics or provide real-time performance insights for virtual machines. Its primary purpose is data protection and recovery rather than performance monitoring or alerting on system health, meaning it cannot serve as a tool for diagnosing CPU spikes, memory leaks, or storage bottlenecks.

Azure Policy is designed to enforce governance and compliance across Azure environments. It allows organizations to define rules and policies that ensure resources adhere to organizational standards, such as enforcing tag compliance, restricting resource types, or requiring encryption settings. While Azure Policy ensures that virtual machines and other resources meet compliance requirements, it does not collect operational metrics, monitor performance, or trigger alerts based on resource utilization. Its focus is on maintaining policy compliance rather than providing operational insights or detecting system issues.

In summary, Azure Monitor is the optimal service for collecting metrics, logs, and telemetry from Azure VMs, providing a centralized and actionable view of performance and resource health. It allows teams to set up alerts and automated responses through Action Groups, ensuring timely intervention when issues occur. Unlike Azure Security Center, Azure Backup, or Azure Policy, which focus on security, data protection, and compliance respectively, Azure Monitor directly addresses the need for monitoring operational performance, diagnosing issues, and maintaining system reliability. By using Azure Monitor, organizations can proactively manage virtual machine performance, optimize resources, and ensure high availability and reliability for their workloads, making it the correct and indispensable service for VM monitoring.

Question 51

You need to restrict which Azure AD users can join devices to Azure AD. Which feature should you use?

A) Azure AD Device Settings
B) Azure Policy
C) Azure AD Conditional Access
D) Azure AD Connect

Answer: A) Azure AD Device Settings

Explanation:

In modern enterprise environments, managing devices and controlling how they are joined to the corporate directory is a critical component of maintaining security, compliance, and operational efficiency. Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) provides multiple tools for identity, access, and device management, but not all of these tools are appropriate for controlling device join settings. Among these, Azure AD Device Settings is the specialized solution that allows administrators to define which users or groups are permitted to register or join devices to Azure AD, making it the correct choice for organizations that need to enforce controlled device enrollment policies.

Azure AD Device Settings provides granular control over device registration within an organization. By configuring these settings, administrators can specify which users or security groups are allowed to join personal or corporate devices to Azure AD. This capability ensures that only authorized personnel can bring devices into the enterprise environment, mitigating the risk of unmanaged or non-compliant devices accessing organizational resources. Device settings also allow organizations to manage hybrid scenarios where devices are joined both to on-premises Active Directory and Azure AD, ensuring seamless integration and consistent enforcement of policies. This control is essential for organizations aiming to protect sensitive data, maintain compliance with internal or regulatory requirements, and enforce corporate IT policies.

In contrast, Azure Policy serves a different purpose. Azure Policy is primarily designed to enforce compliance rules for Azure resources, such as virtual machines, storage accounts, or network configurations. While Policy is effective for ensuring that cloud resources conform to organizational standards, it does not provide the capability to control which users or groups can join devices to Azure AD. Policies cannot prevent unauthorized device registrations, making them unsuitable for device join governance.

Similarly, Conditional Access is a tool designed to enforce authentication requirements and access controls based on user, device, location, or risk conditions. Conditional Access can require multi-factor authentication, restrict access to specific applications, or enforce device compliance for access. However, it does not govern the device registration process itself. While it can evaluate device compliance post-registration, it cannot restrict the act of joining a device to Azure AD, which is the specific requirement in this scenario.

Azure AD Connect is another Azure service that is often associated with hybrid identity environments. It synchronizes on-premises Active Directory users, groups, and credentials to Azure AD, enabling a unified identity experience across cloud and on-premises environments. However, Azure AD Connect does not provide mechanisms to control which users are allowed to join devices to Azure AD. Its role is focused on identity synchronization rather than device registration governance.

Given these distinctions, Azure AD Device Settings emerges as the correct and purpose-built solution for controlling device join permissions. By leveraging this feature, organizations can ensure that only authorized users or groups are allowed to register devices with Azure AD, enforcing strong security and compliance controls from the point of device onboarding. This approach supports organizational policies, reduces the risk of unauthorized device access, and integrates seamlessly with other Azure AD management tools, creating a secure and manageable device environment.

In conclusion, while Azure Policy, Conditional Access, and Azure AD Connect serve important functions in identity, compliance, and access management, only Azure AD Device Settings provides direct control over which users and groups can join devices to Azure AD. It is the essential tool for organizations that need to maintain governance and security over device registration in a hybrid or cloud-centric environment.

Question 52

You need to ensure that all VMs use a specific OS version and configuration baseline automatically. Which service should you implement?

A) Azure Policy
B) Azure Monitor
C) Azure Automation
D) Azure Security Center

Answer: A) Azure Policy

Explanation:

In modern enterprise environments, managing devices and controlling how they are joined to the corporate directory is a critical aspect of maintaining security, compliance, and operational efficiency. Organizations must ensure that only authorized users and devices can access corporate resources, which helps prevent security breaches and ensures adherence to internal policies and regulatory requirements. Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) provides several tools for identity, access, and device management, but not all of them are suitable for controlling device join permissions. Among these tools, Azure AD Device Settings is the dedicated feature designed to control which users or groups are allowed to register or join devices to Azure AD, making it the ideal solution for organizations that require strict governance over device enrollment.

Azure AD Device Settings allows administrators to exercise precise control over device registration within an organization. By configuring these settings, administrators can define which users or security groups are authorized to join personal or corporate devices to Azure AD. This capability ensures that only verified personnel can bring devices into the corporate environment, reducing the risk of unmanaged or non-compliant devices gaining access to sensitive resources. Additionally, Azure AD Device Settings supports hybrid scenarios where devices are joined to both on-premises Active Directory and Azure AD. This enables seamless integration across cloud and on-premises environments, ensuring that organizational policies are consistently enforced regardless of where a device is managed. This level of control is essential for organizations aiming to protect sensitive data, maintain regulatory compliance, and implement standardized IT policies.

In contrast, Azure Policy serves a different purpose. It is designed to enforce compliance rules on Azure resources, such as virtual machines, storage accounts, or network configurations. While Azure Policy is effective at ensuring that cloud resources adhere to organizational standards, it does not provide the capability to manage which users or groups can join devices to Azure AD. Policies cannot prevent unauthorized device registrations, making them unsuitable for governing device join activities.

Conditional Access is another tool that focuses on controlling access to resources based on user, device, location, or risk. Conditional Access can require multi-factor authentication, enforce device compliance for access, and restrict access to specific applications. However, it does not govern the device registration process itself. It evaluates compliance post-registration but cannot prevent unauthorized devices from being joined to Azure AD.

Azure AD Connect is used to synchronize on-premises Active Directory identities with Azure AD, supporting hybrid identity scenarios. While it ensures consistency between environments and enables a unified identity experience, it does not control which users can join devices to Azure AD. Its function is limited to identity synchronization, not device registration governance.

Given these distinctions, Azure AD Device Settings is the correct and purpose-built solution for controlling device join permissions. By using this feature, organizations can enforce strong security controls at the point of device onboarding, ensure compliance, and reduce the risk of unauthorized access. It integrates seamlessly with other Azure AD management tools to create a secure, manageable, and consistent device environment. Unlike Azure Policy, Conditional Access, or Azure AD Connect, Azure AD Device Settings provides direct control over device join activities, making it essential for maintaining governance and security in both hybrid and cloud-centric environments.

In conclusion, Azure AD Device Settings is the only solution that offers the granular control necessary to manage which users and groups can join devices to Azure AD, ensuring security, compliance, and operational efficiency across the organization.

Question 53

You need to connect two Azure VNets in different regions for secure, private communication. Which feature should you use?

A) VNet Peering
B) VPN Gateway
C) ExpressRoute
D) Route Tables

Answer: B) VPN Gateway

Explanation:

In modern cloud architectures, establishing secure and reliable connectivity between virtual networks (VNets) across different regions is a fundamental requirement for organizations that deploy distributed applications or operate in multi-region environments. Microsoft Azure provides multiple networking services to facilitate communication between VNets, but each service is designed to address specific connectivity scenarios. Among these services, Azure VPN Gateway is the most appropriate solution when the requirement is to create a secure, encrypted connection between VNets in different regions over the public internet. VPN Gateway ensures data confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity by encrypting traffic between VNets, making it an ideal choice for sensitive workloads and cross-region deployments that need secure communication channels.

VPN Gateway functions by creating a virtual private network (VPN) tunnel over the public internet, using industry-standard protocols such as IPsec and IKE. This encrypted tunnel allows VNets located in different Azure regions to communicate as if they were on the same private network, while ensuring that all traffic traversing the internet is secure from eavesdropping or tampering. Administrators can configure VPN Gateway connections for site-to-site or VNet-to-VNet scenarios, making it highly flexible for a wide range of network architectures. Additionally, VPN Gateway supports high availability, automatic failover, and scalable throughput, ensuring that cross-region traffic remains resilient and performant even during peak loads or transient network issues.

While VNet Peering also enables connectivity between VNets, it is not always the optimal choice for cross-region encrypted communication. Peering allows VNets to communicate directly with low latency, effectively making the networks appear as a single contiguous network. It works both within a single region and across regions; however, traffic between peered VNets is not encrypted by default. If encryption is required for sensitive data or compliance reasons, administrators must implement additional measures to secure the traffic. Therefore, while VNet Peering is excellent for high-speed, low-latency communication within or across regions where encryption is not mandated, VPN Gateway is preferred when encrypted communication is essential.

ExpressRoute is another Azure service that provides private connectivity between on-premises networks and Azure, bypassing the public internet. While ExpressRoute offers high throughput and predictable latency, it is designed specifically for hybrid cloud connectivity rather than VNet-to-VNet communication. It does not inherently provide the mechanism for creating secure, encrypted tunnels between VNets located in different regions, which limits its applicability in this scenario.

Route Tables, on the other hand, manage the paths that network traffic takes within a VNet or between VNets. They are crucial for controlling traffic flow, implementing custom routing, and optimizing network performance. However, Route Tables do not provide encryption or security features. They merely define how packets are routed, which means that relying solely on Route Tables would leave cross-region traffic unprotected when traversing the public internet.

Considering these factors, VPN Gateway is the correct choice for establishing secure, encrypted connectivity between VNets in different regions. It combines the benefits of encryption, flexibility, high availability, and compatibility with cross-region deployments, ensuring that organizational data remains protected while allowing seamless communication between distributed resources. By using VPN Gateway, organizations can implement a secure, scalable, and reliable network architecture that meets both performance and compliance requirements across multiple Azure regions.

Question 54

You need to provide a highly available DNS name for a web application deployed in multiple Azure regions. Which service should you use?

A) Azure Traffic Manager
B) Azure Load Balancer
C) Azure Application Gateway
D) Azure Front Door

Answer: A) Azure Traffic Manager

Explanation:

Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based global traffic load balancing service provided by Microsoft Azure, designed to enhance application availability, performance, and responsiveness across multiple geographic regions. Unlike traditional load balancers that operate at the network or application layer, Traffic Manager works at the DNS level, directing client requests to the most appropriate service endpoint based on configured routing methods, health of endpoints, and user proximity. This capability is especially valuable for global applications that require high availability, low latency, and resilience in the event of regional outages or service disruptions. By using DNS-based routing, Traffic Manager ensures that users are consistently connected to the fastest, healthiest, or nearest endpoint, which optimizes user experience and application performance.

Azure Load Balancer, on the other hand, is a regional Layer 4 load balancing service that distributes inbound traffic within a specific Azure region. While Load Balancer efficiently handles high volumes of network traffic and provides high availability within a single region, it does not offer global traffic management capabilities. It operates at the transport layer, balancing TCP or UDP traffic to virtual machines or other backend resources but cannot direct users to endpoints across multiple regions based on performance or latency considerations. Therefore, while Load Balancer is excellent for regional scalability and reliability, it is not suitable for global traffic distribution.

Azure Application Gateway is a regional Layer 7 load balancer specifically designed for web applications. It provides advanced features such as URL-based routing, SSL termination, session affinity, and Web Application Firewall (WAF) capabilities. Application Gateway is ideal for managing HTTP(S) traffic within a region and offers security and routing flexibility for web applications. However, it does not provide global DNS-based routing, meaning it cannot automatically direct users to the nearest or best-performing regional endpoint. Its primary focus is on web application traffic management rather than global high availability.

Azure Front Door is another global traffic routing service that operates at the application layer, providing features such as SSL offloading, web acceleration, caching, and global load balancing. While Front Door can distribute traffic globally and improve web application performance with additional capabilities, it is more feature-rich and complex, designed for scenarios requiring application acceleration, secure content delivery, and global failover. Traffic Manager, by comparison, is a simpler solution focused specifically on directing DNS requests to the optimal endpoints based on endpoint health, geographic location, or performance.

In conclusion, Azure Traffic Manager is the correct choice when the requirement is global DNS-based traffic routing to achieve high availability and performance across multiple regions. Its ability to evaluate endpoint health, direct users to the closest or fastest endpoint, and provide resilience against regional failures makes it uniquely suited for global-scale applications. While Load Balancer, Application Gateway, and Front Door each have important use cases within regional or web application traffic management, none offer the specific combination of DNS-level global routing and endpoint failover that Traffic Manager provides, making it the ideal solution for global traffic distribution.

Question 55

You need to implement a private, secure connection from your on-premises network to Azure without using the public internet. Which service should you use?

A) ExpressRoute
B) VPN Gateway
C) VNet Peering
D) Private Endpoint

Answer: A) ExpressRoute

Explanation:

In today’s enterprise cloud environments, establishing secure and reliable connectivity between on-premises infrastructure and Microsoft Azure is a critical requirement for organizations that operate hybrid architectures. Many businesses rely on cloud resources while still maintaining on-premises data centers for legacy applications, sensitive data, or regulatory compliance. Ensuring that the connection between on-premises networks and Azure is private, high-performance, and secure is essential. Among the various Azure networking options, ExpressRoute emerges as the most suitable solution for providing a dedicated, private connection between on-premises infrastructure and Azure, bypassing the public internet entirely.

ExpressRoute offers a private, high-bandwidth, and low-latency connection from on-premises data centers directly to Azure. Unlike standard internet-based connections, ExpressRoute ensures that traffic between the enterprise network and Azure does not traverse the public internet, significantly reducing exposure to potential security threats such as eavesdropping or denial-of-service attacks. This dedicated connection provides predictable network performance, higher reliability, and enhanced security, making it ideal for organizations with stringent compliance requirements or mission-critical workloads that require stable and private connectivity. ExpressRoute connections are also scalable, allowing enterprises to select bandwidths that meet the performance needs of their applications and workloads.

By contrast, a VPN Gateway provides connectivity over the public internet using encrypted tunnels. VPN Gateway leverages industry-standard protocols such as IPsec to secure traffic, offering a viable option for organizations that need encrypted communication without the expense of dedicated circuits. However, since VPN Gateway traffic still travels over the public internet, it may experience variable latency and performance fluctuations. While VPN Gateway is suitable for many hybrid cloud scenarios, it does not match the performance, predictability, and guaranteed privacy that ExpressRoute provides, particularly for high-volume or latency-sensitive workloads.

VNet Peering is another networking mechanism within Azure, but its functionality is limited to connecting virtual networks. It allows resources in peered VNets to communicate seamlessly as if they were on the same network, providing low-latency and high-speed connectivity between Azure VNets. However, VNet Peering does not extend to on-premises networks. It cannot be used to establish private, direct connectivity between a company’s physical data center and Azure, which makes it unsuitable for hybrid cloud scenarios that require secure on-premises integration.

Similarly, Private Endpoints allow Azure resources such as storage accounts or SQL databases to be accessed privately within a virtual network. They provide a secure method for connecting to Azure services without exposing them to the public internet. While Private Endpoints are essential for controlling network access and enhancing security within Azure, they do not facilitate connectivity between on-premises infrastructure and Azure. They are limited to private connectivity within the cloud environment.

Considering these factors, ExpressRoute is the most appropriate solution for organizations seeking a private, secure, and reliable connection between on-premises networks and Azure. It provides dedicated bandwidth, predictable performance, enhanced security, and compliance benefits that are not achievable with VPN Gateway, VNet Peering, or Private Endpoints alone. By leveraging ExpressRoute, enterprises can build robust hybrid cloud architectures, ensuring that mission-critical applications and sensitive data are protected while benefiting from the scalability and flexibility of Microsoft Azure.

Question 56

You need to deploy a set of identical Azure VMs that scale automatically based on CPU usage. Which service should you use?

A) Virtual Machine Scale Sets
B) Availability Set
C) Azure Load Balancer
D) Application Gateway

Answer: A) Virtual Machine Scale Sets

Explanation:

Virtual Machine Scale Sets allow deployment of identical VMs and can automatically scale based on metrics such as CPU usage. Availability Sets provide redundancy within a data center but do not provide automatic scaling. Azure Load Balancer distributes traffic but does not manage VM scaling. Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer and does not manage VM deployment or scaling. Therefore, Virtual Machine Scale Sets is the correct solution.

Question 57

You need to allow only specific IP addresses to access an Azure SQL Database. Which feature should you configure?

A) Firewall Rules
B) Private Endpoint
C) Network Security Group
D) Azure Policy

Answer: A) Firewall Rules

Explanation:

Azure SQL Database firewall rules allow administrators to specify IP ranges that can connect to the server. Private Endpoint provides private network access but does not limit specific external IP addresses. Network Security Groups manage VM traffic but are not applied to SQL Database directly. Azure Policy enforces compliance but does not configure network access. Therefore, firewall rules are the correct approach.

Question 58

You need to automate scaling of an Azure App Service based on CPU usage. Which feature should you configure?

A) Autoscale
B) Azure Policy
C) Azure Monitor
D) Azure Automation

Answer: A) Autoscale

Explanation:

Autoscale allows Azure App Services to automatically adjust resources based on metrics like CPU usage, memory, or HTTP queue length. Azure Policy enforces compliance rules but does not manage scaling. Azure Monitor collects metrics and alerts but does not automatically scale resources. Azure Automation can run scripts but is not a native autoscaling solution. Therefore, Autoscale is the correct choice.

Question 59

You need to protect an Azure Key Vault from public network access while allowing specific VNets to connect. Which features should you use?

A) Firewall Rules and Virtual Network Integration
B) Role-Based Access Control
C) Managed Identity
D) Shared Access Signature

Answer: A) Firewall Rules and Virtual Network Integration

Explanation:

Firewall rules and virtual network integration allow administrators to restrict Key Vault access to specific VNets, blocking public network traffic. Role-Based Access Control manages permissions but does not restrict network access. Managed Identity provides secure authentication for Azure resources but does not manage network access. Shared Access Signature is used for temporary access to storage, not Key Vault. Therefore, Firewall Rules and VNet Integration is correct.

Question 60

You need to ensure that Azure VMs automatically receive the latest security patches. Which service should you use?

A) Update Management in Azure Automation
B) Azure Monitor
C) Azure Policy
D) Azure Security Center

Answer: A) Update Management in Azure Automation

Explanation:

Update Management in Azure Automation allows scheduling and applying updates to Azure VMs, ensuring they receive security patches automatically. Azure Monitor collects metrics and logs but does not manage updates. Azure Policy enforces configuration compliance but does not apply updates. Azure Security Center provides recommendations and alerts about missing patches but does not install them. Therefore, Update Management is the correct solution.