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Case Study
This is a case study. Case studies are not timed separately. You can use as much exam time as you would like to complete each case. However, there may be additional case studies and sections on this exam. You must manage your time to ensure that you are able to complete all questions included on this exam in the time provided.
To answer the questions included in a case study, you will need to reference information that is provided in the case study. Case studies might contain exhibits and other resources that provide more information about the scenario that is described in the case study. Each question is independent of the other questions in this case study.
At the end of this case study, a review screen will appear. This screen allows you to review your answers and to make changes before you move to the next section of the exam. After you begin a new section, you cannot return to this section.
To start the case study
To display the first question in this case study, click the Next button. Use the buttons in the left pane to explore the content of the case study before you answer the questions. Clicking these buttons displays information such as business requirements, existing environment, and problem statements. If the case study has an All Information tab, note that the information displayed is identical to the information displayed on the subsequent tabs. When you are ready to answer a question, click the Question button to return to the question.
Overview. General Overview
Litware, Inc. is a medium-sized finance company.
Overview. Physical Locations
Litware has a main office in Boston.
Existing Environment. Identity Environment
The network contains an Active Directory forest named Litware.com that is linked to an Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) tenant named Litware.com. All users have Azure Active Directory Premium P2 licenses.
Litware has a second Azure AD tenant named dev.Litware.com that is used as a development environment.
The Litware.com tenant has a conditional acess policy named capolicy1. Capolicy1 requires that when users manage the Azure subscription for a production environment by
using the Azure portal, they must connect from a hybrid Azure AD-joined device.
Existing Environment. Azure Environment
Litware has 10 Azure subscriptions that are linked to the Litware.com tenant and five Azure subscriptions that are linked to the dev.Litware.com tenant. All the subscriptions are in an Enterprise Agreement (EA).
The Litware.com tenant contains a custom Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC) role named Role1 that grants the DataActions read permission to the blobs and files in Azure Storage.
Existing Environment. On-premises Environment
The on-premises network of Litware contains the resources shown in the following table.
Name Type Configuration
SERVER1 Ubuntu 18.04 vitual machines hosted on Hyper-V The vitual machines host a third-party app named App1. App1 uses an external storage solution that provides Apache Hadoop-compatible data storage. The data storage supports POSIX access control list (ACL) file-level permissions.
SERVER10 Server that runs Windows Server 2016 The server contains a Microsoft SQL Server instance that hosts two databases named DB1 and DB2.
Existing Environment. Network Environment
Litware has ExpressRoute connectivity to Azure.
Planned Changes and Requirements. Planned Changes
Litware plans to implement the following changes:
✑ Migrate DB1 and DB2 to Azure.
✑ Migrate App1 to Azure virtual machines.
✑ Deploy the Azure virtual machines that will host App1 to Azure dedicated hosts.
Planned Changes and Requirements. Authentication and Authorization Requirements
Litware identifies the following authentication and authorization requirements:
✑ Users that manage the production environment by using the Azure portal must connect from a hybrid Azure AD-joined device and authenticate by using Azure Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
✑ The Network Contributor built-in RBAC role must be used to grant permission to all the virtual networks in all the Azure subscriptions.
✑ To access the resources in Azure, App1 must use the managed identity of the virtual machines that will host the app.
✑ Role1 must be used to assign permissions to the storage accounts of all the Azure subscriptions.
✑ RBAC roles must be applied at the highest level possible.
Planned Changes and Requirements. Resiliency Requirements
Litware identifies the following resiliency requirements:
✑ Once migrated to Azure, DB1 and DB2 must meet the following requirements:
- Maintain availability if two availability zones in the local Azure region fail.
- Fail over automatically.
- Minimize I/O latency.
✑ App1 must meet the following requirements:
- Be hosted in an Azure region that supports availability zones.
- Be hosted on Azure virtual machines that support automatic scaling.
- Maintain availability if two availability zones in the local Azure region fail.
Planned Changes and Requirements. Security and Compliance Requirements
Litware identifies the following security and compliance requirements:
✑ Once App1 is migrated to Azure, you must ensure that new data can be written to the app, and the modification of new and existing data is prevented for a period of three years.
✑ On-premises users and services must be able to access the Azure Storage account that will host the data in App1.
✑ Access to the public endpoint of the Azure Storage account that will host the App1 data must be prevented.
✑ All Azure SQL databases in the production environment must have Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) enabled.
✑ App1 must not share physical hardware with other workloads.
Planned Changes and Requirements. Business Requirements
Litware identifies the following business requirements:
✑ Minimize administrative effort.
✑ Minimize costs.
You migrate App1 to Azure. You need to ensure that the data storage for App1 meets the security and compliance requirement
What should you do?
Create an access policy for the blob
Modify the access level of the blob service.
Implement Azure resource locks.
Create Azure RBAC assignments.
The security and compliance requirement states: “Once App1 is migrated to Azure, you must ensure that new data can be written to the app, and the modification of new and existing data is prevented for a period of three years.” This is a requirement for data immutability or Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) storage.
Let’s examine each option:
Create an access policy for the blob: Azure Blob Storage offers a feature called Immutable Storage for Blob Storage, which allows you to store business-critical data in a WORM state. You can implement time-based retention policies to retain data for a specified period, during which blobs cannot be modified or deleted. This directly addresses the requirement of preventing modification for three years. An access policy in this context would refer to configuring an immutability policy.
Modify the access level of the blob service: Blob storage access tiers (Hot, Cool, Archive) are related to data access frequency and cost. Changing the access tier does not provide any immutability or write protection for the data. This option is irrelevant to the requirement.
Implement Azure resource locks: Azure Resource Locks are used to protect Azure resources (like storage accounts, virtual machines, etc.) from accidental deletion or modification at the Azure Resource Manager level. While you can lock a storage account to prevent deletion of the account itself, resource locks do not prevent modifications to the data within the blobs in the storage account. Resource locks are not designed for data immutability within a storage service.
Create Azure RBAC assignments: Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is used to manage access to Azure resources. You can use RBAC to control who can read, write, or delete blobs. However, RBAC is about authorization and permissions, not about enforcing immutability or retention policies. RBAC cannot prevent authorized users from modifying data within the retention period.
Considering the requirement for data immutability and prevention of modification for three years, the most appropriate solution is to Create an access policy for the blob. This refers to using the Immutable Storage feature of Azure Blob Storage and setting up a time-based retention policy for a duration of three years. This will ensure that once data is written, it cannot be modified or deleted for the specified period, meeting the security and compliance requirement.
Final Answer: Create an access policy for the blob
You need to implement the Azure RBAC role assignments for the Network Contributor role. The solution must meet the authentication and authorization requirements.
What is the minimum number of assignments that you must use?
1
2
5
10
15
The requirement is to use the Network Contributor built-in RBAC role to grant permission to all virtual networks in all Azure subscriptions. The principle is to apply RBAC roles at the highest level possible to minimize administrative effort.
Litware has:
10 Azure subscriptions in the Litware.com tenant (production environment)
5 Azure subscriptions in the dev.Litware.com tenant (development environment)
Total of 15 Azure subscriptions
The requirement is to grant the Network Contributor role to all virtual networks in all Azure subscriptions. This implies we need to cover all 15 subscriptions.
The highest level at which you can apply an RBAC role assignment that would affect all virtual networks within a subscription is the subscription level itself.
If there was a Management Group structure in place, and if all 15 subscriptions were under a single Management Group, then assigning the Network Contributor role at the Management Group level would be the most efficient way, requiring only 1 assignment. However, the case study does not explicitly mention the use of Management Groups.
In the absence of explicitly mentioned Management Groups that encompass all subscriptions, the highest level to apply RBAC to cover all virtual networks within each subscription is the subscription level.
Therefore, to grant the Network Contributor role to all virtual networks in all 15 subscriptions, and applying the role at the highest possible level (which we assume to be subscription level in this context), you would need to make 15 assignments, one assignment for each subscription.
If we were to assign at a lower level, such as resource group level, it would not meet the requirement of covering all virtual networks in all subscriptions with the minimum number of assignments. We would need many more assignments at the resource group level, and it would be much more complex to manage.
Since the question asks for the minimum number of assignments and to apply at the highest level possible, and assuming the highest manageable level to affect all virtual networks in a subscription is the subscription itself, the answer is 15. If a management group was implied and covered all subscriptions, the answer would be 1. However, based on the information provided, and to cover all subscriptions, 15 is the minimum number of assignments at the subscription level.
Final Answer: 15
HOTSPOT
You plan to migrate DB1 and DB2 to Azure.
You need to ensure that the Azure database and the service tier meet the resiliency and business requirements.
What should you configure? To answer, select the appropriate options in the answer area. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
Answer Area
Database:
A single Azure SQL database
Azure SQL Managed Instance
An Azure SQL Database elastic pool
Service tier:
Hyperscale
Business Critical
General Purpose
Explanation:
Box 1: SQL Managed Instance
Scenario: Once migrated to Azure, DB1 and DB2 must meet the following requirements:
✑ Maintain availability if two availability zones in the local Azure region fail.
✑ Fail over automatically.
✑ Minimize I/O latency.
The auto-failover groups feature allows you to manage the replication and failover of a group of databases on a server or all databases in a managed instance to another region. It is a declarative abstraction on top of the existing active geo-replication feature, designed to simplify deployment and management of geo-replicated databases at scale. You can initiate a geo-failover manually or you can delegate it to the Azure service based on a user-defined policy. The latter option allows you to automatically recover multiple related databases in a secondary region after a catastrophic failure or other unplanned event that results in full or partial loss of the SQL Database or SQL Managed Instance availability in the primary region.
Box 2: Business critical
SQL Managed Instance is available in two service tiers:
General purpose: Designed for applications with typical performance and I/O latency requirements.
Business critical: Designed for applications with low I/O latency requirements and minimal impact of underlying maintenance operations on the workload.
Overview
This is a case study. Case studies are not timed separately. You can use as much exam time as you would like to complete each case. However, there may be additional case studies and sections on this exam. You must manage your time to ensure that you are able to complete all questions included on this exam in the time provided.
To answer the questions included in a case study, you will need to reference information that is provided in the case study. Case studies might contain exhibits and other resources that provide more information about the scenario that is described in the case study. Each question is independent of the other questions in this case study.
At the end of this case study, a review screen will appear. This screen allows you to review your answers and to make changes before you move to the next section of the exam. After you begin a new section, you cannot return to this section.
To start the case study
To display the first question in this case study, click the Next button. Use the buttons in the left pane to explore the content of the case study before you answer the questions. Clicking these buttons displays information such as business requirements, existing environment, and problem statements. If the case study has an All Information tab, note that the information displayed is identical to the information displayed on the subsequent tabs. When you are ready to answer a question, click the Question button to return to the question.
Existing Environment: Technical Environment
The on-premises network contains a single Active Directory domain named contoso.com.
Contoso has a single Azure subscription.
Existing Environment: Business Partnerships
Contoso has a business partnership with Fabrikam, Inc. Fabrikam users access some Contoso applications over the internet by using Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) guest accounts.
Requirements: Planned Changes
Contoso plans to deploy two applications named App1 and App2 to Azure.
Requirements: App1
App1 will be a Python web app hosted in Azure App Service that requires a Linux runtime.
Users from Contoso and Fabrikam will access App1.
App1 will access several services that require third-party credentials and access strings.
The credentials and access strings are stored in Azure Key Vault.
App1 will have six instances: three in the East US Azure region and three in the West Europe Azure region.
App1 has the following data requirements:
✑ Each instance will write data to a data store in the same availability zone as the instance.
✑ Data written by any App1 instance must be visible to all App1 instances.
App1 will only be accessible from the internet. App1 has the following connection requirements:
✑ Connections to App1 must pass through a web application firewall (WAF).
✑ Connections to App1 must be active-active load balanced between instances.
✑ All connections to App1 from North America must be directed to the East US region. All other connections must be directed to the West Europe region.
Every hour, you will run a maintenance task by invoking a PowerShell script that copies files from all the App1 instances. The PowerShell script will run from a central location.
Requirements: App2
App2 will be a NET app hosted in App Service that requires a Windows runtime.
App2 has the following file storage requirements:
✑ Save files to an Azure Storage account.
✑ Replicate files to an on-premises location.
✑ Ensure that on-premises clients can read the files over the LAN by using the SMB protocol.
You need to monitor App2 to analyze how long it takes to perform different transactions within the application. The solution must not require changes to the application code.
Application Development Requirements
Application developers will constantly develop new versions of App1 and App2.
The development process must meet the following requirements:
✑ A staging instance of a new application version must be deployed to the application host before the new version is used in production.
✑ After testing the new version, the staging version of the application will replace the production version.
✑ The switch to the new application version from staging to production must occur without any downtime of the application.
Identity Requirements
Contoso identifies the following requirements for managing Fabrikam access to resources:
✑ uk.co.certification.simulator.questionpool.PList@1863e940
✑ The solution must minimize development effort.
Security Requirement
All secrets used by Azure services must be stored in Azure Key Vault.
Services that require credentials must have the credentials tied to the service instance. The credentials must NOT be shared between services.
You need to recommend a solution that meets the application development requirements.
What should you include in the recommendation?
an Azure Container Registry instance
deployment slots
Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) sources
the Azure App Configuration service
The application development requirements explicitly state the need for a staging instance, testing, and zero-downtime deployment for new application versions. Let’s evaluate each option in the context of these requirements:
an Azure Container Registry instance: Azure Container Registry (ACR) is a service for building, storing, and managing container images. While ACR is crucial for containerized applications and can be part of a CI/CD pipeline, App1 and App2 are deployed to Azure App Service, which, according to the description, doesn’t explicitly mention containerization. ACR, by itself, does not directly enable staging or zero-downtime deployment for App Service applications.
deployment slots: Azure App Service deployment slots are a feature specifically designed to address the application development requirements outlined. Deployment slots allow you to:
Deploy a new version of your application to a staging slot.
Test the staged application in an environment that mirrors production.
Swap the staging slot into the production slot with minimal to zero downtime. This swap operation is very quick because it primarily involves changing the virtual IP addresses associated with the slots, not redeploying the application.
This option directly and effectively addresses all three application development requirements.
Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) sources: CI/CD sources like Azure DevOps, GitHub, or Bitbucket are tools and platforms that facilitate the automation of the software development lifecycle, including building, testing, and deploying applications. While CI/CD pipelines are essential for automating deployments to deployment slots, CI/CD sources themselves are not the mechanism for staging and zero-downtime deployment. They are used to manage and drive deployments, potentially to deployment slots, but they are not the solution itself for the stated requirement.
the Azure App Configuration service: Azure App Configuration is a service for centrally managing application settings and feature flags. It helps decouple configuration from code, enabling dynamic configuration updates without application redeployments. While App Configuration is valuable for managing application settings and can be integrated with CI/CD pipelines, it does not directly address the core requirement of staging new application versions and achieving zero-downtime swaps between versions.
Considering the explicit requirements for staging, testing, and zero-downtime deployment, deployment slots are the most direct and effective Azure App Service feature to meet these needs. They provide the necessary infrastructure to deploy a staging version, test it, and then swap it into production without downtime.
Final Answer: deployment slots
What should you recommend lo meet the monitoring requirements for App2?
Azure Application Insights
Container insights
Microsoft Sentinel
VM insights
The requirement is to monitor App2 to analyze transaction times without modifying the application code. App2 is a .NET application hosted in Azure App Service. Let’s evaluate each option:
Azure Application Insights: Application Insights is an Application Performance Monitoring (APM) service in Azure. It is designed specifically for web applications, including those hosted in Azure App Service. Application Insights can automatically instrument .NET applications running in App Service without requiring code changes through the use of the Application Insights Extension or Auto-Instrumentation. This feature automatically collects performance data, including request durations and transaction traces, which directly addresses the requirement to analyze transaction times.
Container insights: Container insights is a feature of Azure Monitor designed to monitor the performance and health of containerized workloads, primarily in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and Azure Container Instances (ACI). Since App2 is hosted in Azure App Service (which is a PaaS service, not containers directly managed by the user), Container insights is not the appropriate monitoring solution for App2.
Microsoft Sentinel: Microsoft Sentinel is Azure’s cloud-native SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) and SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) solution. Sentinel is focused on security monitoring, threat detection, and incident response. While Sentinel can ingest data from various sources, including Azure Monitor logs (which could include Application Insights data), it is not primarily designed for application performance monitoring in the way that Application Insights is. Using Sentinel for this specific transaction monitoring requirement would be an indirect and overly complex approach compared to using Application Insights directly.
VM insights: VM insights is designed to monitor the performance and health of virtual machines and virtual machine scale sets. While Azure App Service instances run on virtual machines in the backend, VM insights focuses on monitoring the infrastructure level metrics of the VMs (CPU, memory, disk, network). It does not provide application-level transaction monitoring or analysis for applications running within App Service. VM insights is not the right tool to analyze application transaction times.
Considering the requirement for monitoring App2 transactions without code changes, and App2 being an App Service .NET application, Azure Application Insights is the most suitable and direct recommendation. It provides automatic instrumentation for App Service applications, enabling transaction monitoring without requiring any modifications to the application’s code.
Final Answer: Azure Application Insights
What should you recommend to meet the monitoring requirements for App2?
Microsoft Sentinel
Azure Application Insights
Container insights
VM insights
The requirement is to monitor App2 to analyze transaction times without requiring any changes to the application code. App2 is a .NET application hosted in Azure App Service.
Let’s evaluate each option again:
Microsoft Sentinel: Microsoft Sentinel is a cloud-native SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) and SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) solution. It is primarily focused on security monitoring, threat detection, and incident response. While Sentinel can ingest logs and metrics from various Azure services, it is not designed for application performance monitoring of transaction times in the way that APM tools are. It is not the appropriate service for this specific requirement.
Azure Application Insights: Azure Application Insights is an Application Performance Monitoring (APM) service in Azure. It is specifically designed for web applications and services, including those hosted in Azure App Service. A key feature of Application Insights is its ability to automatically instrument applications running in App Service without requiring changes to the application code. For .NET applications in App Service, you can enable the Application Insights Extension or Auto-Instrumentation. This automatically collects performance data, including request durations, dependencies, exceptions, and traces, which directly addresses the requirement to analyze transaction times within App2.
Container insights: Container insights is a feature of Azure Monitor that is designed to monitor the performance and health of containerized workloads, primarily in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and Azure Container Instances (ACI). Since App2 is hosted in Azure App Service, which is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering and not directly containerized by the user in the same way as AKS or ACI, Container insights is not the appropriate monitoring solution for App2.
VM insights: VM insights is a feature of Azure Monitor designed to monitor the performance and health of virtual machines and virtual machine scale sets. It collects data about the operating system and hardware metrics of VMs, such as CPU utilization, memory pressure, disk I/O, and network traffic. While App Service instances run on VMs in the backend, VM insights focuses on monitoring the infrastructure level metrics of these VMs, not the application-level transaction performance within App2. VM insights will not provide the detailed transaction timing analysis required for App2.
Considering the specific requirement of monitoring App2 transaction times without code changes for a .NET application in Azure App Service, Azure Application Insights is the most suitable and direct solution. It provides automatic instrumentation and is designed exactly for this type of application performance monitoring scenario.
Final Answer: Azure Application Insights
Overview
An insurance company, HABInsurance, operates in three states and provides home, auto, and boat insurance. Besides the head office, HABInsurance has three regional offices.
Current environment
General
An insurance company, HABInsurance, operates in three states and provides home, auto, and boat insurance. Besides the head office, HABInsurance has three regional offices.
Technology assessment
The company has two Active Directory forests: main.habinsurance.com and region.habinsurance.com. HABInsurance’s primary internal system is Insurance Processing System (IPS). It is an ASP.Net/C# application running on IIS/Windows Servers hosted in a data center. IPS has three tiers: web, business logic API, and a datastore on a back end. The company uses Microsoft SQL Server and MongoDB for the backend. The system has two parts: Customer data and Insurance forms and documents. Customer data is stored in Microsoft SQL Server and Insurance forms and documents ― in MongoDB. The company also has 10 TB of Human Resources (HR) data stored on NAS at the head office location. Requirements
General
HABInsurance plans to migrate its workloads to Azure. They purchased an Azure subscription.
Changes
During a transition period, HABInsurance wants to create a hybrid identity model along with a Microsoft Office 365 deployment. The company intends to sync its AD forests to Azure AD and benefit from Azure AD administrative units functionality.
HABInsurance needs to migrate the current IPSCustomers SQL database to a new fully managed SQL database in Azure that would be budget-oriented, balanced with scalable compute and storage options. The management team expects the Azure database service to scale the database resources dynamically with minimal downtime. The technical team proposes implementing a DTU-based purchasing model for the new database.
HABInsurance wants to migrate Insurance forms and documents to Azure database service. HABInsurance plans to move IPS first two tiers to Azure without any modifications. The technology team discusses the possibility of running IPS tiers on a set of virtual machines instances. The number of instances should be adjusted automatically based on the CPU utilization. An SLA of 99.95% must be guaranteed for the compute infrastructure.
The company needs to move HR data to Azure File shares.
In their new Azure ecosystem, HABInsurance plans to use internal and third-party applications. The company considers adding user consent for data access to the registered applications
Later, the technology team contemplates adding a customer self-service portal to IPS and deploying a new IPS to multi-region ASK. But the management team is worried about performance and availability of the multi-region AKS deployments during regional outages.
A company has an on-premises file server cbflserver that runs Windows Server 2019. Windows Admin Center manages this server. The company owns an Azure subscription. You need to provide an Azure solution to prevent data loss if the file server fails.
Solution: You decide to create an Azure Recovery Services vault. You then decide to install the Azure Backup agent and then schedule the backup.
Would this meet the requirement?
Yes
No
The requirement is to prevent data loss if the on-premises file server cbflserver running Windows Server 2019 fails. The proposed solution involves using Azure Recovery Services vault and the Azure Backup agent. Let’s break down why this solution is effective:
Azure Recovery Services Vault: Creating an Azure Recovery Services vault is the foundational step for setting up Azure Backup. The vault acts as a management container for backup and recovery points, and it handles the storage and management of backup data in Azure. This is the correct Azure service to use for backup purposes.
Azure Backup Agent: Installing the Azure Backup agent (also known as the MARS agent - Microsoft Azure Recovery Services agent) on the cbflserver is the correct approach for backing up files and folders from an on-premises Windows Server to Azure. This agent is specifically designed to communicate with the Azure Recovery Services vault and securely transfer backup data to Azure storage.
Scheduling Backup: Scheduling backups is essential for data protection. By scheduling backups, you ensure that data is regularly copied to Azure. In the event of a file server failure, you can restore the data from the latest backup stored in the Azure Recovery Services vault, thus preventing data loss.
By combining these three steps - creating a Recovery Services vault, installing the Azure Backup agent, and scheduling backups - you establish a functional backup system for the cbflserver. This system will create copies of the server’s data in Azure on a regular basis. If the cbflserver fails, the data can be restored from these backups, effectively preventing data loss.
Therefore, the proposed solution directly addresses the requirement of preventing data loss in case of file server failure.
Final Answer: Yes
A company is planning on deploying an application onto Azure. The application will be based on the .Net core programming language. The application would be hosted using Azure Web apps. Below is part of the various requirements for the application
Give the ability to correlate Azure resource usage and the performance data with the actual application configuration and performance data
Give the ability to visualize the relationships between application components
Give the ability to track requests and exceptions to specific lines of code from within the application Give the ability to actually analyse how uses return to an application and see how often they only select a particular drop-down value
Which of the following service would be best suited for fulfilling the requirement of “Give the ability to correlate Azure resource usage and the performance data with the actual application configuration and performance data”
Azure Application Insights
Azure Service Map
Azure Log Analytics
Azure Activity Log
The question specifically asks for a service that provides the ability to correlate Azure resource usage and performance data with application configuration and performance data. Let’s analyze each option in relation to this requirement:
Azure Application Insights: Azure Application Insights is an Application Performance Monitoring (APM) service designed for web applications and services. It excels at collecting and analyzing application performance data such as request rates, response times, exceptions, and dependencies. Critically, Application Insights also integrates with Azure Monitor metrics. This integration allows you to see Azure resource utilization (like CPU usage, memory consumption, etc. of the underlying App Service plan) alongside your application performance data within the same interface. Furthermore, Application Insights allows you to track custom properties and telemetry, which can include application configuration data if you choose to send it. Therefore, Application Insights directly facilitates the correlation of Azure resource usage and performance data with application configuration and performance data.
Azure Service Map: Azure Service Map automatically discovers application components and their dependencies, visualizing the relationships between servers, processes, and third-party services. While it provides a great visual representation of application architecture and dependencies, it is not primarily focused on correlating Azure resource usage metrics with detailed application performance and configuration data. Service Map is more about understanding the topology and connections within your application environment.
Azure Log Analytics: Azure Log Analytics is a powerful service for collecting and analyzing log and metric data from various sources across your Azure and on-premises environments. You could potentially use Log Analytics to collect both Azure resource logs (containing resource usage metrics) and application performance logs (which might include performance and configuration data). Then, you could write complex queries to try and correlate this data. However, this approach is more manual and requires significant configuration and query writing effort. Application Insights provides a more direct and out-of-the-box solution for this specific correlation requirement, especially for web applications hosted in Azure App Service.
Azure Activity Log: Azure Activity Log provides audit logs for operations performed on Azure resources. It records control plane operations like creating, updating, or deleting Azure resources. Activity Log is primarily for auditing and governance purposes, not for monitoring application performance or correlating resource usage with application configuration data. It does not contain the detailed performance metrics or application-level data needed for this requirement.
Considering the specific requirement to “correlate Azure resource usage and the performance data with the actual application configuration and performance data,” Azure Application Insights is the most directly and effectively suited service. It is designed for APM and has built-in features to integrate resource usage metrics with application performance telemetry, making correlation straightforward.
Final Answer: Azure Application Insights
A company has an on-premises file server cbflserver that runs Windows Server 2019. Windows Admin Center manages this server. The company owns an Azure subscription. You need to provide an Azure solution to prevent data loss if the file server fails.
Solution: You decide to register Windows Admin Center in Azure and then configure Azure Backup.
Would this meet the requirement?
Yes
No
The requirement is to prevent data loss for an on-premises file server cbflserver running Windows Server 2019 in case of failure. The proposed solution is to register Windows Admin Center in Azure and then configure Azure Backup. Let’s analyze if this solution meets the requirement.
Registering Windows Admin Center in Azure: Windows Admin Center (WAC) is a browser-based management tool for Windows Servers. Registering Windows Admin Center in Azure connects your on-premises WAC instance to your Azure subscription. This provides several benefits, including:
Hybrid Management: Allows you to manage your on-premises servers from within the Azure portal.
Azure Service Integration: Enables easier integration and configuration of Azure services for your on-premises servers directly from the WAC interface.
Configuring Azure Backup: Azure Backup is a cloud-based backup service that is part of Azure Recovery Services. It is designed to backup data from various sources, including on-premises Windows Servers. By configuring Azure Backup for cbflserver, you will be able to create backups of the server’s data in Azure.
How Windows Admin Center facilitates Azure Backup:
Windows Admin Center provides a user-friendly interface to configure Azure Backup for servers it manages. When you register WAC in Azure and then use WAC to configure Azure Backup for cbflserver, it simplifies the process by:
Guiding you through the Azure Backup setup: WAC can help you create a Recovery Services vault in Azure if you don’t already have one.
Simplifying agent installation: WAC can assist in deploying the Azure Backup agent to cbflserver.
Providing a centralized management point: You can manage backups for cbflserver directly from the WAC interface, which is integrated with Azure.
Does this solution meet the requirement of preventing data loss?
Yes. By configuring Azure Backup for cbflserver, regardless of whether you initiate the configuration through Windows Admin Center or directly through the Azure portal, you are setting up a backup process that will store copies of your server’s data in Azure. In the event of a failure of the cbflserver, you can restore the data from the backups stored in Azure, thus preventing data loss.
Registering Windows Admin Center in Azure is not strictly necessary for Azure Backup to function. You can configure Azure Backup directly from the Azure portal or using PowerShell. However, using Windows Admin Center, especially when it’s already used for server management, simplifies the configuration and management of Azure Backup for on-premises servers.
Therefore, the solution of registering Windows Admin Center in Azure and then configuring Azure Backup is a valid and effective way to prevent data loss for the on-premises file server cbflserver.
Final Answer: Yes
You have an Azure subscription that contains a custom application named Application was developed by an external company named fabric, Ltd. Developers at Fabrikam were assigned role-based access control (RBAV) permissions to the Application components. All users are licensed for the Microsoft 365 E5 plan.
You need to recommends a solution to verify whether the Faricak developers still require permissions to Application1.
The solution must the following requirements.
- To the manager of the developers, send a monthly email message that lists the access permissions to Application1.
- If the manager does not verify access permission, automatically revoke that permission.
- Minimize development effort.
What should you recommend?
In Azure Active Directory (AD) Privileged Identity Management, create a custom role assignment for the Application1 resources
Create an Azure Automation runbook that runs the Get-AzureADUserAppRoleAssignment cmdlet
Create an Azure Automation runbook that runs the Get-AzureRmRoleAssignment cmdlet
In Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), create an access review of Application1
The question asks for the best solution to verify if Fabrikam developers still require permissions to Application1, with specific requirements for monthly email notifications to managers, automatic revocation upon non-verification, and minimal development effort. Let’s evaluate each option against these requirements.
In Azure Active Directory (AD) Privileged Identity Management, create a custom role assignment for the Application1 resources: Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM) is primarily used for managing, controlling, and monitoring access within an organization by enforcing just-in-time access for privileged roles. While PIM can manage role assignments, it is not inherently designed for periodic access reviews and automated revocations based on manager verification in the way described in the requirements. Creating a custom role assignment in PIM does not directly address the need for a monthly review and automatic revocation workflow.
Create an Azure Automation runbook that runs the Get-AzureADUserAppRoleAssignment cmdlet: This option involves using Azure Automation and PowerShell scripting. Get-AzureADUserAppRoleAssignment cmdlet can retrieve application role assignments in Azure AD. An Azure Automation runbook could be created to:
Run on a monthly schedule.
Use Get-AzureADUserAppRoleAssignment to list Fabrikam developers’ permissions to Application1.
Send an email to the managers with this list, requesting verification.
Implement logic to track responses and, if no response is received within a timeframe, use PowerShell cmdlets to revoke the permissions.
While technically feasible, this solution requires significant development effort to create the automation runbook, handle email notifications, track responses, and implement the revocation logic. It does not minimize development effort.
Create an Azure Automation runbook that runs the Get-AzureRmRoleAssignment cmdlet: Get-AzureRmRoleAssignment (or its modern equivalent Get-AzRoleAssignment in Az PowerShell module) retrieves Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) assignments at the resource level. Similar to the previous option, an Azure Automation runbook could be developed to retrieve RBAC assignments for Application1 resources, notify managers, and revoke permissions if not verified. This option also suffers from the same drawback: it requires considerable custom development effort to build the entire verification and revocation process within the runbook.
In Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), create an access review of Application1: Azure AD Access Reviews are a built-in feature in Azure AD Premium P2 (which the users have with Microsoft 365 E5 licenses) specifically designed for this type of access governance scenario. Azure AD Access Reviews provide a streamlined way to:
Define the scope of the review: In this case, access to Application1.
Select reviewers: Managers of the Fabrikam developers.
Set a review schedule: Monthly.
Configure automatic actions: Specifically, “Auto-apply results to resource” which can be set to “Remove access” if reviewers don’t respond or deny access.
Send notifications: Reviewers (managers) are automatically notified by email to perform the review.
Track review progress and results: Azure AD provides a dashboard to monitor the review process.
Azure AD Access Reviews directly address all the specified requirements with minimal configuration and essentially zero development effort. It is a built-in feature designed for access governance and periodic reviews, making it the most efficient and appropriate solution.
Final Answer: In Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), create an access review of Application1
You have an Azure subscription. The subscription has a blob container that contains multiple blobs. Ten users in the finance department of your company plan to access the blobs during the month of April. You need to recommend a solution to enable access to the blobs during the month of April only.
Which security solution should you include in the recommendation?
shared access signatures (SAS)
access keys
conditional access policies
certificates
The requirement is to enable access to Azure Blob Storage for ten users in the finance department during the month of April only. Let’s examine each security solution in the context of this requirement:
Shared Access Signatures (SAS): Shared Access Signatures (SAS) are a powerful feature in Azure Storage that allows you to grant granular, time-bound, and restricted access to storage resources like blobs. You can create a SAS token with specific permissions (like read access) and set an expiry date (for example, April 30th). This SAS token can then be distributed to the ten finance users, allowing them access to the blobs only during April. After April 30th, the SAS token will expire, and access will be automatically revoked. SAS tokens are ideal for granting temporary access without sharing storage account keys.
Access Keys: Storage account access keys provide full administrative access to the entire storage account. Sharing access keys is highly insecure and not recommended, especially for temporary access for multiple users. Access keys grant unrestricted access to all resources within the storage account, which is far more permission than needed for the finance department’s temporary blob access. Furthermore, access keys do not inherently provide a mechanism for time-limited access.
Conditional Access Policies: Conditional Access Policies in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) are used to enforce organizational policies during authentication. They can control access based on various conditions like user location, device, application, and risk. While Conditional Access is excellent for enforcing broader security policies, it is not the right tool for granting time-limited access to specific storage resources for a group of users. Conditional Access is more about controlling who can access resources based on conditions, not for generating temporary access credentials with expiry dates for specific storage resources.
Certificates: Certificates are used for authentication and encryption. While client certificates can be used for authentication with Azure Storage, they are not designed for managing temporary access for multiple users in the way required. Managing and distributing certificates to ten users for temporary access would be complex and overkill compared to using SAS tokens. Certificates are more suitable for secure machine-to-machine communication or long-term authentication scenarios.
Considering the requirement for time-limited access (during April only) and the need to grant access to specific users (finance department) for blobs, Shared Access Signatures (SAS) is the most appropriate and recommended security solution. SAS tokens are specifically designed for this type of scenario, offering granular control over access permissions and expiry times, and minimizing security risks by avoiding the sharing of storage account keys.
Final Answer: shared access signatures (SAS)
You have an Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) tenant that syncs with an on-premises Active Directory domain.
You have an internal web app named WebApp1 that is hosted on-premises. WebApp1 uses Integrated Windows authentication.
Some users work remotely and do NOT have VPN access to the on-premises network.
You need to provide the remote users with single sign-on (SSO) access to WebApp1.
Which two features should you include in the solution? Each correct answer presents part of the solution. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
Azure AD Application Proxy
Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM)
Conditional Access policies
Azure Arc
Azure AD enterprise applications
Azure Application Gateway
To provide remote users with single sign-on (SSO) access to an on-premises web application (WebApp1) that uses Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA), without VPN access, you should use the following two Azure AD features:
Azure AD Application Proxy
Azure AD enterprise applications
Here’s why these two features are the correct combination:
- Azure AD Application Proxy:
Purpose: Azure AD Application Proxy is specifically designed to publish on-premises web applications to remote users securely through Azure AD authentication. It acts as a reverse proxy, sitting between the internet and your on-premises application.
How it helps in this scenario:
Secure Remote Access without VPN: It eliminates the need for users to connect via VPN to access WebApp1. Remote users access the application through an external URL provided by Application Proxy.
SSO with Azure AD: Application Proxy integrates with Azure AD for authentication. Users authenticate with their Azure AD credentials.
Handles Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA): Application Proxy can be configured to handle the backend Integrated Windows Authentication required by WebApp1. It does this by using Kerberos Constrained Delegation (KCD) and a Connector agent installed on-premises. The Connector agent performs the IWA on behalf of the user within the on-premises network.
- Azure AD enterprise applications:
Purpose: Azure AD enterprise applications are the representation of applications within your Azure AD tenant. They are used to manage authentication and authorization for applications that you want to integrate with Azure AD.
How it helps in this scenario:
Application Registration: You need to register WebApp1 as an enterprise application in your Azure AD tenant. This registration allows Azure AD to understand and manage authentication for WebApp1.
Configuration for Application Proxy: When you set up Azure AD Application Proxy for WebApp1, you will configure it based on this enterprise application registration. The enterprise application defines the authentication methods, user assignments, and other settings for accessing WebApp1 through Application Proxy.
Why other options are not the primary solution:
Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM): PIM is for managing, controlling, and monitoring privileged access to Azure resources and Azure AD roles. It’s not directly involved in providing SSO access to web applications for remote users.
Conditional Access policies: Conditional Access policies are used to enforce authentication requirements based on conditions (like location, device, risk level). While you can use Conditional Access to enhance the security of access to WebApp1 through Application Proxy, it’s not the feature that enables the SSO access in the first place. Conditional Access would be a secondary security layer, not the core solution for SSO.
Azure Arc: Azure Arc is for managing on-premises and multi-cloud infrastructure from Azure. It does not provide SSO capabilities for web applications.
Azure Application Gateway: Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer and WAF for Azure-hosted web applications. It is not designed to provide reverse proxy and SSO for on-premises applications like Azure AD Application Proxy.
Therefore, the correct two features are Azure AD Application Proxy and Azure AD enterprise applications.
Final Answer: Azure AD Application Proxy and Azure AD enterprise applications
You have an Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) tenant named contoso.com that has a security group named Group’. Group i is configured Tor assigned membership. Group I has 50 members. including 20 guest users.
You need To recommend a solution for evaluating the member ship of Group1.
The solution must meet the following requirements:
- The evaluation must be repeated automatically every three months
- Every member must be able to report whether they need to be in Group1
- Users who report that they do not need to be in Group 1 must be removed from Group1 automatically
- Users who do not report whether they need to be m Group1 must be removed from Group1 automatically.
What should you include in me recommendation?
implement Azure AU Identity Protection.
Change the Membership type of Group1 to Dynamic User.
Implement Azure AD Privileged Identity Management.
Create an access review.
The question requires a solution for evaluating and managing the membership of an Azure AD Security Group (Group1) with specific requirements for automation, self-attestation, and automatic removal. Let’s analyze each option:
Implement Azure AD Identity Protection: Azure AD Identity Protection is focused on security and risk management for user identities. It detects risky sign-ins and vulnerabilities, and helps to remediate them. It does not provide features for group membership reviews, self-attestation, or automated removal based on user feedback regarding group membership. Therefore, this option does not meet the requirements.
Change the Membership type of Group1 to Dynamic User: Dynamic User groups manage membership based on rules that are evaluated against user attributes. While this automates group membership management based on predefined rules, it does not address the requirements for periodic reviews, self-attestation, or automatic removal based on user feedback or lack of response. Dynamic groups are rule-driven, not review-driven. Therefore, this option does not meet the requirements.
Implement Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM): Azure AD Privileged Identity Management is used to manage, control, and monitor privileged access to resources in Azure AD and Azure. While PIM can be used for group membership management, it is primarily focused on roles that grant elevated privileges and managing just-in-time access. It is not designed for general group membership reviews and self-attestation across a broad group like Group1. Although PIM has some review capabilities, it’s not the most appropriate tool for this scenario compared to Access Reviews.
Create an access review: Azure AD Access Reviews are specifically designed to manage and review access to groups, applications, and roles. Access Reviews can be configured to meet all the stated requirements:
Periodic Reviews: Access Reviews can be set up to run automatically on a recurring schedule, such as every three months.
Self-Attestation: Access Reviews can be configured to allow users to self-attest to their need for continued access to the group. In this case, members of Group1 can be reviewers and attest if they need to remain in the group.
Automatic Removal Based on User Report: Access Reviews can be configured to automatically remove users who, during the review process, indicate that they no longer need access to the group.
Automatic Removal for Non-Response: Access Reviews can be configured to automatically remove users who do not respond to the access review within a specified time period.
Azure AD Access Reviews directly address all the requirements of the question and are the intended feature for managing group memberships in this way.
Final Answer: Create an access review.
HOTSPOT
You plan to deploy Azure Databricks to support a machine learning application. Data engineers will mount an Azure Data Lake Storage account to the Databricks file system. Permissions to folders are granted directly to the data engineers.
You need to recommend a design for the planned Databrick deployment.
The solution must meet the following requirements:
✑ Ensure that the data engineers can only access folders to which they have permissions.
✑ Minimize development effort.
✑ Minimize costs.
What should you include in the recommendation? To answer, select the appropriate options in the answer area. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
Databricks SKU:
Premium
Standard
Cluster configuration:
Credential passthrough
Managed identities
MLflow
A runtime that contains Photon
Secret scope
Databricks SKU: Premium
Requirement: Ensure that data engineers can only access folders to which they have permissions.
Explanation: Premium SKU is required to enable credential passthrough. Credential passthrough allows Databricks clusters to leverage the Azure Active Directory identity of the user submitting queries to access Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS). This means that Databricks will use the data engineer’s own Azure AD credentials to authenticate and authorize access to ADLS. If the data engineer has permissions to a specific folder in ADLS, they can access it through Databricks; otherwise, they will be denied access. Standard SKU does not support credential passthrough for ADLS Gen2.
Cluster configuration: Credential passthrough
Requirement: Ensure that data engineers can only access folders to which they have permissions.
Explanation: Credential passthrough is the key feature that directly addresses the requirement of granular access control based on user permissions in ADLS. When credential passthrough is enabled on a Databricks cluster, the identity of the user running a job is passed through to ADLS. ADLS then uses its own access control mechanisms (like ACLs or RBAC) to determine if the user has permission to access the requested data. This directly ensures that data engineers can only access folders they are permitted to access.
Why other options are not the best fit or incorrect:
Standard Databricks SKU: Standard SKU does not support credential passthrough for Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2, which is essential for enforcing user-level permissions on folders in ADLS as described in the scenario.
Managed identities: While managed identities are a secure way for Azure resources to authenticate to other Azure services, they do not directly address the requirement of individual data engineers accessing data based on their own permissions. Managed identities would require granting permissions to the Databricks cluster’s managed identity, not to individual data engineers. This would mean all users of the cluster would have the same level of access, which contradicts the requirement of granular user-based permissions.
MLflow: MLflow is a platform for managing the machine learning lifecycle. It’s not directly related to data access control or minimizing costs in the context of storage access permissions. While useful for ML projects, it doesn’t contribute to solving the specific requirements outlined.
A runtime that contains Photon: Photon is a high-performance query engine optimized for Databricks. While it can improve performance and potentially reduce costs in the long run by running jobs faster, it is not directly related to data access control or minimizing development effort in the context of setting up permissions. Choosing a runtime with or without Photon does not address the core security and access control requirements.
Secret scope: Secret scopes are used to securely store and manage secrets (like passwords, API keys, etc.) in Databricks. While important for security in general, secret scopes are not directly related to the requirement of user-based folder permissions in ADLS. They are more relevant for managing credentials used by the Databricks cluster itself, not for enforcing user-level data access control using Azure AD identities.
Minimizing Development Effort & Costs:
Credential passthrough minimizes development effort because it leverages the existing Azure AD and ADLS permissions model. No custom access control mechanisms need to be developed within Databricks.
Standard runtime is generally less costly than Photon if performance gains are not a primary driver.
Choosing the Premium SKU is necessary for credential passthrough, even though it’s more expensive than Standard, because it’s the only way to meet the core security requirement of user-based folder permissions with minimal development effort. Trying to implement a custom permission system with Standard SKU and Managed Identities would be significantly more complex and potentially more costly in development time.
Therefore, the optimal solution to meet all requirements with minimal development effort and cost-effectiveness, while ensuring secure user-based access to folders in ADLS, is to choose Premium Databricks SKU and configure the cluster with Credential passthrough.
Final Answer:
Databricks SKU: Premium
Cluster configuration: Credential passthrough
MLflow:
A runtime that contains Photon:
Secret scope:
HOTSPOT
You plan to deploy an Azure web app named Appl that will use Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) authentication.
App1 will be accessed from the internet by the users at your company. All the users have computers that run Windows 10 and are joined to Azure AD.
You need to recommend a solution to ensure that the users can connect to App1 without being prompted for authentication and can access App1 only from company-owned computers.
What should you recommend for each requirement? To answer, select the appropriate options in the answer area. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
The users can connect to App1 without
being prompted for authentication:
The users can access App1 only from
company-owned computers:
An Azure AD app registration
An Azure AD managed identity
Azure AD Application Proxy
A conditional access policy
An Azure AD administrative unit
Azure Application Gateway
Azure Blueprints
Azure Policy
The users can connect to App1 without being prompted for authentication: An Azure AD app registration
Explanation: To enable Azure AD authentication for App1, you must first register App1 as an application in Azure AD. This app registration establishes a trust relationship between App1 and Azure AD, allowing Azure AD to authenticate users for App1.
Why it enables SSO (Single Sign-On): When a user on an Azure AD joined Windows 10 computer attempts to access App1, and App1 is configured for Azure AD authentication, the web browser on the user’s machine can automatically pass the user’s existing Azure AD credentials to App1’s authentication request. This happens seamlessly in the background because the user is already logged into Azure AD on their Windows 10 machine. App registration is the fundamental step to enable this authentication flow, which leads to SSO in this scenario.
Why other options are not suitable for SSO in this context:
Azure AD managed identity: Managed identities are for Azure resources (like App1 itself) to authenticate to other Azure services, not for user authentication to App1.
Azure AD Application Proxy: Application Proxy is for publishing on-premises web applications to the internet via Azure AD. App1 is already an Azure web app and internet-facing, so Application Proxy is not needed for basic internet access or SSO for it.
A conditional access policy: Conditional access policies enforce conditions after authentication. While they can contribute to a better user experience, they are not the primary mechanism for enabling SSO itself.
An Azure AD administrative unit: Administrative units are for organizational management and delegation within Azure AD, not related to authentication flows or SSO.
Azure Application Gateway: Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer and WAF. It doesn’t directly handle Azure AD authentication or SSO in this context.
Azure Blueprints & Azure Policy: These are for resource deployment and governance, not related to application authentication or SSO.
The users can access App1 only from company-owned computers: A conditional access policy
Explanation: Azure AD Conditional Access policies are specifically designed to enforce access controls based on various conditions, including device state. You can create a Conditional Access policy that targets App1 and requires devices to be marked as “compliant” or “hybrid Azure AD joined” to grant access.
How it works for company-owned computers: For Windows 10 computers joined to Azure AD, you can configure them to be either Hybrid Azure AD joined (if also domain-joined to on-premises AD) or simply Azure AD joined and managed by Intune (or other MDM). You can then use Conditional Access to require that devices accessing App1 are either Hybrid Azure AD joined or marked as compliant by Intune. This effectively restricts access to only company-managed and compliant devices, which are considered “company-owned” in this context.
Why other options are not suitable for device-based access control:
An Azure AD app registration: App registration is necessary for authentication but doesn’t enforce device-based restrictions.
Azure AD managed identity: Irrelevant to device-based access control for users.
Azure AD Application Proxy: Not relevant to device-based access control for Azure web apps.
An Azure AD administrative unit: Not relevant to device-based access control.
Azure Application Gateway, Azure Blueprints, Azure Policy: These are not directly designed for enforcing device-based access control for Azure AD authenticated applications.
Therefore, the most appropriate recommendations are:
The users can connect to App1 without being prompted for authentication: An Azure AD app registration
The users can access App1 only from company-owned computers: A conditional access policy
Final Answer:
The users can connect to App1 without
being prompted for authentication: An Azure AD app registration
The users can access App1 only from
company-owned computers: A conditional access policy
Note: This question is part of a series of questions that present the same scenario. Each question in the series contains a unique solution that might meet the stated goals. Some question sets might have more than one correct solution, while others might not have a correct solution.
After you answer a question in this section, you will NOT be able to return to it. As a result, these questions will not appear in the review screen.
Your company deploys several virtual machines on-premises and to Azure. ExpressRoute is being deployed and configured for on-premises to Azure connectivity.
Several virtual machines exhibit network connectivity issues.
You need to analyze the network traffic to identify whether packets are being allowed or denied to the virtual machines.
Solution: Use Azure Traffic Analytics in Azure Network Watcher to analyze the network traffic.
Does this meet the goal?
Yes
No
The goal is to analyze network traffic to identify whether packets are being allowed or denied to virtual machines in a hybrid environment (on-premises and Azure connected via ExpressRoute). The proposed solution is to use Azure Traffic Analytics in Azure Network Watcher.
Let’s evaluate if Azure Traffic Analytics meets this goal:
Azure Traffic Analytics:
Functionality: Azure Traffic Analytics analyzes Network Security Group (NSG) flow logs, Azure Firewall logs, and Virtual Network Gateway logs to provide insights into network traffic in Azure. It helps visualize traffic patterns, identify security threats, and pinpoint network misconfigurations.
Scope: Traffic Analytics is focused on analyzing network traffic within Azure. It primarily works with Azure network resources like NSGs, Azure Firewalls, and Virtual Network Gateways.
Data Source: It relies on logs generated by Azure network components.
Hybrid Environment and ExpressRoute:
ExpressRoute Connectivity: ExpressRoute provides a private connection between on-premises networks and Azure.
Network Traffic Flow: Traffic flows between on-premises VMs and Azure VMs through the ExpressRoute connection.
On-premises VMs Visibility: Azure Traffic Analytics does not have direct visibility into the network traffic of on-premises virtual machines. It cannot analyze NSG flow logs or Azure Firewall logs for on-premises resources because these logs are generated by Azure network security components, which are not directly involved in securing on-premises networks.
Analyzing Network Connectivity Issues:
Azure VM Issues: For VMs in Azure that are protected by NSGs or Azure Firewall, Traffic Analytics can be helpful to understand if traffic is being allowed or denied by these Azure security components.
On-premises VM Issues: For VMs located on-premises, Azure Traffic Analytics is not directly applicable. Network connectivity issues for on-premises VMs would need to be analyzed using on-premises network monitoring tools and firewall logs.
Conclusion:
Azure Traffic Analytics is a valuable tool for analyzing network traffic and identifying allowed/denied packets within Azure.
However, it is not designed to analyze network traffic for on-premises virtual machines, even when they are connected to Azure via ExpressRoute. It lacks visibility into the on-premises network infrastructure.
Therefore, using Azure Traffic Analytics alone is insufficient to meet the goal of analyzing network traffic for all virtual machines (both on-premises and Azure) exhibiting network connectivity issues in this hybrid scenario. It will only provide insights into the Azure-side network traffic.
Final Answer: No
Why No is the correct answer: Azure Traffic Analytics is limited to analyzing network traffic within the Azure environment based on Azure network component logs (NSGs, Azure Firewall, etc.). It does not have visibility into on-premises network traffic, even when connected to Azure via ExpressRoute. Since the scenario involves VMs both on-premises and in Azure, and the need is to analyze network traffic to identify allowed/denied packets for all VMs, Azure Traffic Analytics by itself is not a sufficient solution. It can help with Azure VMs but not on-premises VMs.
Note: This question is part of a series of questions that present the same scenario. Each question in the series contains a unique solution that might meet the stated goals. Some question sets might have more than one correct solution, while others might not have a correct solution.
After you answer a question in this section, you will NOT be able to return to it. As a result, these questions will not appear in the review screen.
Your company has deployed several virtual machines (VMs) on-premises and to Azure. Azure ExpressRoute has been deployed and configured for on-premises to Azure connectivity.
Several VMs are exhibiting network connectivity issues.
You need to analyze the network traffic to determine whether packets are being allowed or denied to the VMs.
Solution: Use the Azure Advisor to analyze the network traffic.
Does the solution meet the goal?
Yes
No
The goal is to analyze network traffic to determine whether packets are being allowed or denied to VMs in a hybrid environment. The proposed solution is to use Azure Advisor.
Let’s evaluate if Azure Advisor is suitable for this task:
Azure Advisor’s Purpose: Azure Advisor is a service in Azure that provides recommendations on how to optimize your Azure deployments for cost, security, reliability, operational excellence, and performance. It analyzes your Azure resource configurations and usage telemetry.
Azure Advisor’s Capabilities Related to Networking: Azure Advisor can provide recommendations related to networking, such as:
Security Recommendations: Suggesting improvements to Network Security Groups (NSGs) to enhance security, like closing exposed ports or recommending the use of Azure Firewall.
Performance Recommendations: Identifying potential network bottlenecks or underutilized network resources.
Cost Optimization: Identifying potential cost savings in network configurations.
Reliability: Recommending configurations for better network resilience.
Limitations of Azure Advisor for Network Traffic Analysis:
Not a Packet-Level Analyzer: Azure Advisor does not perform real-time or detailed packet-level network traffic analysis. It does not capture network packets or analyze packet headers to determine if packets are being allowed or denied by network security rules.
Recommendation-Based, Not Diagnostic: Azure Advisor provides recommendations based on configuration and usage patterns. It’s not a diagnostic tool to troubleshoot specific network connectivity issues by analyzing traffic flow in real-time or near real-time.
Focus on Azure Resources: Azure Advisor primarily focuses on Azure resources and their configurations. It does not have direct visibility into on-premises network traffic or detailed configurations of on-premises network devices.
Analyzing Network Connectivity Issues: To determine if packets are being allowed or denied, you need tools that can inspect network traffic flows, such as:
Network Watcher (Packet Capture, NSG Flow Logs, Connection Troubleshoot): These tools in Azure Network Watcher are designed for diagnosing network connectivity issues by capturing packets, analyzing NSG rule hits, and testing connectivity.
Network Monitoring Tools (e.g., Wireshark, tcpdump): These tools can capture and analyze network traffic at the packet level on both on-premises and Azure VMs (if installed and configured appropriately).
Firewall Logs: Analyzing logs from firewalls (Azure Firewall or on-premises firewalls) can show which traffic is being allowed or denied based on firewall rules.
Conclusion: Azure Advisor is a valuable tool for getting recommendations to improve your Azure environment, including some aspects of networking. However, it is not designed for or capable of analyzing network traffic at the packet level to determine if packets are being allowed or denied. It’s not a network traffic analysis tool in the sense required to troubleshoot network connectivity issues at a detailed level.
Final Answer: No
Explanation: Azure Advisor is not designed for real-time or packet-level network traffic analysis. It provides recommendations based on configuration and usage patterns but does not have the capability to analyze network traffic flows to determine if packets are being allowed or denied. To achieve the goal of analyzing network traffic for allowed/denied packets, tools like Azure Network Watcher (Packet Capture, NSG Flow Logs) or traditional network monitoring tools are required, not Azure Advisor.
Note: This question is part of a series of questions that present the same scenario. Each question in the series contains a unique solution that might meet the stated goals. Some question sets might have more than one correct solution, while others might not have a correct solution.
After you answer a question in this section, you will NOT be able to return to it. As a result, these questions will not appear in the review screen.
Your company has deployed several virtual machines (VMs) on-premises and to Azure. Azure ExpressRoute has been deployed and configured for on-premises to Azure connectivity.
Several VMs are exhibiting network connectivity issues.
You need to analyze the network traffic to determine whether packets are being allowed or denied to the VMs.
Solution: Use Azure Network Watcher to run IP flow verify to analyze the network traffic.
Does the solution meet the goal?
Yes
No
The goal is to analyze network traffic to determine if packets are being allowed or denied to VMs in a hybrid environment. The proposed solution is to use Azure Network Watcher’s IP flow verify.
Let’s analyze if Azure Network Watcher’s IP flow verify is suitable for this goal:
Azure Network Watcher IP Flow Verify: This tool allows you to specify a source and destination IP address, port, and protocol, and then it checks the configured Network Security Groups (NSGs) and Azure Firewall rules in Azure to determine if the traffic would be allowed or denied.
How it helps in the hybrid scenario:
Azure VMs: For VMs in Azure, IP flow verify is directly applicable. You can use it to check if NSGs or Azure Firewall rules are blocking traffic to or from these VMs. This is crucial for diagnosing connectivity issues related to Azure network security configurations.
On-premises VMs communicating with Azure VMs: When on-premises VMs are experiencing connectivity issues with Azure VMs, IP flow verify can be used to check the Azure side of the connection. You can test if traffic from the on-premises VM’s IP range (or a representative IP) to the Azure VM is being blocked by Azure NSGs or Azure Firewall. This helps isolate whether the problem lies within Azure’s network security rules. While it doesn’t directly analyze on-premises firewalls or network configurations, it can pinpoint if the block is happening at the Azure perimeter.
Limitations: IP flow verify is primarily focused on the Azure network security layer (NSGs and Azure Firewall). It does not analyze on-premises firewalls, routers, or network configurations. Therefore, it will not provide a complete picture of the entire network path from on-premises to Azure.
Does it meet the goal? Yes, in part. IP flow verify does directly address the need to analyze network traffic to determine if packets are being allowed or denied, specifically in the context of Azure network security. For the Azure side of the hybrid connection, and for understanding if Azure NSGs or Firewall are causing the issues, IP flow verify is a valuable and relevant tool. While it doesn’t cover the on-premises network completely, it’s a significant step in diagnosing network connectivity problems in a hybrid environment, especially when Azure resources are involved in the communication path.
Considering the question asks “Does the solution meet the goal?”, and IP flow verify is a tool to analyze network traffic for allow/deny rules (within the Azure context which is part of the hybrid environment), the answer is Yes. It provides a mechanism to analyze a portion of the network path and identify potential packet blocking due to Azure security rules. It’s not a complete end-to-end hybrid solution, but it directly addresses the core requirement within the scope of Azure networking, which is relevant to the overall hybrid connectivity scenario.
Final Answer: Yes
DRAG DROP
You have an Azure subscription. The subscription contains Azure virtual machines that run Windows Server 2016 and Linux.
You need to use Azure Log Analytics design an alerting strategy for security-related events.
Which Log Analytics tables should you query? To answer, drag the appropriate tables to the correct log types. Each value may be used once, more than once, or not at all. You may need to drag the split bar between panes or scroll to view content. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
Tables
AzureActivity
AzureDiagnostics
Event
Syslog
Answer Area
Events from Linux system logging: Table
Events from Windows event logs: Table
To design an alerting strategy for security-related events using Azure Log Analytics for both Windows and Linux VMs, you need to query the tables that specifically store operating system level logs, especially security logs.
Let’s analyze each table and determine its purpose:
AzureActivity: This table stores Azure subscription activity logs. These logs provide insights into the operations performed on Azure resources at the subscription level. While it may contain some security-related activities like changes to security configurations in Azure, it is not the primary source for OS-level security events from within the VMs.
AzureDiagnostics: This table stores diagnostic logs for various Azure services and resources. For Virtual Machines, Azure Diagnostics can collect guest OS logs and performance metrics. However, by default, it might not be configured to collect detailed security event logs. You would need to specifically configure Azure Diagnostics to collect Windows Security Events or Linux Security logs and send them to this table, which is less common for standard security event monitoring.
Event: This table is specifically designed to store Windows Event Logs collected from Windows VMs. Windows Security Events are a critical source of security-related information in Windows environments. Therefore, the Event table is the correct table to query for security events from Windows VMs.
Syslog: This table is specifically designed to store Syslog messages collected from Linux VMs. Syslog is the standard logging facility in Linux systems, and security-related events are often logged via Syslog. Therefore, the Syslog table is the correct table to query for security events from Linux VMs.
Based on this understanding:
Events from Linux system logging: The appropriate table is Syslog.
Events from Windows event logs: The appropriate table is Event.
Answer Area:
Events from Linux system logging: Table Syslog
Events from Windows event logs: Table Event
You are designing a large Azure environment that will contain many subscriptions.
You plan to use Azure Policy as part of a governance solution.
To which three scopes can you assign Azure Policy definitions? Each correct answer presents a complete solution. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
management groups
subscriptions
Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) tenants
resource groups
Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) administrative units
compute resources
Azure Policy is a service in Azure that enables you to create, assign, and manage policies that enforce different rules and effects over your resources. These policies help you stay compliant with your corporate standards and service level agreements. A key aspect of Azure Policy is understanding the scope at which policies can be applied. Scope determines the resources to which the policy will be enforced.
Let’s examine each option and determine if it’s a valid scope for Azure Policy assignment:
management groups: Correct. Management groups are containers for managing access, policy, and compliance across multiple Azure subscriptions. Azure Policy can be assigned at the management group level. Policies assigned at this level apply to all subscriptions within that management group and all resource groups and resources within those subscriptions. This is useful for enforcing organization-wide policies.
subscriptions: Correct. Subscriptions are a fundamental unit in Azure and represent a logical container for your resources. Azure Policy can be assigned at the subscription level. Policies assigned at this level apply to all resource groups and resources within that subscription. This is a common scope for enforcing policies specific to a project, department, or environment represented by a subscription.
Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) tenants: Incorrect. While Azure Policy is managed and integrated within the Azure AD tenant, the Azure AD tenant itself is not a direct scope for assigning Azure Policy definitions in the context of resource governance. Azure Policy is primarily concerned with the governance of Azure resources within subscriptions and management groups. While policies can interact with Azure AD in terms of identity and access management, the scope of policy assignment for resource governance is not the Azure AD tenant itself.
resource groups: Correct. Resource groups are logical containers for Azure resources within a subscription. Azure Policy can be assigned at the resource group level. Policies assigned at this level apply only to the resources within that specific resource group. This allows for very granular policy enforcement, tailored to specific applications or workloads within a resource group.
Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) administrative units: Incorrect. Azure AD administrative units are used for delegated administration within Azure AD. They allow you to grant administrative permissions to a subset of users and groups within your Azure AD organization. While they are related to Azure AD and management, they are not scopes for Azure Policy definitions in the context of Azure resource governance. Azure Policy focuses on the Azure resource hierarchy (management groups, subscriptions, resource groups).
compute resources: Incorrect. Compute resources, such as virtual machines, virtual machine scale sets, or Azure Kubernetes Service clusters, are individual Azure resources. While Azure Policy effects can be applied to compute resources to control their configuration and behavior, you do not directly assign Azure Policy definitions to individual compute resources as a scope. Policy definitions are assigned at the container levels (management groups, subscriptions, resource groups), and then they apply to the resources within those containers, including compute resources.
Therefore, the three correct scopes for assigning Azure Policy definitions are:
management groups
subscriptions
resource groups
Final Answer:
management groups
subscriptions
resource groups
DRAG DROP
Your on-premises network contains a server named Server1 that runs an ASP.NET application named App1.
You have a hybrid deployment of Azure Active Directory (Azure AD).
You need to recommend a solution to ensure that users sign in by using their Azure AD account and Azure Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) when they connect to App1 from the internet.
Which three Azure services should you recommend be deployed and configured in sequence? To answer, move the appropriate services from the list of services to the answer area and arrange them in the correct order.
Services
an internal Azure Load Balancer
an Azure AD conditional access policy
Azure AD Application Proxy
an Azure AD managed identity
a public Azure Load Balancer
an Azure AD enterprise application
an App Service plan
Answer Area
Answer Area
Azure AD enterprise application
Azure AD Application Proxy
an Azure AD conditional access policy
Explanation:
Here’s the step-by-step rationale for the recommended sequence:
Azure AD enterprise application:
Reason: Before you can use Azure AD to manage authentication and access to App1, you must first register App1 as an application within your Azure AD tenant. This is done by creating an Azure AD enterprise application.
Function: Registering App1 as an enterprise application establishes an identity for App1 in Azure AD. This identity is crucial for Azure AD to understand that it needs to manage authentication for requests directed to App1. It also allows you to configure settings specific to App1, such as authentication methods and Conditional Access policies.
Azure AD Application Proxy:
Reason: Azure AD Application Proxy is the core service that enables secure remote access to on-premises web applications like App1 using Azure AD authentication.
Function:
Publishing to the Internet: Application Proxy publishes App1 to the internet through a public endpoint. Users access App1 via this public endpoint.
Reverse Proxy: It acts as a reverse proxy, intercepting user requests to App1 from the internet.
Azure AD Authentication Gateway: It handles the Azure AD authentication process. When a user accesses the Application Proxy endpoint, they are redirected to Azure AD for sign-in.
Secure Connection to On-premises: After successful Azure AD authentication, Application Proxy securely connects to Server1 (where App1 is hosted) on your on-premises network using an outbound connection from the Application Proxy connector.
an Azure AD conditional access policy:
Reason: To enforce Azure Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) specifically when users access App1 from the internet, you need to configure an Azure AD Conditional Access policy.
Function:
Policy Enforcement: Conditional Access policies allow you to define conditions under which users can access specific applications.
MFA Requirement: You create a Conditional Access policy that targets the Azure AD enterprise application representing App1. Within this policy, you specify that MFA is required for users accessing App1, especially when accessing from outside the corporate network (which is implied when accessing from the internet).
Granular Control: Conditional Access provides granular control over access based on user, location, device, application, and risk signals.
Why other options are not in the sequence or not used:
an internal Azure Load Balancer / a public Azure Load Balancer: While load balancers are important in many architectures, they are not directly part of the core sequence for enabling Azure AD authentication and MFA for an on-premises app via Application Proxy in this basic scenario. Application Proxy itself handles the initial internet-facing endpoint. Load balancers could be relevant for scaling the application behind Server1 on-premises, but not for the core authentication and publishing flow using Application Proxy.
an Azure AD managed identity: Managed identities are used for Azure resources to authenticate to other Azure services. They are not relevant for user authentication to an on-premises application via Application Proxy.
an App Service plan: App Service plans are for hosting Azure App Services (PaaS). App1 is an on-premises application, not an Azure App Service, so App Service Plan is not needed.
Correct Sequence and Justification Summary:
The sequence Azure AD enterprise application -> Azure AD Application Proxy -> Azure AD conditional access policy is the correct order because it represents the logical flow of setting up Azure AD authentication and MFA for an on-premises application:
Register the Application: First, you must register App1 in Azure AD as an enterprise application.
Publish via Application Proxy: Then, you use Azure AD Application Proxy to publish App1 to the internet and handle the initial authentication handshake with Azure AD.
Enforce MFA: Finally, you create a Conditional Access policy to enforce MFA for access to App1, ensuring enhanced security.
You have 100 servers that run Windows Server 2012 R2 and host Microsoft SQL Server 2012 R2 instances.
The instances host databases that have the following characteristics:
✑ The largest database is currently 3 TB. None of the databases will ever exceed 4 TB.
✑ Stored procedures are implemented by using CLR.
You plan to move all the data from SQL Server to Azure.
You need to recommend an Azure service to host the databases.
The solution must meet the following requirements:
✑ Whenever possible, minimize management overhead for the migrated databases.
✑ Minimize the number of database changes required to facilitate the migration.
✑ Ensure that users can authenticate by using their Active Directory credentials.
What should you include in the recommendation?
Azure SQL Database single databases
Azure SQL Database Managed Instance
Azure SQL Database elastic pools
SQL Server 2016 on Azure virtual machines
Let’s analyze each option based on the requirements:
- Azure SQL Database single databases
Minimize management overhead: Azure SQL Database single databases are a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering. Microsoft manages most of the underlying infrastructure, including patching, backups, and high availability. This significantly minimizes management overhead compared to managing SQL Server on VMs.
Minimize database changes: Migration to Azure SQL Database single databases might require some database changes. While the T-SQL surface area is largely compatible, there can be differences in features and behaviors. Specifically, CLR support in single databases has some limitations compared to on-premises SQL Server or Managed Instance. You might need to review and potentially adjust your CLR stored procedures.
Ensure Active Directory authentication: Azure SQL Database single databases support Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) authentication, allowing users to authenticate using their Active Directory credentials.
- Azure SQL Database Managed Instance
Minimize management overhead: Azure SQL Database Managed Instance is also a PaaS offering, but it provides more features and control compared to single databases, resembling a traditional SQL Server instance. Microsoft still manages the underlying infrastructure, reducing management overhead compared to VMs, although slightly more than single databases due to the instance-level management capabilities.
Minimize database changes: Azure SQL Database Managed Instance is designed for near 100% compatibility with on-premises SQL Server, including feature parity for SQL Server 2012 R2 and later. This includes full CLR support with fewer restrictions than single databases. Migration to Managed Instance generally requires minimal database changes, making it ideal for applications with complex dependencies or features like CLR.
Ensure Active Directory authentication: Azure SQL Database Managed Instance fully supports Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) authentication and integration, allowing users to use their Active Directory credentials.
- Azure SQL Database elastic pools
Azure SQL Database elastic pools are a deployment method for Azure SQL Database single databases, not a separate service tier with different capabilities. They are used to cost-effectively manage and scale multiple single databases that have variable usage patterns. The characteristics regarding management overhead, database changes, and AD authentication are the same as for Azure SQL Database single databases. Therefore, this option doesn’t fundamentally change the analysis compared to single databases.
- SQL Server 2016 on Azure virtual machines
Minimize management overhead: SQL Server on Azure virtual machines is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering. You have full control over the SQL Server and operating system, but you are also responsible for managing everything, including OS patching, SQL Server patching, backups, high availability configuration, and infrastructure maintenance. This option has the highest management overhead.
Minimize database changes: Migrating to SQL Server on Azure VMs requires the fewest database changes. It is essentially running SQL Server in a VM, providing the highest compatibility with your existing on-premises SQL Server 2012 R2 instances, including full CLR support without changes.
Ensure Active Directory authentication: SQL Server on Azure VMs can be joined to an Active Directory domain (if you extend your on-premises AD to Azure or use Azure AD Domain Services) and can use Windows Authentication for users to authenticate with their Active Directory credentials.
Comparison and Best Choice:
Feature Azure SQL DB Single DB Azure SQL DB Managed Instance SQL Server on Azure VMs
Management Overhead Lowest Low Highest
Database Changes Medium Minimal Minimal
AD Authentication Yes Yes Yes
CLR Support Limited Full Full
Considering all requirements:
Minimize management overhead: Azure SQL Database options (Single DB and Managed Instance) are better than SQL Server on VMs.
Minimize database changes: Azure SQL Database Managed Instance and SQL Server on VMs are better than single databases, especially for CLR compatibility.
Ensure AD authentication: All options satisfy this requirement.
Azure SQL Database Managed Instance strikes the best balance. It significantly minimizes management overhead compared to VMs, minimizes database changes (especially important for CLR), and supports Active Directory authentication. While single databases have even lower management overhead, the potential for database changes due to CLR limitations makes Managed Instance a more suitable recommendation for minimizing database changes and ensuring feature compatibility, especially for applications relying on CLR. SQL Server on Azure VMs minimizes database changes the most but fails to minimize management overhead.
Final Answer: Azure SQL Database Managed Instance
You have an Azure subscription that contains an Azure Blob storage account named store1.
You have an on-premises file server named Setver1 that runs Windows Sewer 2016. Server1 stores 500 GB of company files.
You need to store a copy of the company files from Server 1 in store1.
Which two possible Azure services achieve this goal? Each correct answer presents a complete solution. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point
an Azure Batch account
an integration account
an On-premises data gateway
an Azure Import/Export job
Azure Data factory
Let’s analyze each Azure service option to determine its suitability for copying files from an on-premises file server to Azure Blob storage:
An Azure Batch account: Azure Batch is designed for large-scale parallel compute workloads. While technically you could write a custom application using Azure Batch to copy files, it’s not the intended use case, and it would be an overly complex solution for a simple file copy task. It’s not a direct file transfer service.
An integration account: Integration accounts are used in Azure Logic Apps and Azure Functions to store integration artifacts like schemas, maps, and certificates. They are not related to directly transferring files from on-premises to Azure Blob storage.
An On-premises data gateway: The On-premises data gateway acts as a bridge between on-premises data sources and Azure cloud services. It enables Azure services like Azure Data Factory, Logic Apps, Power BI, and Power Apps to securely access data behind a firewall in your on-premises network. For copying files from an on-premises file server to Azure Blob Storage, the On-premises data gateway is a crucial component to establish connectivity and secure data transfer.
An Azure Import/Export job: Azure Import/Export service is used for transferring large amounts of data to Azure Blob Storage and Azure Files by physically shipping disk drives to an Azure datacenter. This is suitable for very large datasets when network bandwidth is limited or slow, but it’s not ideal for a routine file copy of 500 GB from an active file server if a network connection is available. This method is not an online transfer service.
Azure Data Factory: Azure Data Factory (ADF) is a cloud-based data integration service. It allows you to create data-driven workflows to orchestrate and automate data movement and transformation. ADF has connectors for various data sources and sinks, including on-premises file systems (via a Self-hosted Integration Runtime, which is based on the same technology as the On-premises data gateway) and Azure Blob Storage. ADF is a well-suited and efficient service for copying files from an on-premises file server to Azure Blob storage.
Considering the requirements and the options:
On-premises data gateway is essential to enable Azure services to access the on-premises file server securely.
Azure Data Factory is a service designed for data movement and can utilize the On-premises data gateway to connect to the on-premises file server and copy files to Azure Blob storage.
Therefore, the two Azure services that, when used together, achieve the goal of copying files from an on-premises server to Azure Blob storage are:
An On-premises data gateway (required to provide secure access to the on-premises file server).
Azure Data Factory (to orchestrate the data copy process using the gateway to connect to the on-premises source and write to Azure Blob storage).
While they work together, the question asks for two possible Azure services that achieve this goal. In the context of the options provided and typical Azure hybrid scenarios, Azure Data Factory and On-premises data gateway are the most relevant and commonly used services for this type of task.
Final Answer:
An On-premises data gateway
Azure Data Factory
HOTSPOT
You have an Azure subscription that contains the storage accounts shown in the following table.
Name Type Performance
storage1 StorageV2 Standard
storage2 SrorageV2 Premium
storage3 BlobStorage Standard
storage4 FileStorage Premium
You plan to implement two new apps that have the requirements shown in the following table.
Name Requirement
App1 Use lifecycle management to migrate app
data between storage tiers
App2 Store app data in an Azure file share
Which storage accounts should you recommend using for each app? To answer, select the appropriate options in the answer area. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
App1:
Storage1 and storage2 only
Storage1 and storage3 only
Storage1, storage2, and storage3 only
Storage1, storage2, storage3, and storage4
App2:
Storage4 only
Storage1 and storage4 only
Storage1, storage2, and storage4 only
Storage1, storage2, storage3, and storage4
App1 Requirement: Use lifecycle management to migrate app data between storage tiers
Lifecycle Management Feature: Azure Blob Storage lifecycle management is a feature that allows you to automatically transition blobs to different storage tiers (Hot, Cool, Archive) based on predefined rules. This feature is supported by General-purpose v2 (StorageV2) and Blob Storage accounts. Premium performance storage accounts are designed for low latency and high throughput and typically do not require lifecycle management as the data is intended to be accessed frequently. FileStorage accounts are for Azure File Shares and do not use lifecycle management in the same way as Blob Storage.
Analyzing Storage Accounts for App1:
storage1 (StorageV2, Standard): Supports lifecycle management.
storage2 (StorageV2, Premium): Supports lifecycle management (though less typical for premium due to cost optimization focus of lifecycle management, technically possible).
storage3 (BlobStorage, Standard): Supports lifecycle management.
storage4 (FileStorage, Premium): Does not support lifecycle management for blobs. FileStorage is for Azure File Shares.
Correct Option for App1: Storage accounts that support lifecycle management are storage1, storage2, and storage3. Therefore, the correct option for App1 is Storage1, storage2, and storage3 only.
App2 Requirement: Store app data in an Azure file share
Azure File Share Feature: Azure File Shares are fully managed file shares in the cloud, accessible via the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. Azure File Shares can be hosted on General-purpose v2 (StorageV2) accounts and FileStorage accounts. FileStorage accounts are specifically designed for premium, high-performance file shares.
Analyzing Storage Accounts for App2:
storage1 (StorageV2, Standard): Supports Azure File Shares (standard file shares).
storage2 (StorageV2, Premium): Supports Azure File Shares (premium file shares).
storage3 (BlobStorage, Standard): Does not support Azure File Shares. BlobStorage accounts are designed for blobs (object storage), not file shares.
storage4 (FileStorage, Premium): Supports Azure File Shares (premium file shares).
Correct Option for App2: Storage accounts that support Azure File Shares are storage1, storage2, and storage4. Therefore, the correct option for App2 is Storage1, storage2, and storage4 only.
Final Answer:
App1: Storage1, storage2, and storage3 only
App2: Storage1, storage2, and storage4 only
You are planning an Azure IoT Hub solution that will include 50,000 IoT devices.
Each device will stream data, including temperature, device ID, and time data. Approximately 50,000 records will be written every second. The data will be visualized in near real time.
You need to recommend a service to store and query the data.
Which two services can you recommend? Each correct answer presents a complete solution. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
Azure Table Storage
Azure Event Grid
Azure Cosmos DB SQL API
Azure Time Series Insights
To address the requirement of storing and querying high-velocity IoT data for near real-time visualization, we need to evaluate each service based on its capabilities for handling such data:
Azure Table Storage:
Pros: NoSQL key-value store, scalable, cost-effective for large volumes of data, can handle high write throughput.
Cons: Limited querying capabilities, not optimized for complex queries or aggregations needed for real-time analytics and visualization. Queries are most efficient when filtering by partition key and row key. Less suitable for complex time-series analysis. Not ideal for “near real-time” complex visualizations that might require flexible querying.
Azure Event Grid:
Pros: Publishes and subscribes to events from Azure services and custom sources. Excellent for event-driven architectures.
Cons: Not a data storage service. Event Grid is for routing events, not storing and querying data for visualization. It would be used to trigger actions when data arrives at IoT Hub, but not for storing the data itself for querying and visualization.
Azure Cosmos DB SQL API:
Pros: NoSQL document database, highly scalable, globally distributed, supports high write throughput and low latency. Rich SQL query API allows for flexible and complex queries, including time-series queries and aggregations. Suitable for near real-time analytics and visualization. Can handle the 50,000 records/second ingestion rate.
Cons: Can be more expensive than Table Storage for very simple data access patterns, but the rich query and scalability features justify the cost for complex real-time scenarios.
Azure Time Series Insights:
Pros: Purpose-built for time-series data from IoT devices. Highly scalable for ingestion and querying of time-series data. Optimized for time-based queries, aggregations, and analytics. Provides near real-time dashboards and visualization capabilities out-of-the-box for time-series data. Designed to handle high-velocity data streams from IoT devices. Excellent for visualizing temperature, device ID, and time data in near real-time.
Cons: Specifically for time-series data. Less flexible for general-purpose NoSQL data storage compared to Cosmos DB if you have other data types beyond time-series.
Considering the requirements:
Store and query data: Azure Table Storage, Azure Cosmos DB, and Azure Time Series Insights are storage services. Azure Event Grid is not.
Near real-time visualization: Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Time Series Insights are well-suited for near real-time visualization due to their query capabilities and low latency. Azure Table Storage is less ideal for complex real-time visualizations.
High ingestion rate (50,000 records per second): Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Time Series Insights are designed for high-throughput data ingestion. Azure Table Storage can handle high throughput, but its querying limitations become more pronounced at scale for complex analytics.
Based on this analysis, the two best services for storing and querying IoT data for near real-time visualization, considering the high ingestion rate and the need for querying and visualization, are Azure Cosmos DB SQL API and Azure Time Series Insights. Azure Time Series Insights is purpose-built for this scenario and offers out-of-the-box visualization capabilities, making it a very strong choice. Azure Cosmos DB provides more general-purpose NoSQL capabilities and global distribution if needed, while still being excellent for time-series data and real-time querying.
Final Answer:
Azure Cosmos DB SQL API
Azure Time Series Insights
You are designing an application that will aggregate content for users.
You need to recommend a database solution for the application.
The solution must meet the following requirements:
✑ Support SQL commands.
✑ Support multi-master writes.
✑ Guarantee low latency read operations.
What should you include in the recommendation?
Azure Cosmos DB SQL API
Azure SQL Database that uses active geo-replication
Azure SQL Database Hyperscale
Azure Database for PostgreSQL
Let’s analyze each option against the given requirements:
Azure Cosmos DB SQL API:
Support SQL commands: Yes. Azure Cosmos DB SQL API uses a subset of ANSI SQL, extended for JSON and NoSQL features. It’s designed to be familiar for SQL developers.
Support multi-master writes: Yes. Azure Cosmos DB is natively designed for multi-master writes. You can configure your Cosmos DB account to have multiple write regions, allowing you to perform write operations in any of the chosen regions. This is a core feature of Cosmos DB’s global distribution and low-latency write capabilities.
Guarantee low latency read operations: Yes. Cosmos DB is designed for low latency reads and writes at a global scale. By using the globally distributed nature of Cosmos DB and choosing read regions close to your users, you can ensure low latency read operations.
Azure SQL Database that uses active geo-replication:
Support SQL commands: Yes. Azure SQL Database fully supports T-SQL, the standard SQL dialect for SQL Server and Azure SQL Database.
Support multi-master writes: No. Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication is not multi-master. It operates on a primary-secondary model. Writes are only performed on the primary replica, and then asynchronously replicated to secondary replicas. While secondary replicas provide read scale and disaster recovery, they are read-only and do not support writes.
Guarantee low latency read operations: Yes, for read operations from the secondary replicas, especially if geographically close to users. However, write operations are always directed to the primary replica, which might introduce latency for writes and does not fulfill the multi-master write requirement.
Azure SQL Database Hyperscale:
Support SQL commands: Yes. Azure SQL Database Hyperscale fully supports T-SQL.
Support multi-master writes: No. Azure SQL Database Hyperscale is not multi-master. While Hyperscale has a distributed architecture with multiple read replicas for scalability, write operations are still processed through a single primary compute replica. It’s designed for read-heavy workloads and scalability, not for multi-master writes for globally distributed low-latency writes.
Guarantee low latency read operations: Yes. Hyperscale is designed for very high read scalability and performance, providing low latency reads from multiple replicas. However, it does not provide multi-master write capability.
Azure Database for PostgreSQL:
Support SQL commands: Yes. PostgreSQL is a relational database that supports SQL (ANSI SQL standard).
Support multi-master writes: No, not in the standard managed Azure Database for PostgreSQL service. While PostgreSQL has extensions and architectures that can achieve multi-master setups (like BDR - Bi-Directional Replication or Citus distributed PostgreSQL), these are not part of the standard Azure managed offering and add significant complexity. Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server offers read replicas for read scalability but not multi-master writes in the context asked. For a simple managed service comparison, it’s primarily single-master.
Guarantee low latency read operations: Read replicas in PostgreSQL can offer low latency reads, but the primary database is still the single point for writes, thus not fulfilling the multi-master write requirement.
Conclusion:
Only Azure Cosmos DB SQL API fully meets all three requirements: SQL command support, multi-master writes, and guaranteed low latency read operations. The other options fail on the multi-master write requirement, which is crucial for applications needing low-latency writes in a globally distributed or highly available manner.
Final Answer: Azure Cosmos DB SQL API
HOTSPOT
You have an Azure subscription that contains the SQL servers shown in the following table.
Name Resource group Location
SQLsvr1 RG1 East US
SQLsvr2 RG2 West US
The subscription contains the storage accounts shown in the following table.
Name Resource group Location Account kind
storage1 RG1 East US StorageV2 (general purpose v2)
storage2 RG2 Central US BlobStorage
You create the Azure SQL databases shown in the following table.
Name Resource group Server Pricing tier
SQLdb1 RG1 SQLsvr1 Standard
SQLdb2 RG1 SQLsvr1 Standard
SQLdb3 RG2 SQLsvr2 Premium
Answer Area
Statements Yes No
When you enable auditing for SQLdb1, you can store the audit information to storage1.
When you enable auditing for SQLdb2, you can store the audit information to storage2.
When you enable auditing for SQLdb3, you can store the audit information to storage2.
Answer:
Statements Yes No
When you enable auditing for SQLdb1, you can store the audit information to storage1. Yes
When you enable auditing for SQLdb2, you can store the audit information to storage2. No
When you enable auditing for SQLdb3, you can store the audit information to storage2. No
Explanation:
Statement 1: When you enable auditing for SQLdb1, you can store the audit information to storage1.
Yes. SQLdb1 is on SQLsvr1, which is in East US. storage1 is also in East US. Azure SQL Database auditing requires the storage account to be in the same region as the SQL server. storage1 is a StorageV2 account, which is compatible with Azure SQL Auditing.
Statement 2: When you enable auditing for SQLdb2, you can store the audit information to storage2.
No. SQLdb2 is on SQLsvr1, which is in East US. storage2 is in Central US. The storage account must be in the same region as the SQL server. storage2 is in a different region (Central US) than SQLsvr1 (East US).
Statement 3: When you enable auditing for SQLdb3, you can store the audit information to storage2.
No. SQLdb3 is on SQLsvr2, which is in West US. storage2 is in Central US. The storage account must be in the same region as the SQL server. storage2 is in a different region (Central US) than SQLsvr2 (West US).
Key takeaway for Azure SQL Database Auditing and Storage Accounts:
Region Co-location is Mandatory: The storage account used for storing Azure SQL Database audit logs must be in the same Azure region as the Azure SQL server or Managed Instance.
Storage Account Type: Generally, StorageV2 (general purpose v2) and BlobStorage account kinds are suitable for storing audit logs. FileStorage is not used for Azure SQL Auditing.
Resource Group is Irrelevant for Region Constraint: The resource group placement of the SQL server and storage account does not affect the region constraint for auditing. The critical factor is the Azure region of both resources.
You have SQL Server on an Azure virtual machine. The databases are written to nightly as part of a batch process.
You need to recommend a disaster recovery solution for the data.
The solution must meet the following requirements:
✑ Provide the ability to recover in the event of a regional outage.
✑ Support a recovery time objective (RTO) of 15 minutes.
✑ Support a recovery point objective (RPO) of 24 hours.
✑ Support automated recovery.
✑ Minimize costs.
What should you include in the recommendation?
Azure virtual machine availability sets
Azure Disk Backup
an Always On availability group
Azure Site Recovery
Let’s analyze each option against the disaster recovery requirements:
Azure virtual machine availability sets:
Regional outage recovery: No. Availability sets protect against hardware failures within a single datacenter, not regional outages.
RTO of 15 minutes: No. Availability sets do not directly address RTO in a disaster recovery scenario.
RPO of 24 hours: No. Availability sets do not directly address RPO in a disaster recovery scenario.
Automated recovery: No. Availability sets do not provide automated recovery in a disaster recovery scenario.
Minimize costs: Yes, availability sets are a basic feature and do not add significant cost beyond the VMs themselves.
Conclusion: Availability sets do not meet the requirements for regional disaster recovery, RTO, RPO, or automated recovery.
Azure Disk Backup:
Regional outage recovery: Yes. Azure Disk Backup, especially with Geo-redundant storage for backups, can allow recovery in a different region if the primary region fails.
RTO of 15 minutes: No. Restoring a VM and SQL Server from Azure Disk Backup can take significantly longer than 15 minutes, especially for large VMs and databases.
RPO of 24 hours: Yes. Azure Disk Backup can be configured to take backups frequently (e.g., daily or more often), easily meeting an RPO of 24 hours.
Automated recovery: No. While backup schedules are automated, the recovery process (restoring a VM and SQL Server) is not fully automated in the sense of automatic failover during a disaster. It requires manual steps or scripting.
Minimize costs: Yes. Azure Disk Backup is a relatively cost-effective backup solution.
Conclusion: Azure Disk Backup meets the RPO and regional outage recovery requirements and is cost-effective, but it fails to meet the RTO of 15 minutes and automated recovery.
An Always On availability group:
Regional outage recovery: Yes. By configuring an Always On Availability Group with synchronous or asynchronous replicas in a secondary Azure region, you can recover from a regional outage.
RTO of 15 minutes: Yes. Always On Availability Groups are designed for high availability and disaster recovery with fast failover times, typically within seconds to minutes, easily meeting the 15-minute RTO.
RPO of 24 hours: Yes. Always On Availability Groups, especially with synchronous replication (though often asynchronous is used for cross-region DR for performance reasons), can achieve a very low RPO, well within 24 hours, and practically close to zero data loss in many scenarios.
Automated recovery: Yes. Always On Availability Groups support automatic failover to a secondary replica in case of a primary replica failure, including regional outages (depending on configuration).
Minimize costs: No. Always On Availability Groups are the most expensive option. They require multiple VMs (at least two SQL Server VMs), SQL Server licensing for each VM, and potentially additional storage and networking costs.
Conclusion: Always On Availability Groups meet all functional requirements (regional outage recovery, RTO, RPO, automated recovery) but do not minimize costs.
Azure Site Recovery:
Regional outage recovery: Yes. Azure Site Recovery is specifically designed for disaster recovery, including regional outages. It replicates VMs to a secondary Azure region.
RTO of 15 minutes: Yes. Azure Site Recovery is designed to achieve low RTOs. With proper planning, runbooks, and pre-warming of standby resources, an RTO of 15 minutes is achievable.
RPO of 24 hours: Yes. Azure Site Recovery supports continuous replication, allowing for very low RPO, well within 24 hours, and typically in minutes. Point-in-time recovery is also available.
Automated recovery: Yes. Azure Site Recovery supports recovery plans that can automate the failover process, including VM startup order, script execution, and IP address updates, enabling automated recovery.
Minimize costs: No, but more cost-effective than Always On Availability Groups. Azure Site Recovery costs are incurred for replication, storage, and compute resources used in the recovery region only during testing or failover. You don’t need to pay for a fully licensed hot standby SQL Server VM continuously.
Conclusion: Azure Site Recovery meets all functional requirements (regional outage recovery, RTO, RPO, automated recovery) and is more cost-effective than Always On Availability Groups, although not as cheap as Azure Disk Backup.
Comparing and Choosing the Best Option:
Given the requirements and the need to “minimize costs” whenever possible, while still meeting all functional requirements, Azure Site Recovery is the most appropriate recommendation.
Always On Availability Groups are overkill and significantly more expensive for a 24-hour RPO.
Azure Disk Backup is cheaper but fails to meet the critical RTO of 15 minutes and automated recovery.
Availability Sets are irrelevant for regional DR.
Azure Site Recovery provides the best balance of meeting all the DR requirements (regional outage recovery, RTO of 15 mins, RPO of 24 hours, automated recovery) while being more cost-conscious than Always On Availability Groups. It’s not the absolute cheapest solution, but it effectively minimizes costs while still delivering the necessary DR capabilities.
Final Answer: Azure Site Recovery
You need to deploy resources to host a stateless web app in an Azure subscription.
The solution must meet the following requirements:
✑ Provide access to the full .NET framework.
✑ Provide redundancy if an Azure region fails.
✑ Grant administrators access to the operating system to install custom application dependencies.
Solution: You deploy two Azure virtual machines to two Azure regions, and you create a Traffic Manager profile.
Does this meet the goal?
Yes
No
Let’s break down the requirements and analyze if the proposed solution meets them.
Requirements:
Provide access to the full .NET framework: Virtual Machines allow you to install and configure the operating system as needed. You can install Windows Server and the full .NET Framework on Azure VMs.
Provide redundancy if an Azure region fails: Deploying VMs in two different Azure regions inherently provides geographical redundancy. If one Azure region experiences a failure, the VMs in the other region can continue to operate.
Grant administrators access to the operating system to install custom application dependencies: Azure Virtual Machines provide full administrative access to the operating system. Administrators can log in and install any necessary custom application dependencies directly on the VM.
Solution:
Deploy two Azure virtual machines to two Azure regions: This directly addresses the redundancy requirement. Having VMs in separate regions ensures that if one region fails, the application can still be served from the VMs in the other region.
Create a Traffic Manager profile: Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer. It can be configured to route traffic to healthy endpoints based on different routing methods, including failover. In this scenario, Traffic Manager can be configured to monitor the health of the web app running on the VMs in both regions. If a region fails and the VMs become unhealthy, Traffic Manager will automatically redirect traffic to the VMs in the healthy region.
Evaluation:
Full .NET Framework: Azure VMs allow you to install any version of Windows Server and the .NET Framework, fulfilling this requirement.
Redundancy if an Azure region fails: By deploying VMs in two regions and using Traffic Manager, the solution achieves regional redundancy and failover capabilities. If one region goes down, Traffic Manager will route traffic to the healthy region.
Administrator access to OS: Azure VMs provide full administrator access to the operating system, allowing for the installation of custom application dependencies.
Conclusion:
The proposed solution effectively addresses all the stated requirements. Deploying two Azure VMs in separate regions combined with Azure Traffic Manager provides a redundant and resilient architecture for a stateless web app, while also allowing for full .NET framework support and OS-level administrative access for custom dependencies.
Final Answer: Yes
You need to deploy resources to host a stateless web app in an Azure subscription.
The solution must meet the following requirements:
- Provide access to the full .NET framework.
- Provide redundancy if an Azure region fails.
- Grant administrators access to the operating system to install custom application dependencies.
Solution: You deploy an Azure virtual machine to two Azure regions, and you deploy an Azure Application Gateway.
Does this meet the goal?
Yes
No
Let’s analyze the requirements and the proposed solution step-by-step.
Requirements:
Provide access to the full .NET framework: Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) allow you to install and configure the operating system, including installing the full .NET Framework. This requirement can be met by using Azure VMs.
Provide redundancy if an Azure region fails: To achieve regional redundancy, you need to deploy resources in multiple Azure regions.
Grant administrators access to the operating system to install custom application dependencies: Azure Virtual Machines provide full administrator access to the operating system, allowing administrators to install any custom dependencies. This requirement can be met by using Azure VMs.
Solution:
You deploy an Azure virtual machine to two Azure regions: This statement is fundamentally incorrect and impossible in Azure. You cannot deploy a single Azure virtual machine across two different Azure regions. Azure virtual machines are region-specific resources. To achieve regional redundancy using VMs, you would need to deploy separate sets of VMs in each region.
You deploy an Azure Application Gateway: Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer that operates at Layer 7 of the OSI model. It can provide features like SSL termination, web application firewall (WAF), and routing traffic to backend pools. Application Gateway can be configured to distribute traffic across backend pools located in different regions, which can contribute to regional redundancy. However, Application Gateway itself does not create the underlying compute resources in multiple regions. It merely distributes traffic to those resources.
Evaluation:
Full .NET framework: If we assume the intention was to deploy VMs in two regions (even though the wording is wrong), then VMs can support the full .NET framework. However, as described, it is deploying one VM.
Regional redundancy: Deploying one VM to two regions is not possible and therefore does not provide regional redundancy. Application Gateway can help with distributing traffic if there are redundant backends in different regions, but the solution description does not create redundant VMs in different regions. It starts with an impossible deployment scenario.
Administrator access to the operating system: If we assume the intention was to deploy VMs in two regions, then VMs provide admin access. However, as described, it is deploying one VM in two regions, which is not a valid setup.
Conclusion:
The core issue is the statement “You deploy an Azure virtual machine to two Azure regions.” This is technically incorrect and invalid in Azure. You cannot deploy a single VM across regions. To achieve regional redundancy with VMs, you need to deploy at least one VM in each region, and then use a service like Azure Traffic Manager or Application Gateway (in a multi-region setup) to distribute traffic and handle failover.
Because the fundamental premise of deploying a single VM to two regions is incorrect, the proposed solution does not meet the goal of providing regional redundancy as described. The solution description is flawed from the outset.
Final Answer: No
HOTSPOT
You plan to create an Azure Storage account that will host file shares. The shares will be accessed from on-premises applications that are transaction-intensive.
You need to recommend a solution to minimize latency when accessing the file shares. The solution must provide the highest-level of resiliency for the selected storage tier.
What should you include in the recommendation? To answer, select the appropriate options in the answer area. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
Storage tier:
Hot
Premium
Transaction optimized
Resiliency:
Geo-redundant storage (GRS)
Zone-redundant storage (ZRS)
Locally-redundant storage (LRS)
Answer:
Storage tier: Premium
Resiliency: Zone-redundant storage (ZRS)
Explanation:
Storage tier: Premium
Minimize Latency: For transaction-intensive applications accessing file shares, Premium storage tier is the optimal choice. Premium storage is designed for low latency and high IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second). It uses SSD (Solid State Drive) based storage, which provides significantly faster performance compared to the HDD-based Standard storage tiers (Hot and Cool).
Hot and Transaction optimized are not suitable here:
Hot storage is designed for frequently accessed data but still uses HDD for file shares, resulting in higher latency compared to Premium.
Transaction optimized is not a valid Azure Storage tier option in this context.
Resiliency: Zone-redundant storage (ZRS)
Highest Level of Resiliency for Premium: For Premium file shares, the available redundancy options are Locally-redundant storage (LRS) and Zone-redundant storage (ZRS).
Locally-redundant storage (LRS): Replicates your data three times within a single physical location in the primary region. It’s the lowest-cost redundancy option and protects against server rack and drive failures.
Zone-redundant storage (ZRS): Replicates your data synchronously across three Azure availability zones in the primary region. Each availability zone is a separate physical location with independent power, cooling, and networking. ZRS provides high availability by protecting against datacenter failures within a region.
Geo-redundant storage (GRS): Geo-redundant storage replicates your data to a secondary region that is hundreds of miles away from the primary region. While GRS offers the highest level of data durability and protection against regional disasters, it is not available for Premium file shares.
Why ZRS is the highest resiliency for Premium: Since GRS is not an option for Premium file shares, Zone-redundant storage (ZRS) becomes the highest level of resiliency available for the Premium tier. ZRS provides better resiliency than LRS by protecting against availability zone failures, which is more robust than just single datacenter protection offered by LRS.
In summary:
To minimize latency for transaction-intensive workloads, Premium storage tier is necessary. For the highest level of resiliency available within the Premium tier for file shares, Zone-redundant storage (ZRS) should be selected because GRS is not supported for Premium file shares.
You need to deploy resources to host a stateless web app in an Azure subscription.
The solution must meet the following requirements:
- Provide access to the full .NET framework.
- Provide redundancy if an Azure region fails.
- Grant administrators access to the operating system to install custom application dependencies.
Solution: You deploy an Azure virtual machine scale set that uses autoscaling.
Does this meet the goal?
Yes
No
Let’s examine the requirements and evaluate whether deploying an Azure virtual machine scale set (VMSS) with autoscaling meets them.
Requirements:
Provide access to the full .NET framework:
Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets are based on Azure Virtual Machines. You can choose the operating system for the VMs in the scale set, including Windows Server.
On Windows Server, you can install and run applications that require the full .NET Framework.
Yes, VMSS can provide access to the full .NET framework.
Provide redundancy if an Azure region fails:
Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets are designed for high availability and scalability within a single Azure region.
A single VMSS deployment is confined to a specific Azure region. If the entire Azure region experiences an outage, the VMSS and the web app hosted on it will be unavailable.
To achieve redundancy across Azure regions, you would need to deploy multiple VMSSs in different Azure regions and use a service like Azure Traffic Manager or Azure Front Door to distribute traffic and provide failover capabilities.
No, deploying a single Azure virtual machine scale set, even with autoscaling, does not provide redundancy in case of an Azure region failure. The solution description only mentions deploying an Azure virtual machine scale set, implying a single deployment within a single region.
Grant administrators access to the operating system to install custom application dependencies:
Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets are built upon Azure Virtual Machines. You can configure the VM instances within a VMSS just like individual VMs.
Administrators can access the operating system of the VM instances in a VMSS using methods like RDP (for Windows) or SSH (for Linux) and install custom application dependencies.
Yes, VMSS grants administrators access to the operating system to install custom application dependencies.
Evaluation of the Solution:
The solution of deploying a single Azure virtual machine scale set with autoscaling meets two out of the three requirements: providing access to the full .NET framework and granting administrator access to the OS. However, it fails to meet the crucial requirement of providing redundancy if an Azure region fails. A single VMSS is region-bound and will be affected by a regional outage.
To achieve regional redundancy, you would need a more complex setup involving multiple VMSS deployments across different regions and a global load balancing solution, which is not described in the proposed solution.
Conclusion:
The proposed solution, as described, does not fully meet the goal because it does not provide redundancy in the event of an Azure region failure. A single VMSS, even with autoscaling, is not designed for cross-region disaster recovery.
Final Answer: No
You plan to move a web application named App1 from an on-premises data center to Azure.
App1 depends on a custom COM component that is installed on the host server.
You need to recommend a solution to host App1 in Azure.
The solution must meet the following requirements:
✑ App1 must be available to users if an Azure data center becomes unavailable.
✑ Costs must be minimized.
What should you include in the recommendation?
In two Azure regions, deploy a load balancer and a virtual machine scale set.
In two Azure regions, deploy a Traffic Manager profile and a web app.
In two Azure regions, deploy a load balancer and a web app.
Deploy a load balancer and a virtual machine scale set across two availability zones.
Let’s analyze each option against the stated requirements:
Requirement 1: App1 must be available to users if an Azure data center becomes unavailable (Regional Redundancy).
Requirement 2: Costs must be minimized.
Requirement 3: App1 depends on a custom COM component.
Option 1: In two Azure regions, deploy a load balancer and a virtual machine scale set.
Regional Redundancy: Yes, deploying resources in two Azure regions directly addresses regional outages. Using a load balancer (like Azure Load Balancer or Application Gateway in each region) and VM scale sets in each region enables regional failover.
Cost Minimization: VM scale sets can be cost-effective for stateless web applications, especially when combined with autoscaling. You only pay for the VMs that are running.
COM Component Support: Yes, virtual machines provide full control over the operating system, allowing you to install and register custom COM components required by App1.
Overall: This option effectively addresses all requirements.
Option 2: In two Azure regions, deploy a Traffic Manager profile and a web app.
Regional Redundancy: Yes, Traffic Manager can route traffic to web apps in different regions, providing regional failover. Azure Web Apps (App Service) can be deployed in multiple regions.
Cost Minimization: Azure Web Apps are generally a cost-effective PaaS solution with less management overhead than VMs.
COM Component Support: No. Azure Web Apps (App Service) is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering. You cannot install custom COM components on Azure Web Apps. Web Apps run in a managed environment where you do not have operating system level access to install custom components.
Overall: This option fails to meet the COM component requirement.
Option 3: In two Azure regions, deploy a load balancer and a web app.
Regional Redundancy: Yes, similar to option 2, if “load balancer” is interpreted as a global service like Traffic Manager or Front Door to distribute traffic across regional web app deployments.
Cost Minimization: Azure Web Apps are generally cost-effective.
COM Component Support: No. Same limitation as option 2; Azure Web Apps do not support custom COM components.
Overall: This option also fails to meet the COM component requirement.
Option 4: Deploy a load balancer and a virtual machine scale set across two availability zones.
Regional Redundancy: No. Availability zones provide high availability within a single Azure region by distributing resources across physically separate zones within the same region. They do not protect against regional outages. A regional outage will affect all availability zones within that region.
Cost Minimization: VM scale sets can be cost-effective. Availability zones do not drastically increase costs, but they don’t provide regional DR.
COM Component Support: Yes, VM scale sets allow you to install custom COM components on the VMs.
Overall: This option fails to meet the regional redundancy requirement.
Conclusion:
Considering all requirements, the only option that meets all of them is Option 1: In two Azure regions, deploy a load balancer and a virtual machine scale set. This option provides regional redundancy, can be cost-minimized, and most importantly, supports the custom COM component dependency by using virtual machines where you can install the component on the OS. Options involving Web Apps fail due to the COM component limitation, and the Availability Zone option fails to provide regional disaster recovery.
Final Answer: In two Azure regions, deploy a load balancer and a virtual machine scale set.
Your company has the infrastructure shown in the following table.
Location Resource
Azure
* Azure subscription named Subscription1
* 20 Azure web apps
On-premises datacenter
* Active Directory domain
* Server running Azure AD Connect
* Linux computer named Server1
The on-premises Active Directory domain syncs to Azure Active Directory (Azure AD).
Server1 runs an application named Appl that uses LDAP queries to verify user identities in the on-premises Active Directory domain.
You plan to migrate Server1 to a virtual machine in Subscription1.
A company security policy states that the virtual machines and services deployed to Subscription1 must be prevented from accessing the on-premises network.
You need to recommend a solution to ensure that Appl continues to function after the migration. The solution must meet the security policy.
What should you include in the recommendation?
Azure AD Domain Services (Azure AD DS)
an Azure VPN gateway
the Active Directory Domain Services role on a virtual machine
Azure AD Application Proxy
The core requirement is to allow the migrated application (App1) to continue using LDAP queries for user identity verification, but without violating the security policy that prohibits Azure resources from accessing the on-premises network.
Let’s evaluate each option:
Azure AD Domain Services (Azure AD DS):
Functionality: Azure AD DS provides managed domain services such as domain join, group policy, LDAP, and Kerberos/NTLM authentication within Azure. It’s essentially a domain controller hosted in Azure but managed by Microsoft.
LDAP Support: Azure AD DS explicitly supports LDAP queries. Applications running on VMs joined to an Azure AD DS domain can perform LDAP queries against the Azure AD DS domain controllers.
Security Policy Compliance: By using Azure AD DS, the VM hosting App1 will authenticate against the Azure AD DS domain controllers hosted within Azure. This completely avoids accessing the on-premises Active Directory. Therefore, it fully complies with the security policy.
Suitability: This is a strong candidate as it directly addresses the need for LDAP functionality within Azure while adhering to the security policy.
An Azure VPN gateway:
Functionality: Azure VPN Gateway creates a secure, encrypted connection between your Azure virtual network and your on-premises network.
LDAP Support: With a VPN connection, the VM in Azure could directly query the on-premises Active Directory domain controllers via LDAP.
Security Policy Compliance: This option directly violates the security policy. A VPN gateway enables access from Azure resources to the on-premises network, which is explicitly prohibited.
Suitability: This option is incorrect because it violates the core security requirement.
The Active Directory Domain Services role on a virtual machine:
Functionality: This involves deploying a Windows Server virtual machine in Azure and installing the Active Directory Domain Services role to create a new domain controller within Azure.
LDAP Support: Applications on VMs joined to this newly created Azure-based domain can perform LDAP queries against this Azure-hosted domain controller.
Security Policy Compliance: This option complies with the security policy. The LDAP queries would be directed to the domain controller hosted within Azure, and not to the on-premises Active Directory. It isolates Azure resources from the on-premises network for authentication purposes.
Suitability: This is also a viable solution as it provides LDAP functionality within Azure and meets the security policy. However, it involves more management overhead compared to Azure AD DS, as you are responsible for managing the domain controller VM.
Azure AD Application Proxy:
Functionality: Azure AD Application Proxy is used to publish on-premises web applications to the internet through Azure AD authentication. It provides secure remote access to web applications.
LDAP Support: Azure AD Application Proxy is not related to enabling LDAP queries for an application running within Azure. It’s for providing reverse proxy and authentication for web applications, not for backend LDAP authentication for applications themselves.
Security Policy Compliance: Irrelevant in the context of this security policy, as it doesn’t address the LDAP query requirement for App1 within Azure.
Suitability: This option is incorrect as it does not address the requirement of LDAP queries for App1.
Comparison and Best Recommendation:
Both Azure AD Domain Services and The Active Directory Domain Services role on a virtual machine can technically solve the problem and meet the security policy. However, Azure AD Domain Services (Azure AD DS) is the more managed, streamlined, and generally recommended solution for this scenario.
Azure AD DS offers a managed service, reducing operational overhead for managing domain controllers. It’s designed for Azure environments and integrates well with Azure AD.
AD DS role on a VM requires managing the VM and the domain controller infrastructure yourself, which adds complexity and management overhead.
Considering the need for a recommendation that is efficient and aligned with Azure best practices for cloud-based identity and access management, Azure AD Domain Services (Azure AD DS) is the most appropriate and recommended solution.
Final Answer: Azure AD Domain Services (Azure AD DS)
You need to design a solution that will execute custom C# code in response to an event routed to Azure Event Grid.
The solution must meet the following requirements:
✑ The executed code must be able to access the private IP address of a Microsoft SQL Server instance that runs on an Azure virtual machine.
Costs must be minimized.
What should you include in the solution?
Azure Logic Apps in the integrated service environment
Azure Functions in the Dedicated plan and the Basic Azure App Service plan
Azure Logic Apps in the Consumption plan
Azure Functions in the Consumption plan
Let’s break down the requirements and evaluate each option:
Requirements:
Execute custom C# code: The solution must be capable of running custom C# code.
Access private IP of SQL Server VM: The code needs to connect to a SQL Server instance using its private IP address within an Azure Virtual Network.
Minimize costs: The solution should be cost-effective.
Option Analysis:
Azure Logic Apps in the integrated service environment (ISE):
Custom C# code: Logic Apps are primarily workflow orchestration services. While you can execute code within a Logic App, it’s not directly custom C# code. You would typically call an Azure Function or use inline code actions, which are more for expressions and data manipulation than complex C# logic.
Private IP access: Logic Apps in an ISE run within your Azure Virtual Network. This means they have direct access to resources within that VNet, including VMs with private IPs like the SQL Server VM.
Cost minimization: ISE is the most expensive deployment option for Logic Apps. It is designed for large enterprises and mission-critical workloads, and it incurs a fixed cost regardless of usage. This option does not minimize costs.
Azure Functions in the Dedicated plan and the Basic Azure App Service plan:
Custom C# code: Azure Functions fully support writing and executing custom C# code.
Private IP access: When Azure Functions run in a Dedicated App Service plan, they can be integrated into an Azure Virtual Network. VNet integration allows the Function App to access resources within the VNet using private IPs, including the SQL Server VM.
Cost minimization: Dedicated plans are more predictable in cost as you pay for the App Service plan instance regardless of the number of executions. The Basic tier is a lower-cost Dedicated plan, but it’s still not as cost-effective as serverless options when considering sporadic event-driven execution. It’s more expensive than Consumption plan if the function is not constantly running.
Azure Logic Apps in the Consumption plan:
Custom C# code: Similar to ISE, Logic Apps in the Consumption plan are workflow services, not direct C# code execution environments. You would likely need to integrate with Azure Functions to execute custom C# code.
Private IP access: Historically, Logic Apps in the Consumption plan did not natively have direct VNet integration for accessing private IPs. While workarounds existed (like using Data Gateway or API Management), they added complexity and potential cost. However, VNet integration capabilities have been added to Consumption Logic Apps, allowing them to access resources within a VNet, but it might involve more configuration than Dedicated plans.
Cost minimization: Consumption plan Logic Apps are generally cost-effective as you pay per execution, making them suitable for event-driven scenarios where the workflow is not constantly running. However, the complexity of VNet integration and potential need to use extra services might slightly offset the cost savings.
Azure Functions in the Consumption plan:
Custom C# code: Azure Functions fully support writing and executing custom C# code.
Private IP access: Azure Functions in the Consumption plan can now be integrated with Azure Virtual Networks to access resources with private IPs. This feature enhancement allows Consumption plan Functions to securely access resources like the SQL Server VM within the VNet. This VNet integration for Consumption plan Functions might require configuring outbound Network Address Translation (NAT) to handle outbound connections.
Cost minimization: Azure Functions in the Consumption plan are the most cost-effective option for event-driven workloads. You only pay for the actual execution time of the code, making it ideal for scenarios where the function is invoked sporadically in response to events.
Best Option based on Requirements and Cost:
Considering all factors, Azure Functions in the Consumption plan is the most suitable recommendation.
It directly supports custom C# code execution.
With VNet integration, it can securely access the SQL Server VM using its private IP address.
The Consumption plan is the most cost-effective option, especially for event-driven scenarios, aligning with the “minimize costs” requirement.
While Dedicated plans also offer VNet integration and C# support, they are generally more expensive than Consumption for event-driven workloads. Logic Apps, while powerful for workflow orchestration, are not primarily for direct C# code execution and ISE is too costly. Logic Apps Consumption plan has gained VNet integration capabilities, but still less direct for C# and might involve more complex setup than Consumption Functions for this specific scenario.
Final Answer: Azure Functions in the Consumption plan
You have an on-premises network and an Azure subscription. The on-premises network has several branch offices.
A branch office in Toronto contains a virtual machine named VM1 that is configured as a file server.
Users access the shared files on VM1 from all the offices.
You need to recommend a solution to ensure that the users can access the shares files as quickly as possible if the Toronto branch office is inaccessible.
What should you include in the recommendation?
a Recovery Services vault and Azure Backup
an Azure file share and Azure File Sync
Azure blob containers and Azure File Sync
a Recovery Services vault and Windows Server Backup
The goal is to provide users with fast access to shared files, even if the Toronto branch office (where VM1 file server is located) is inaccessible. This implies the need for a solution that replicates the file shares and allows access from alternative locations when Toronto is down.
Let’s evaluate each option:
a Recovery Services vault and Azure Backup:
Functionality: Azure Backup, in conjunction with a Recovery Services vault, is used for backing up and restoring data. It is primarily a data protection solution, not a solution for providing continuous file access during a site outage.
Fast Access if Toronto Inaccessible: No. If Toronto is inaccessible, users would need to initiate a restore process from the Recovery Services vault to access the files, which is not a fast or seamless access method for users during an outage. Backup is for recovery, not continuous availability.
Suitability: This option is not designed for providing fast access to files during a branch office outage.
an Azure file share and Azure File Sync:
Functionality: Azure File Share is a fully managed cloud file share accessible via SMB protocol. Azure File Sync is a service that can synchronize on-premises file servers with Azure File Shares.
Fast Access if Toronto Inaccessible: Yes. If the Toronto branch office becomes inaccessible, users can be redirected to access the Azure File Share directly. The Azure File Share is hosted in Azure and is independent of the Toronto office’s availability. Users from other offices can access the files through the internet connection to Azure. Additionally, Azure File Sync can be used to cache the Azure File Share content on file servers in other branch offices for even faster local access if required.
Suitability: This option directly addresses the requirement for fast file access during a Toronto office outage. Azure File Share provides a cloud-based, always-available copy of the files.
Azure blob containers and Azure File Sync:
Functionality: Azure Blob containers are object storage, designed for storing large amounts of unstructured data. Azure File Sync is designed to synchronize on-premises file servers with Azure File Shares, not Blob containers.
Fast Access if Toronto Inaccessible: No. Azure Blob containers are not directly accessed as file shares by users using standard file protocols (like SMB). While data could be in Blob storage, it’s not a solution for providing fast file share access to users during an outage. Azure File Sync is not compatible with Blob containers in this scenario.
Suitability: This option is not a valid or practical solution for providing file share access.
a Recovery Services vault and Windows Server Backup:
Functionality: Windows Server Backup is an on-premises backup tool. Combined with a Recovery Services vault in Azure, it provides offsite backups.
Fast Access if Toronto Inaccessible: No. Similar to the “Azure Backup” option, this is a backup and restore solution. It does not provide fast or continuous file access during an outage. Users would need to restore from backup, which is not designed for immediate access.
Suitability: This option is also not designed for providing fast access to files during a branch office outage.
Conclusion:
The most suitable recommendation to ensure users can access shared files quickly even if the Toronto branch office is inaccessible is an Azure file share and Azure File Sync. This solution provides a cloud-based, highly available copy of the files (Azure File Share) that can be accessed from any location, including other branch offices, when the primary file server in Toronto is unavailable. Azure File Sync can further enhance performance by caching the Azure File Share content on-premises in other offices if needed.
Final Answer: an Azure file share and Azure File Sync
HOTSPOT
You have an Azure subscription named Subscription1 that is linked to a hybrid Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) tenant.
You have an on-premises datacenter that does NOT have a VPN connection to Subscription1. The datacenter contains a computer named Server1 that has Microsoft SQL Server 2016 installed. Server1 is prevented from accessing the internet.
An Azure logic app named LogicApp1 requires write access to a database on Server1.
You need to recommend a solution to provide LogicApp1 with the ability to access Server1.
What should you recommend deploying on-premises and in Azure? To answer, select the appropriate options in the answer area. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
On-premises:
A Web Application Proxy for Windows Server
An Azure AD Application Proxy connector
An On-premises data gateway
Hybrid Connection Manager
Azure:
A connection gateway resource
An Azure Application Gateway
An Azure Event Grid domain
An enterprise application
Answer:
On-premises: An On-premises data gateway
Azure: An enterprise application
Explanation:
On-premises: An On-premises data gateway
Reason: The On-premises data gateway acts as a bridge between Azure cloud services and on-premises data sources. Since Server1 (the SQL Server) is on-premises and not directly accessible from the internet or Azure, the Data Gateway is essential to establish a secure connection.
Functionality:
Secure Tunnel: The Data Gateway creates an outbound-only connection from your on-premises network to Azure. No inbound ports need to be opened on your firewall, enhancing security.
Data Transfer: It facilitates secure data transfer between the on-premises SQL Server and Azure Logic Apps.
Connectivity for Multiple Azure Services: The same Data Gateway can be used by other Azure services like Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Apps to access on-premises data sources.
Azure: An enterprise application
Reason: While not directly related to data transfer itself, an Azure AD enterprise application is necessary for managing authentication and authorization for the Data Gateway and Logic App connection.
Functionality (in this context):
Authentication for Data Gateway: When you configure the Data Gateway, it needs to be registered and authenticated with Azure AD. An enterprise application in Azure AD represents the Data Gateway registration and allows Azure to manage its identity and access.
Logic App Connection Authentication: When you create a connection in Logic Apps to the on-premises SQL Server via the Data Gateway, this connection often relies on Azure AD for authentication. The enterprise application could be used to manage permissions and authentication for this connection, although implicitly through the Data Gateway setup.
Authorization and Governance: Enterprise applications are fundamental for managing application identities and applying Azure AD governance policies.
Why other options are not correct or less suitable:
On-premises:
A Web Application Proxy for Windows Server and An Azure AD Application Proxy connector: These are specifically for publishing web applications to the internet using Azure AD pre-authentication. They are not designed for generic data connectivity between Logic Apps and on-premises databases.
Hybrid Connection Manager: While Hybrid Connections can also provide secure connectivity, the On-premises data gateway is generally the preferred and simpler solution for connecting Logic Apps to on-premises data sources like SQL Server. Hybrid Connections are often used for more general-purpose network connectivity scenarios.
Azure:
A connection gateway resource: This is not a standard Azure service name in this context. While you do create a “Connection” resource in Logic Apps to configure the Data Gateway connection, it’s not typically referred to as a “connection gateway resource” in Azure documentation. This option is likely a distractor.
An Azure Application Gateway: Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer and WAF. It’s not related to backend data connectivity for Logic Apps to on-premises databases.
An Azure Event Grid domain: Event Grid is an event routing service, not related to data connectivity for Logic Apps to on-premises SQL Server.
Therefore, the most accurate and relevant answer is:
On-premises: An On-premises data gateway
Azure: An enterprise application
This combination correctly represents the standard approach for securely connecting an Azure Logic App to an on-premises SQL Server that is not internet-accessible and does not have a VPN to Azure, using the Azure On-premises Data Gateway and leveraging Azure AD Enterprise Application for authentication and management.
Your company has 300 virtual machines hosted in a VMware environment. The virtual machines vary in size and have various utilization levels.
You plan to move all the virtual machines to Azure.
You need to recommend how many and what size Azure virtual machines will be required to move the current workloads to Azure. The solution must minimize administrative effort.
What should you use to make the recommendation?
Azure Cost Management
Azure Pricing calculator
Azure Migrate
Azure Advisor
To determine the optimal number and size of Azure virtual machines for migrating 300 on-premises VMware VMs while minimizing administrative effort, you need a tool that can assess the existing VMware environment and provide Azure VM sizing recommendations. Let’s evaluate each option:
Azure Cost Management: Azure Cost Management is a tool for monitoring, managing, and optimizing Azure spending. It helps you analyze costs, set budgets, and identify cost-saving opportunities for existing Azure resources. It does not directly assess on-premises VMware environments to recommend Azure VM sizes for migration. While it can inform cost considerations after you’ve chosen VM sizes, it doesn’t help in determining those sizes for migration.
Azure Pricing calculator: The Azure Pricing calculator is a tool to estimate the cost of Azure services. You can manually configure different Azure VM sizes and tiers to get cost estimates. However, it requires you to manually input the specifications (like VM size, OS, etc.) and does not automatically analyze your on-premises VMware environment to provide sizing recommendations. It’s useful for cost estimation once you have decided on the VM sizes, but not for determining the sizes initially based on on-premises workload characteristics.
Azure Migrate: Azure Migrate is a service specifically designed to simplify, guide, and accelerate your migration to Azure. It provides tools for:
Discovery: Discovering on-premises VMware, Hyper-V VMs, and physical servers.
Assessment: Assessing discovered VMs for Azure readiness and providing Azure VM size recommendations based on performance data and compatibility. Azure Migrate can analyze the CPU, memory, and disk utilization of your VMware VMs to suggest appropriate Azure VM sizes.
Migration: Tools to migrate VMs to Azure.
Azure Migrate directly addresses the need to recommend Azure VM sizes based on your existing VMware environment while minimizing administrative effort through automated discovery and assessment.
Azure Advisor: Azure Advisor analyzes your existing Azure resources and provides recommendations to optimize cost, security, reliability, operational excellence, and performance. It does not assess on-premises environments for migration planning. Azure Advisor helps optimize resources already in Azure, not for sizing recommendations during migration from on-premises.
Conclusion:
Azure Migrate is the most appropriate tool to use for recommending the number and size of Azure virtual machines needed to migrate your 300 VMware VMs to Azure while minimizing administrative effort. It is specifically designed for migration assessments and provides Azure VM size recommendations based on analyzing your on-premises VM configurations and performance data. The other options are not designed for this specific purpose.
Final Answer: Azure Migrate
You plan provision a High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster in Azure that will use a third-party scheduler.
You need to recommend a solution to provision and manage the HPC cluster node.
What should you include in the recommendation?
Azure Lighthouse
Azure CycleCloud
Azure Purview
Azure Automation
The correct answer is Azure CycleCloud.
Here’s why:
Azure CycleCloud is specifically designed for creating, managing, operating, and optimizing High Performance Computing (HPC) clusters in Azure. It’s tailored to handle the complexities of HPC environments, including:
Provisioning HPC Nodes: CycleCloud automates the deployment and configuration of virtual machines that serve as compute nodes in your HPC cluster. It can handle different VM sizes, operating systems, and networking configurations suitable for HPC workloads.
Third-Party Scheduler Integration: Crucially, CycleCloud is built to work with various schedulers, including popular third-party options like Slurm, PBS Pro, LSF, and Grid Engine. It understands how to integrate with these schedulers to manage job submissions and node allocation within the cluster. You can configure CycleCloud to deploy and manage the scheduler itself or integrate with an existing scheduler setup.
Cluster Lifecycle Management: CycleCloud goes beyond just provisioning. It handles the entire lifecycle of the cluster, including:
Scaling: Dynamically adding or removing nodes based on workload demands and scheduler requirements.
Monitoring: Providing visibility into cluster health and performance.
Termination: Gracefully shutting down the cluster when it’s no longer needed.
Infrastructure as Code: CycleCloud uses declarative configuration files to define your cluster, allowing you to version control and easily reproduce your HPC environment.
Let’s look at why the other options are less suitable:
Azure Lighthouse: Azure Lighthouse is for delegated resource management across multiple tenants. It’s primarily used by Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to manage Azure resources for their customers. While it’s related to management, it’s not directly focused on provisioning and managing HPC cluster nodes within a single tenant. It’s more about who can manage resources, not how to build and run an HPC cluster.
Azure Purview: Azure Purview is a data governance service. It helps you discover, understand, and govern your data assets across your organization. While data is crucial for HPC, Purview is not involved in provisioning or managing the compute infrastructure (HPC nodes) itself. It focuses on data cataloging, lineage, and security, not cluster orchestration.
Azure Automation: Azure Automation is a general-purpose automation service. You could potentially use Azure Automation to script the deployment of VMs and configure them as HPC nodes. However, it’s a much more manual and complex approach compared to using CycleCloud. Azure Automation lacks the HPC-specific features and scheduler integrations that CycleCloud provides out-of-the-box. You would need to write a significant amount of custom scripting to achieve the same level of functionality as CycleCloud, and it would be less robust and harder to manage for HPC cluster lifecycle management.
Note: This question is part of a series of questions that present the same scenario. Each question in the series contains a unique solution that might meet the stated goals. Some question sets might have more than one correct solution, while others might not have a correct solution.
After you answer a question in this section, you will NOT be able to return to it. As a result, these questions will not appear in the review screen.
Your company plans to deploy various Azure App Service instances that will use Azure SQL databases.
The App Service instances will be deployed at the same time as the Azure SQL databases.
The company has a regulatory requirement to deploy the App Service instances only to specific Azure regions. The resources for the App Service instances must reside in the same region.
You need to recommend a solution to meet the regulatory requirement.
Solution: You recommend using an Azure policy initiative to enforce the location.
Does this meet the goal?
Yes
No
The correct answer is Yes.
Here’s why:
Azure Policy Initiatives for Location Enforcement: Azure Policy Initiatives (formerly called Policy Sets) are a powerful tool for managing and enforcing organizational standards and compliance at scale in Azure. One of the most common and effective uses of Azure Policy is to control resource locations.
How Azure Policy Enforces Location: You can create an Azure Policy (and include it in an initiative) that specifically restricts the locations where resources can be deployed within a subscription, resource group, or management group. For example, you can define a policy that only allows resources to be created in “East US 2” and “West US 2” regions.
Meeting the Regulatory Requirement: The company has a regulatory requirement to deploy App Service instances only to specific Azure regions. By implementing an Azure Policy Initiative that includes a policy to restrict allowed locations for App Service and Azure SQL Database resources, you directly address this requirement. When a deployment is attempted in a non-compliant region, Azure Policy will prevent the deployment from succeeding, ensuring that the regulatory requirement is met.
Simultaneous Deployment and Same Region: While Azure Policy itself doesn’t orchestrate the deployment of App Service and SQL Database at the same time, it works seamlessly with any deployment method (ARM templates, Bicep, Azure CLI, PowerShell, etc.). When you attempt to deploy both App Service and Azure SQL database (simultaneously or not), the location policy will be evaluated during the deployment process. If either resource is specified to be deployed in a disallowed region, the policy will block the deployment. To ensure both App Service and SQL Database are in the same region, you would configure your deployment template or script to specify the same region for both resource types. The location policy will then ensure that this chosen region is within the allowed regions.
Why other options are less relevant (or not applicable in this context): (Though not explicitly asked in this specific question, understanding why other options from the initial HPC question are not relevant here is helpful)
Azure Lighthouse: Lighthouse is for delegated access management across tenants, not for location enforcement within a single tenant to meet regulatory requirements.
Azure CycleCloud: CycleCloud is for HPC cluster management. It’s not directly related to enforcing location policies for App Service and SQL Database deployments.
Azure Purview: Purview is for data governance and cataloging, not resource location enforcement.
Azure Automation: While you could use Azure Automation to check locations after deployment, or even as part of a more complex deployment script, Azure Policy is the native and recommended Azure service for proactively enforcing location constraints during deployment. Policy is much more efficient and integrated for this specific purpose.
Note: This question is part of a series of questions that present the same scenario. Each question in the series contains a unique solution that might meet the stated goals. Some question sets might have more than one correct solution, while others might not have a correct solution.
After you answer a question in this section, you will NOT be able to return to it. As a result, these questions will not appear in the review screen.
Your company plans to deploy various Azure App Service instances that will use Azure SQL databases.
The App Service instances will be deployed at the same time as the Azure SQL databases.
The company has a regulatory requirement to deploy the App Service instances only to specific Azure regions. The resources for the App Service instances must reside in the same region.
You need to recommend a solution to meet the regulatory requirement.
Solution: You recommend using the Regulatory compliance dashboard in Azure Security Center.
Does this meet the goal?
Yes
No
The correct answer is No.
Here’s why:
Azure Security Center Regulatory Compliance Dashboard’s Purpose: The Regulatory Compliance dashboard in Azure Security Center is designed to provide visibility and reporting on your Azure environment’s compliance posture against various regulatory standards and industry benchmarks (like PCI DSS, SOC 2, ISO 27001, Azure CIS, etc.).
What the Dashboard Does:
Assesses Compliance: It continuously assesses your Azure resources against the selected regulatory standards and security benchmarks.
Provides Insights: It shows you which controls are passing, failing, or need attention.
Offers Recommendations: It provides actionable recommendations to improve your compliance and security posture based on the identified issues.
Reporting: It generates reports on your compliance status.
What the Dashboard Does NOT Do:
Enforce Deployment Policies: The Regulatory Compliance dashboard does not actively prevent deployments of resources in non-compliant regions. It’s a monitoring and reporting tool, not an enforcement mechanism.
Control Resource Location During Deployment: It does not have the capability to block or redirect deployments based on region. It identifies compliance issues after resources are deployed.
Why it Doesn’t Meet the Goal: The company’s requirement is to ensure App Service instances are deployed only to specific Azure regions. The Regulatory Compliance dashboard can tell you if resources are deployed in compliant regions after they are deployed, but it cannot prevent deployments to non-compliant regions in the first place. Therefore, it does not meet the regulatory requirement of ensuring deployment only in specific regions.
Better Solution (as seen in the previous question): As discussed in the previous question, Azure Policy is the correct tool for enforcing location restrictions during resource deployment. Azure Policy can be configured to deny the creation of resources in regions that are not allowed, thus directly meeting the regulatory requirement.
Note: This question is part of a series of questions that present the same scenario. Each question in
the series contains a unique solution that might meet the stated goals. Some question sets might have more than one correct solution, while others might not have a correct solution.
After you answer a question in this section, you will NOT be able to return to it. As a result, these questions will not appear in the review screen.
Your company plans to deploy various Azure App Service instances that will use Azure SQL databases.
The App Service instances will be deployed at the same time as the Azure SQL databases.
The company has a regulatory requirement to deploy the App Service instances only to specific Azure regions. The resources for the App Service instances must reside in the same region.
You need to recommend a solution to meet the regulatory requirement.
Solution: You recommend using an Azure policy to enforce the resource group location.
Does this meet the goal?
Yes
No
The correct answer is No.
Here’s why:
Resource Group Location vs. Resource Location: It’s crucial to understand the difference between resource group location and resource location in Azure.
Resource Group Location: The location you specify when creating a resource group is primarily for metadata storage and management operations related to the resource group itself. It doesn’t directly dictate where the resources you deploy within that resource group will be located.
Resource Location: Each Azure resource (like App Service, Azure SQL Database, VM, etc.) has its own independent location setting. This is the location where the actual service and its data are physically hosted.
Azure Policy for Resource Group Location: You can use Azure Policy to enforce the location where resource groups can be created. For example, you can create a policy that only allows resource groups to be created in “East US 2” and “West US 2”.
Why Enforcing Resource Group Location Doesn’t Meet the Goal:
No Control over Resource Location: Enforcing the resource group location does not automatically enforce the location of the resources deployed within that resource group. You can create a resource group in “East US” and then deploy an App Service in “West US” and an Azure SQL database in “Central US” within that “East US” resource group.
Regulatory Requirement on Resource Location: The regulatory requirement is about the location of the App Service instances (and by extension, the Azure SQL databases), not just the resource group. Enforcing resource group location alone does not guarantee that these resources will be in the required specific regions.
What would meet the goal (and was discussed in a previous question): To meet the goal, you need to use Azure Policy to enforce the location of the App Service and Azure SQL Database resources themselves. You would create policies that specify the allowed locations for resource types like Microsoft.Web/sites (App Service) and Microsoft.Sql/servers (SQL Database servers and databases).
In summary: While enforcing resource group location is a form of location control in Azure, it is not the correct or effective way to meet the regulatory requirement of ensuring App Service instances and Azure SQL databases are deployed to specific Azure regions. It only controls where the resource group’s metadata is stored, not the location of the actual services within it. Therefore, the solution of using Azure Policy to enforce resource group location does not meet the goal.
Final Answer: No
Note: This question is part of a series of questions that present the same scenario. Each question in the series contains a unique solution that might meet the stated goals. Some question sets might have more than one correct solution, while others might not have a correct solution.
After you answer a question in this section, you will NOT be able to return to it. As a result, these questions will not appear in the review screen.
Your company plans to deploy various Azure App Service instances that will use Azure SQL databases.
The App Service instances will be deployed at the same time as the Azure SQL databases.
The company has a regulatory requirement to deploy the App Service instances only to specific Azure regions. The resources for the App Service instances must reside in the same region.
You need to recommend a solution to meet the regulatory requirement.
Solution: You recommend creating resource groups based on locations and implementing resource locks on the resource groups.
Does this meet the goal?
Yes
No
The correct answer is No.
Here’s why:
Resource Groups for Organization, Not Location Enforcement: Creating resource groups based on locations is a good organizational practice. It helps in logically grouping resources deployed in a specific region, making management and billing easier to understand. However, resource groups themselves do not enforce the location of the resources deployed within them.
Resource Locks for Protection, Not Location Control: Resource locks are used to protect resources from accidental deletion or modification. They can be applied at the resource group level or individual resource level. Resource locks provide different levels of protection (CanNotDelete, ReadOnly). However, resource locks do not control or enforce the location where resources are deployed. They only come into play after resources have been deployed.
Why this Solution Fails to Meet the Goal:
No Location Enforcement During Deployment: This solution does not prevent a user from deploying an App Service or Azure SQL database to a region that is not one of the specific allowed regions. Someone could create a resource group named “EastUS2-Resources” (suggesting East US 2 location) but still deploy an App Service within it to West US or any other region.
Organizational, Not Enforceable: Creating resource groups by location is purely an organizational and naming convention. It’s helpful for humans to understand the intended location, but it’s not enforced by Azure itself.
Locks are Post-Deployment: Resource locks only prevent actions after the resources are deployed. They have no bearing on the initial deployment location choice.
The Regulatory Requirement is about Enforcement: The company has a regulatory requirement to deploy App Service instances only to specific regions. This implies a need for a mechanism that actively prevents deployments in non-compliant regions. Resource groups and resource locks, in combination or separately, do not provide this proactive enforcement.
The Correct Solution (from previous questions): As established in earlier questions, Azure Policy is the proper tool for enforcing location restrictions. Azure Policy can be configured to deny the creation of resources in regions that are not allowed, directly meeting the regulatory requirement.
In summary: While creating location-based resource groups and using resource locks are good management practices, they do not address the regulatory requirement of enforcing resource location during deployment. They do not prevent deployments in non-compliant regions. Therefore, this solution does not meet the goal.
Final Answer: No
HOTSPOT
You are planning an Azure Storage solution for sensitive data. The data will be accessed daily. The data set is less than 10 GB.
You need to recommend a storage solution that meets the following requirements:
- All the data written to storage must be retained for five years.
- Once the data is written, the data can only be read. Modifications and deletion must be prevented.
- After five years, the data can be deleted, but never modified.
- Data access charges must be minimized
What should you recommend? To answer, select the appropriate options in the answer area. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
Storage account type:
General purpose v2 with Archive access tier for blobs
General purpose v2 with Cool access tier for blobs
General purpose v2 with Hot access tier for blobs
Configuration to prevent modifications and deletions:
Container access level
Container access policy
Storage account resource lock
Answer:
Storage account type: General purpose v2 with Cool access tier for blobs
Configuration to prevent modifications and deletions: Storage account resource lock
Explanation:
Let’s break down each requirement and why these selections are the closest fit within the given options:
- Data Retention for Five Years:
General purpose v2 with Cool access tier for blobs: Both Cool and Archive access tiers are suitable for long-term retention. Cool is designed for data that is infrequently accessed but still needs to be available. Archive is for rarely accessed data with higher retrieval latency. Since the data is accessed daily, Archive might introduce unacceptable latency for daily reads. Cool tier offers a better balance of cost and accessibility for data that needs to be retained long-term but still accessed periodically.
- Write-Once, Read-Many (WORM) & Prevention of Modifications and Deletions (Initially):
Storage account resource lock: While ideally, for true WORM compliance and to prevent modifications and deletions of blob data itself, you would use Azure Blob Storage Immutability policies (Time-based retention policies or Legal Hold policies). However, these options are not provided in the “Configuration to prevent modifications and deletions” choices.
Container access level and Container access policy are related to controlling access to the container and blobs (authorization and authentication), not preventing modifications or deletions once data is written. They can restrict who can perform actions, but not inherently prevent actions by authorized users.
Storage account resource lock is the closest option from the provided list to preventing modifications and deletions, although it’s not the ideal solution for WORM at the blob level. A Resource Lock can be set at the Storage Account level (or Resource Group level containing the storage account) with a ReadOnly or CanNotDelete lock. This would:
CanNotDelete: Prevent accidental deletion of the entire storage account (and indirectly the data within it). While it doesn’t prevent modifying blob data, it adds a layer of protection against accidental account-level deletion, which could lead to data loss.
ReadOnly: Would prevent any write operations to the storage account, including modifications and deletions. However, it would also prevent new data from being written in the future, which might not be desirable for ongoing operations.
Important Note: Using a Storage account resource lock is NOT the same as implementing true WORM immutability policies on blobs. Resource locks are a broader Azure Resource Manager feature, not a blob storage-specific WORM feature. For true WORM and regulatory compliance, Azure Blob Storage Immutability policies are the recommended approach. However, given the limited options in the question, Storage account resource lock is the closest option to provide some level of prevention against modifications and deletions at the account level (primarily deletion).
- Deletion After Five Years, Never Modified:
Cool access tier and potential Lifecycle Management: Cool tier allows for deletion after 30 days. After five years, you would need a process (potentially using Azure Automation or Lifecycle Management policies) to identify and delete the data if required. The “never modified” part is addressed (as best as possible with the limited options) by the Storage account resource lock. Ideally, Immutability Policies would guarantee this.
- Minimize Data Access Charges:
Cool access tier: Cool tier has lower storage costs compared to Hot and higher access costs. Since the data is accessed daily, but the dataset is relatively small (10GB), the access costs for Cool are likely to be acceptable and still significantly lower than Hot tier storage costs over five years. Archive tier would minimize storage costs further, but the higher access costs and retrieval latency might be detrimental for daily access. Cool tier is a good compromise to minimize data access charges while still allowing reasonable daily access.
Why other options are less suitable:
Hot access tier: Unnecessarily expensive for long-term storage, especially if the daily access isn’t extremely frequent or high-bandwidth.
Archive access tier: While cheapest for storage, the high retrieval latency and access costs make it unsuitable for “daily access” even if the data set is small.
General purpose v2 with Archive access tier for blobs: Same issues as Archive tier above regarding daily access.
Container access level/Container access policy: These control access authorization, not data immutability or prevention of modifications/deletions after data is written. They don’t meet the WORM requirement
You have an Azure subscription.
You need to recommend an Azure Kubernetes service (AKS) solution that will use Linux nodes.
The solution must meet the following requirements:
- Minimize the time it takes to provision compute resources during scale-out operations.
- Support autoscaling of Linux containers.
- Minimize administrative effort.
Which scaling option should you recommend?
Virtual Kubetet
cluster autoscaler
virtual nodes
horizontal pod autoscaler
The correct answer is virtual nodes.
Here’s why:
Virtual Nodes and Minimized Provisioning Time: Virtual nodes in AKS leverage Azure Container Instances (ACI) to quickly provision compute resources. When you scale out with virtual nodes, pods are scheduled directly onto ACI, which can provision containers much faster than traditional virtual machines used by the cluster autoscaler. This directly addresses the requirement to “minimize the time it takes to provision compute resources during scale-out operations.”
Virtual Nodes and Autoscaling of Linux Containers: Virtual nodes are fully compatible with Linux containers. They are designed to seamlessly run Linux-based containerized workloads within AKS. The autoscaling capabilities of virtual nodes are inherently tied to the demand for pods, automatically scaling as needed to accommodate Linux containers.
Virtual Nodes and Minimized Administrative Effort: Virtual nodes significantly reduce administrative overhead because you don’t need to manage the underlying virtual machines that host the nodes. Azure manages the infrastructure for ACI. You focus solely on managing your Kubernetes workloads. This directly addresses the requirement to “minimize administrative effort.”
Let’s look at why the other options are less suitable:
Virtual Kubetet: This is not a recognized or valid term in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) or Kubernetes. It seems to be a misspelling or a non-existent option.
Cluster Autoscaler: While the cluster autoscaler is a valid and important component for AKS, it scales the number of nodes (VMs in the node pool) in your AKS cluster. While it does automate node scaling, it still relies on the provisioning of virtual machines, which takes longer than provisioning containers in ACI (as used by virtual nodes). Therefore, it doesn’t minimize provisioning time to the same extent as virtual nodes. Also, while it reduces admin effort, you still manage and configure node pools, which is more administrative overhead than virtual nodes.
Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA): The Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) scales the number of pods within a deployment or replica set based on CPU utilization or other metrics. HPA does not directly provision compute resources (nodes). While HPA is crucial for autoscaling applications, it relies on having enough underlying compute capacity (nodes) available. If you only use HPA without a mechanism to scale the nodes themselves, your pods might be pending if there isn’t enough node capacity. HPA addresses application scaling, not node scaling for compute resource provisioning.
In Summary:
Virtual nodes are the best fit because they directly address all three requirements: minimizing provisioning time, supporting Linux container autoscaling, and minimizing administrative effort. They offer the fastest scale-out by leveraging serverless container instances and reduce management overhead by abstracting away node management. While Cluster Autoscaler is also a valid autoscaling option, virtual nodes are superior in terms of speed and reduced management for this specific scenario focusing on minimizing provisioning time and administrative effort.
Final Answer: virtual nodes
You have an Azure subscription.
You need to deploy an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) solution that will use Windows Server 2019 nodes.
The solution must meet the following requirements:
- Minimize the time it takes to provision compute resources during scale-out operations.
- Support autoscaling of Windows Server containers.
Which scaling option should you recommend?
horizontal pod autoscaler
Kubernetes version 1.20.2 or newer
cluster autoscaler
Virtual nodes
with Virtual Kubelet ACI
The correct answer is cluster autoscaler.
Here’s why:
Cluster Autoscaler for Node Scaling: The cluster autoscaler is specifically designed to automatically scale the number of nodes (virtual machines) in your AKS cluster based on the demands of your workloads. This is the primary mechanism in AKS to dynamically adjust compute resources. It monitors the Kubernetes scheduler for pending pods due to insufficient resources and adds new nodes to the node pool when needed.
Support for Autoscaling Windows Server Containers: The cluster autoscaler works seamlessly with Windows Server node pools in AKS. You can configure a dedicated node pool running Windows Server 2019, and the cluster autoscaler will scale this Windows node pool up and down based on the resource requests and limits of your Windows Server containers.
Provisioning Time for VMs: While the cluster autoscaler relies on provisioning virtual machines for scaling, and VM provisioning inherently takes time, it’s still the most effective and standard way to automatically scale compute resources (nodes) for both Linux and Windows workloads in AKS. While VM provisioning isn’t as instantaneous as container provisioning with ACI (Virtual Nodes for Linux), it’s the necessary approach for adding more Windows Server compute capacity to your AKS cluster.
Let’s examine why the other options are less suitable:
Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA): As explained in the previous question, HPA scales the number of pods within a deployment or replica set. HPA does not scale the nodes themselves. While HPA is essential for scaling your application workloads within the existing node capacity, it does not address the need to provision more compute resources (nodes) when the cluster runs out of capacity. For Windows containers, you still need to scale the underlying Windows nodes, and HPA won’t do that.
Kubernetes version 1.20.2 or newer: While Kubernetes version is important for feature support and stability, it’s not a scaling option itself. A newer Kubernetes version might have performance improvements or bug fixes related to autoscaling, but it doesn’t directly provide the scaling mechanism. The cluster autoscaler is a component that works within Kubernetes, regardless of the specific minor version (within supported ranges). Upgrading Kubernetes version alone won’t scale your Windows nodes.
Virtual nodes with Virtual Kubelet ACI: Virtual nodes in AKS, backed by Azure Container Instances (ACI), are primarily designed and optimized for Linux containers. While technically you might be able to run Windows containers on ACI directly outside of AKS, the AKS Virtual Nodes feature (Virtual Kubelet ACI integration) is not generally supported or recommended for Windows Server containers. Virtual Nodes are intended to provide fast, serverless compute for Linux workloads. The architecture and underlying technology of ACI are more aligned with Linux container execution. Using Virtual Nodes for Windows containers in AKS would likely be unsupported, perform poorly, or not function as expected. Therefore, Virtual Nodes are not a viable scaling option for Windows Server 2019 nodes in AKS.
In Summary:
For an AKS cluster with Windows Server 2019 nodes that needs to autoscale, the cluster autoscaler is the correct and recommended solution. It is the standard and supported mechanism for scaling the number of Windows nodes in AKS based on workload demand. While VM provisioning takes time, it’s the necessary approach for adding Windows compute capacity. The other options are either not relevant for node scaling (HPA, Kubernetes version) or not applicable/recommended for Windows nodes (Virtual Nodes).
Final Answer: cluster autoscaler
You plan to deploy 10 applications to Azure. The applications will be deployed to two Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters. Each cluster will be deployed to a separate Azure region.
The application deployment must meet the following requirements:
- Ensure that the applications remain available if a single AKS cluster fails.
- Ensure that the connection traffic over the internet is encrypted by using SSL without having to configure SSL on each container.
Which service should you include in the recommendation?
AKS ingress controller
Azure Traffic Manager
Azure Front Door
Azure Load Balancer
The correct answer is Azure Front Door.
Here’s why:
Ensure application availability if a single AKS cluster fails: Azure Front Door is a global, scalable entry point that uses Microsoft’s global edge network. It can route traffic to the closest and healthiest AKS cluster based on various routing methods, including priority-based routing for failover scenarios. If one AKS cluster fails, Azure Front Door can automatically direct traffic to the healthy cluster in the other region, ensuring application availability.
Ensure SSL encryption over the internet without configuring SSL on each container: Azure Front Door provides SSL termination at the edge. You can upload your SSL certificate to Azure Front Door, and it will handle the SSL encryption and decryption for all incoming traffic. This means you don’t need to configure SSL certificates and management within each AKS cluster or on each individual container application. Front Door will decrypt the traffic before forwarding it to the backend AKS clusters (using HTTP or HTTPS based on your backend configuration).
Let’s look at why the other options are less suitable:
AKS Ingress Controller: An Ingress Controller is essential for routing HTTP/HTTPS traffic within a single AKS cluster. It can handle SSL termination within the cluster, but it’s primarily a cluster-level component. It doesn’t inherently provide cross-region failover or global load balancing across multiple AKS clusters in different regions. While you can configure ingress controllers in both AKS clusters, you’d still need another service in front to distribute traffic and handle failover across regions.
Azure Traffic Manager: Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer. It can route traffic to different endpoints (like your AKS cluster load balancer IPs) based on DNS resolution. While it can provide failover across regions, it operates at the DNS level (Layer 4) and does not provide SSL termination. You would still need to configure SSL termination within each AKS cluster or on your application containers if using Traffic Manager for regional failover. Traffic Manager is less sophisticated for web application traffic management compared to Front Door.
Azure Load Balancer: Azure Load Balancer is a regional service that provides Layer 4 load balancing. It’s used to distribute traffic within a Virtual Network or expose services to the internet within a single Azure region. It’s not designed for cross-region failover or global routing of web application traffic across multiple AKS clusters in different regions. While Azure Load Balancer can be configured for SSL termination, it’s typically done at the backend services level or requires more complex configurations for each container if you are doing layer 7 load balancing with SSL termination at the load balancer itself. It’s not the optimal solution for global SSL termination and cross-region application availability in this scenario.
In summary:
Azure Front Door is the most appropriate service because it directly addresses both requirements: ensuring application availability across regions through global routing and providing SSL termination at the edge, simplifying SSL management and improving security and performance.
Final Answer: Azure Front Door
HOTSPOT
You have an Azure web app named App1 and an Azure key vault named KV1.
App1 stores database connection strings in KV1.
App1 performs the following types of requests to KV1:
✑ Get
✑ List
✑ Wrap
✑ Delete
✑ Unwrap
✑ Backup
✑ Decrypt
✑ Encrypt
You are evaluating the continuity of service for App1.
You need to identify the following if the Azure region that hosts KV1 becomes unavailable:
✑ To where will KV1 fail over?
✑ During the failover, which request type will be unavailable?
What should you identify? To answer, select the appropriate options in the answer area. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
To where will KV1 fail over?
A server in the same Availability Set
A server in the same fault domain
A server in the same paired region
A virtual machine in a scale set
During the failover, which request type will be unavailable?
Backup
Decrypt
Delete
Encrypt
Get
List
Unwrap
Wrap
To where will KV1 fail over?
A server in the same paired region
Explanation: Azure Key Vault is designed for high availability and disaster recovery. In the event of a regional outage, Azure Key Vault is designed to failover to its paired region. Azure paired regions are geographically separated to provide resilience against regional disasters but are still within the same geography to meet data residency and compliance requirements.
Paired Regions: Azure regions are often paired. For example, East US is paired with West US. In case of a regional disaster in East US, services are designed to failover to West US. Key Vault, as a critical service, follows this pattern.
Availability Sets and Fault Domains: These are mechanisms for high availability within a single region. They protect against hardware failures within a datacenter but do not protect against a regional outage.
Virtual machine in a scale set: VM scale sets are for compute resources and not relevant to Key Vault’s failover mechanism.
During the failover, which request type will be unavailable?
Decrypt
Encrypt
Get
List
Unwrap
Wrap
Explanation: During a failover event, there will be a period of unavailability while the service transitions to the paired region. The operations that are most likely to be unavailable during this transition are those that directly access and manipulate secrets and keys – the data plane operations.
Data Plane Operations (Likely Unavailable):
Get: Retrieves a secret, key, or certificate. This is a core data access operation and will likely be unavailable during failover.
List: Lists secrets, keys, or certificates. Also a data access operation and likely to be unavailable.
Wrap: Encrypts a symmetric key. This is a cryptographic operation and will likely be unavailable.
Unwrap: Decrypts a symmetric key. Also a cryptographic operation and likely to be unavailable.
Encrypt: Encrypts arbitrary data using a key. Cryptographic operation, likely unavailable.
Decrypt: Decrypts encrypted data using a key. Cryptographic operation, likely unavailable.
Management Plane Operations (Potentially Available but Less Critical for App1’s Continuity in this Scenario):
Backup: Backs up the entire vault. While important for DR planning in general, it’s less critical for immediate service continuity of App1 during a failover. Backup operations might be less prioritized during the initial failover phase.
Delete: Deletes a secret, key, or certificate. While a management operation, it might be less prioritized during a failover focused on restoring core access.
Reasoning for selecting Data Plane Operations:
The question is specifically about the continuity of service for App1. App1 uses Key Vault to retrieve database connection strings. The operations directly related to App1 accessing these connection strings are Get, List, Decrypt, Encrypt, Wrap, and Unwrap (if encryption/decryption of connection strings is happening within App1 using Key Vault keys).
During a failover, the primary goal is to restore the core functionality of the service, which for Key Vault means the ability to access and use secrets and keys. Until the failover is complete and the service in the paired region is fully operational, these data plane operations are highly likely to be unavailable, directly impacting App1’s ability to retrieve connection strings and function.
Therefore, the most accurate answer within the given options is:
To where will KV1 fail over? A server in the same paired region
During the failover, which request type will be unavailable? Decrypt, Encrypt, Get, List, Unwrap, Wrap
Final Answer:
To where will KV1 fail over? During the failover, which request type will be unavailable?
A server in the same paired region Decrypt
Encrypt
Get
List
Unwrap
Wrap
HOTSPOT
–
You have an Azure App Service web app named Webapp1 that connects to an Azure SQL database named DB1. Webapp1 and DB1 are deployed to the East US Azure region.
You need to ensure that all the traffic between Webapp1 and DB1 is sent via a private connection.
What should you do? To answer, select the appropriate options in the answer area.
NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
Answer Area
Create a virtual network that contains at least:
1 subnet
2 subnets
3 subnets
From the virtual network, configure name resolution to use:
A private DNS zone
A public DNS zone
The Azure DNS Private Resolver
Answer Area:
Create a virtual network that contains at least: 1 subnet
From the virtual network, configure name resolution to use: A private DNS zone
Explanation:
To ensure that traffic between Webapp1 and DB1 is sent via a private connection, you need to implement Azure Private Link for Azure SQL Database and integrate your App Service with a virtual network. Here’s a breakdown of why the selected options are correct:
- Create a virtual network that contains at least: 1 subnet
Why a Virtual Network is Necessary: Azure Private Link works by extending Azure services into your virtual network via private endpoints. A virtual network provides the private network space within Azure where you can establish this private connection.
Why at least 1 subnet is sufficient: You need at least one subnet in the virtual network to host the private endpoint for the Azure SQL Database. While you might have other subnets in a real-world scenario for different components or for subnet delegation, a minimum of one subnet is required for the private endpoint itself. You will place the Private Endpoint for SQL Database in this subnet.
- From the virtual network, configure name resolution to use: A private DNS zone
Why a Private DNS Zone is Crucial: When you create a Private Endpoint for Azure SQL Database, Azure creates a network interface card (NIC) within your subnet and assigns it a private IP address from your virtual network’s address space. To access the SQL Database via this private IP, you need to resolve the SQL Database’s fully qualified domain name (FQDN) to this private IP address within your virtual network.
Private DNS Zones are designed for this: Azure Private DNS Zones allow you to manage DNS records for Azure services within your virtual network. When you create a Private Endpoint, Azure automatically integrates it with a Private DNS Zone (or you can manually configure it). This ensures that when Webapp1 (which will be integrated with the VNet) attempts to resolve the SQL Database’s FQDN, it will receive the private IP address of the Private Endpoint, directing traffic over the private connection.
Why not a public DNS zone: A public DNS zone resolves to public IP addresses, which is the opposite of what you want for a private connection.
Why not Azure DNS Private Resolver (directly): While Azure DNS Private Resolver is used for hybrid DNS resolution scenarios (e.g., resolving on-premises DNS from Azure or vice versa), for a purely Azure-to-Azure private connection within a VNet, a Private DNS Zone is the direct and simpler solution for name resolution. Private Resolver is more relevant when you have more complex hybrid networking requirements.
Steps to Achieve Private Connection (Implied by the Hotspot Options):
Create a Virtual Network and a Subnet: You would first create a virtual network in the East US region and at least one subnet within it.
Create a Private Endpoint for Azure SQL Database: You would create a Private Endpoint for your DB1 Azure SQL database. During Private Endpoint creation, you would:
Select the SQL Server resource type.
Select your DB1 SQL Server.
Choose the target subnet you created in the VNet.
Choose to integrate with a private DNS zone (or manually configure DNS later).
Integrate App Service Web App with the Virtual Network (VNet Integration): You would configure VNet Integration for Webapp1 to connect it to the subnet in the VNet. This makes the Web App part of the private network.
Name Resolution (Automatic with Private DNS Zone): If you chose to integrate with a Private DNS Zone during Private Endpoint creation (which is highly recommended and often automatic), Azure will handle the DNS configuration. Webapp1, being in the same VNet, will automatically use the Private DNS Zone and resolve the SQL Database’s FQDN to the private IP of the Private Endpoint.
HOTSPOT
–
Your on-premises network contains an Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) domain. The domain contains a server named Server1. Server1 contains an app named App1 that uses AD DS authentication. Remote users access App1 by using a VPN connection to the on-premises network.
You have an Azure AD tenant that syncs with the AD DS domain by using Azure AD Connect.
You need to ensure that the remote users can access App1 without using a VPN. The solution must meet the following requirements:
- Ensure that the users authenticate by using Azure Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
- Minimize administrative effort.
What should you include in the solution? To answer, select the appropriate options in the answer area.
NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
Answer Area
In Azure AD:
A managed identity
An access package
An app registration
An enterprise application
On-premises:
A server that runs Windows Server and has the Azure AD Application Proxy connector installed
A server that runs Windows Server and has the on-premises data gateway (standard mode) installed
A server that runs Windows Server and has the Web Application Proxy role service installed
Answer Area:
In Azure AD: An enterprise application
On-premises: A server that runs Windows Server and has the Azure AD Application Proxy connector installed
Explanation:
Let’s break down why this is the correct solution and why the other options are not as suitable:
In Azure AD: An enterprise application
Why Enterprise Application? Azure AD Application Proxy, the core component of the solution, is configured as an enterprise application in Azure AD. When you set up Application Proxy, you are essentially registering your on-premises application with Azure AD so that Azure AD can manage authentication and access to it.
Functionality: Enterprise applications in Azure AD are used to manage single sign-on, provisioning, and access control for applications, including those published through Application Proxy.
Why not other options in Azure AD?
A managed identity: Managed identities are used for Azure resources to authenticate to other Azure services. They are not relevant for authenticating users accessing an on-premises application.
An access package: Access packages are used for managing user access to groups, applications, and SharePoint sites, typically within Azure AD and related cloud services. While they manage access, they are not the primary mechanism for exposing an on-premises app securely to the internet with Azure AD authentication.
An app registration: App registrations are used for registering applications with Azure AD, primarily for applications that directly use the Microsoft Identity Platform for authentication (like cloud-native apps or apps using OAuth/OIDC). While related to authentication in Azure AD, it’s not the direct component for publishing on-premises apps via Application Proxy. Enterprise Application is the higher-level concept that encompasses the Application Proxy setup.
On-premises: A server that runs Windows Server and has the Azure AD Application Proxy connector installed
Why Azure AD Application Proxy Connector? Azure AD Application Proxy is specifically designed to securely publish on-premises web applications to the internet, enabling access for remote users without requiring a VPN. The Azure AD Application Proxy connector is the essential on-premises component. It’s a lightweight agent that you install on a Windows Server within your on-premises network.
How it works:
Connector Installation: You install the connector on a server inside your on-premises network. This server needs outbound internet access to communicate with Azure AD Application Proxy services in the cloud.
Application Publishing: You configure an Enterprise Application in Azure AD, specifying the internal URL of App1 on Server1 and the external URL users will use to access it. You also configure pre-authentication to use Azure AD.
User Access: When a remote user tries to access the external URL, they are redirected to Azure AD for authentication. Azure AD enforces MFA as required.
Secure Proxy: After successful Azure AD authentication, Azure AD Application Proxy securely forwards the request to the connector on-premises.
Connector Access: The connector, acting on behalf of the user, then accesses App1 on Server1 using standard protocols (like HTTP/HTTPS) within your internal network.
Response: The response from App1 follows the reverse path back to the user through the connector and Azure AD Application Proxy.
Why not other on-premises options?
A server that runs Windows Server and has the on-premises data gateway (standard mode) installed: The on-premises data gateway is used to connect Azure services like Power BI, Logic Apps, and Power Automate to on-premises data sources (databases, file shares, etc.). It is not for publishing web applications for direct user access with Azure AD authentication.
A server that runs Windows Server and has the Web Application Proxy role service installed: Web Application Proxy (WAP) is an older technology, primarily used with Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) for publishing web applications. While WAP can provide external access, Azure AD Application Proxy is the more modern, Azure AD-integrated, and simpler solution for this scenario, especially when the goal is to use Azure AD MFA and minimize administrative effort in an Azure AD environment. Azure AD Application Proxy is the direct successor and recommended replacement for WAP in Azure AD scenarios.
HOTSPOT
–
You need to recommend a solution to integrate Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Synapse. The solution must meet the following requirements:
- Traffic from an Azure Synapse workspace to the Azure Cosmos DB account must be sent via the Microsoft backbone network.
- Traffic from the Azure Synapse workspace to the Azure Cosmos DB account must NOT be routed over the internet.
- Implementation effort must be minimized.
What should you include in the recommendation? To answer, select the appropriate options in the answer area.
NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
Answer Area
When provisioning the Azure Synapse workspace:
Configure a dedicated managed virtual network.
Disable public network access to the workspace endpoints.
Enable the use of the Azure AD authentication.
When configuring the Azure Cosmos DB account, enable:
Managed private endpoints
Server-level firewall rules
Service endpoint policies
Answer Area:
When provisioning the Azure Synapse workspace:
Configure a dedicated managed virtual network.
Disable public network access to the workspace endpoints.
When configuring the Azure Cosmos DB account, enable:
Managed private endpoints
Explanation:
Let’s break down each selection and why they are the correct choices to meet the requirements:
When provisioning the Azure Synapse workspace:
Configure a dedicated managed virtual network.
Correct: Configuring a dedicated managed virtual network for the Azure Synapse workspace is crucial. A Managed Virtual Network (VNet) isolates the Synapse workspace within its own private network environment. This is the foundation for ensuring private connectivity and preventing internet exposure. By deploying Synapse within a Managed VNet, you ensure that all outbound connections from Synapse can be routed through private links.
Why it’s necessary: To establish private connections to services like Azure Cosmos DB, Synapse needs to be within a virtual network. Managed VNets simplify this by Azure managing the VNet infrastructure for Synapse.
Disable public network access to the workspace endpoints.
Correct: Disabling public network access to the workspace endpoints is essential to prevent traffic from being routed over the internet. This forces all traffic to go through private connections. By disabling public access, you explicitly restrict access to the Synapse workspace to only those networks and services that have private connectivity established.
Why it’s necessary: This enforces the “no internet routing” requirement and enhances security by limiting the attack surface.
Enable the use of the Azure AD authentication.
Incorrect: While Azure AD authentication is important for securing access to Azure Synapse and Azure Cosmos DB, it does not directly address the requirement of network traffic routing over the Microsoft backbone network and avoiding the internet. Azure AD authentication is about authentication and authorization, not network connectivity path. It’s a good security practice, but not directly relevant to the private networking requirement in this question.
When configuring the Azure Cosmos DB account, enable:
Managed private endpoints
Correct: Enabling Managed private endpoints on the Azure Cosmos DB account is the key to establishing a private link from the Synapse Managed VNet to Cosmos DB. Managed private endpoints in Synapse allow you to create private endpoints to other Azure PaaS services, including Cosmos DB, from within the Synapse Managed VNet. This ensures that the traffic between Synapse and Cosmos DB flows privately over the Microsoft backbone network and does not traverse the public internet.
Why it’s necessary: Private endpoints are the Azure Private Link technology that provides private connectivity to Azure services. Managed private endpoints simplify the creation and management of these private endpoints from Synapse.
Server-level firewall rules
Incorrect: While server-level firewall rules on Azure Cosmos DB can restrict access to specific IP ranges or virtual networks, they do not inherently guarantee that traffic will be routed via the Microsoft backbone network and avoid the internet. Firewall rules are primarily for access control, not for enforcing a private network path. While you can use firewall rules in conjunction with other private networking solutions, they are not the primary solution for achieving private connectivity in this scenario. They are more about authorization (who can connect) than routing path.
Service endpoint policies
Incorrect: Service endpoint policies are used in conjunction with service endpoints. Service endpoints provide secure and direct connectivity from virtual networks to Azure services, keeping traffic on the Azure backbone. However, service endpoints are typically configured on the subnet level and are generally being superseded by Private Link for many scenarios, especially for PaaS-to-PaaS private connections. Managed private endpoints are the more modern and recommended approach for private connections from Synapse to Cosmos DB and offer a simpler configuration for this integration. Service endpoints are also less granular and less flexible than Private Endpoints for this specific scenario.
In summary, to meet the requirements of private connectivity, Microsoft backbone network traffic, no internet routing, and minimized implementation effort, the optimal solution is to:
Provision Azure Synapse with a dedicated managed virtual network.
Disable public network access to the Synapse workspace.
Enable Managed private endpoints for the Azure Cosmos DB account and create a managed private endpoint from Synapse to Cosmos DB.
You are developing a sales application that will contain several Azure cloud services and handle different components of a transaction. Different cloud services will process customer orders, billing, payment, inventory, and shipping.
You need to recommend a solution to enable the cloud services to asynchronously communicate transaction information by using XML messages.
What should you include in the recommendation?
A. Azure Notification Hubs
B. Azure Application Gateway
C. Azure Queue Storage
D. Azure Traffic Manager
The correct answer is C. Azure Queue Storage
Explanation:
Here’s why Azure Queue Storage is the most appropriate recommendation and why the other options are not suitable for this scenario:
Azure Queue Storage:
Asynchronous Communication: Azure Queue Storage is specifically designed for asynchronous message queuing. Cloud services can enqueue messages into a queue, and other services can independently dequeue and process these messages. This decouples the services and enables asynchronous communication.
XML Messages: Azure Queue Storage can handle messages in various formats, including XML. You can serialize your transaction information into XML and place it in the message body of queue messages.
Service-to-Service Communication: Queue Storage is ideal for communication between different cloud services within an application. Different services can access the same queue to send and receive messages, facilitating communication between order processing, billing, payment, inventory, and shipping services in your application.
Reliability and Scalability: Azure Queue Storage is a highly reliable and scalable service, ensuring message delivery and handling even under heavy load.
Why other options are incorrect:
A. Azure Notification Hubs: Azure Notification Hubs is designed for sending push notifications to mobile devices (iOS, Android, Windows, etc.). It is not intended for service-to-service communication or processing transaction information.
B. Azure Application Gateway: Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer and Application Delivery Controller (ADC). It operates at Layer 7 of the OSI model and is used to manage and route HTTP/HTTPS traffic to web applications. It’s not meant for general-purpose asynchronous message queuing between cloud services.
D. Azure Traffic Manager: Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer. It directs user traffic to different endpoints based on factors like performance, geography, or priority. It is primarily used for improving the availability and responsiveness of web applications by distributing traffic across different Azure regions or services. It’s not designed for asynchronous service-to-service communication.
You are developing an app that will use Azure Functions to process Azure Event Hubs events. Request processing is estimated to take between five and 20 minutes.
You need to recommend a hosting solution that meets the following requirements:
- Supports estimates of request processing runtimes
- Supports event-driven autoscaling for the app
Which hosting plan should you recommend?
A. Dedicated
B. Consumption
C. App Service
D. Premium
The correct answer is D. Premium
Explanation:
Let’s analyze each hosting plan against the requirements:
A. Dedicated (App Service Plan):
Supports estimates of request processing runtimes: Yes, App Service plans have no inherent time limits on function execution duration (beyond the overall app service timeouts if applicable, but not typically an issue for Event Hub triggers). You can run functions for 20 minutes or longer within the resources allocated to your App Service plan.
Supports event-driven autoscaling for the app: While App Service plans offer autoscaling, it’s primarily based on metrics like CPU utilization, memory consumption, and queue length (for Service Bus queues, for example). It’s not directly event-driven in the same way as Consumption or Premium plans are for Event Hubs. You would need to configure metric-based autoscaling rules, which are less reactive to immediate event bursts.
Cost: Dedicated plans can be more expensive, especially if your event processing is sporadic, as you pay for dedicated resources continuously, even when idle.
B. Consumption:
Supports estimates of request processing runtimes: No, not reliably in its standard form. Consumption plan functions have a default timeout of 10 minutes. While you can increase this timeout to a maximum of 10 minutes (or up to 30 minutes in Premium Consumption plan and some regions), the base Consumption plan is limited. A 20-minute processing time exceeds the standard Consumption plan limits.
Supports event-driven autoscaling for the app: Yes, absolutely. Consumption plan is designed for event-driven scaling. It automatically scales based on the number of incoming events in the Event Hub. This is a key strength of the Consumption plan.
Cost: Consumption plan is generally the most cost-effective for event-driven workloads because you only pay for the actual compute time used when your functions are running.
C. App Service:
This is essentially the same as option A - Dedicated (App Service Plan). The analysis for option A applies here.
D. Premium:
Supports estimates of request processing runtimes: Yes. Premium plan significantly extends the execution timeout limits compared to Consumption. Premium plan functions can run for up to 60 minutes by default, and this can be further increased. 20 minutes is well within the capabilities of the Premium plan.
Supports event-driven autoscaling for the app: Yes. Premium plan also provides event-driven autoscaling, similar to the Consumption plan. It scales elastically based on the event load from Event Hubs. Premium plan also offers more control over scaling behavior and instance sizes compared to Consumption.
Cost: Premium plan is more expensive than Consumption but generally less expensive than Dedicated (App Service) plans for event-driven workloads, especially if your load is variable. It offers a balance of scalability, features, and cost.
Why Premium is the best choice:
Given the requirement for processing times of up to 20 minutes, the Consumption plan (B) is immediately ruled out due to its default 10-minute timeout limitation (and even the extended limit might be too close for comfort and might require Premium Consumption plan which essentially becomes option D).
Dedicated (App Service) plan (A and C) can handle the runtime and offers scaling, but the autoscaling is less directly event-driven, and it’s generally more costly for event-driven workloads than Premium.
Premium plan (D) is the ideal solution because it:
Easily supports the 20-minute processing time with its extended execution timeout.
Provides event-driven autoscaling specifically designed for event sources like Event Hubs.
Offers a good balance of cost and features for event-driven scenarios, being more cost-effective than dedicated plans and providing more guarantees and features than Consumption.
Therefore, the most appropriate hosting plan recommendation is D. Premium.
You need to design a highly available Azure SQL database that meets the following requirements:
- Failover between replicas of the database must occur without any data loss.
- The database must remain available in the event of a zone outage.
- Costs must be minimized.
Which deployment option should you use?
A. Azure SQL Database Basic
B. Azure SQL Database Business Critical
C. Azure SQL Database Standard
D. Azure SQL Managed Instance General Purpose
The correct answer is B. Azure SQL Database Business Critical
Explanation:
Let’s break down why Business Critical is the best option based on each requirement:
Failover between replicas of the database must occur without any data loss.
Azure SQL Database Business Critical is designed for mission-critical applications with the highest performance and high availability requirements. It uses synchronous replication to three replicas across availability zones within a region. Synchronous replication ensures that every transaction is committed to all replicas before being acknowledged to the client. This guarantees zero data loss during failover because all replicas are always in sync.
The database must remain available in the event of a zone outage.
Azure SQL Database Business Critical supports zone redundancy. When configured as zone-redundant, the three replicas are placed in different availability zones within the Azure region. If one availability zone fails, the database remains available because the other replicas in the healthy zones continue to operate.
Costs must be minimized.
While Azure SQL Database Business Critical is the most expensive deployment option among the single database options, it is the only option that fully guarantees zero data loss and zone outage resilience as explicitly stated in the requirements. The “minimize costs” requirement is important, but it must be balanced against the critical availability and data loss prevention requirements. In this scenario, the availability and zero data loss requirements are paramount, and Business Critical is the only option that fully satisfies them.
Let’s look at why the other options are less suitable:
A. Azure SQL Database Basic:
Basic tier is the least expensive option, but it does not offer high availability or zone redundancy. It is a single instance database and is not designed for zero data loss failover or zone outage resilience.
C. Azure SQL Database Standard:
Azure SQL Database Standard offers high availability with standard availability which uses standard storage and synchronous replication within a single datacenter (for non-zone redundant configuration). While it provides good availability and data durability, in the standard tier, failovers might have a very small potential for data loss in extreme scenarios (though Azure aims for near-zero data loss in typical failovers). Standard tier can be configured for zone redundancy, providing zone outage resilience. However, even with zone redundancy, the guarantee of zero data loss during failover is stronger in Business Critical due to its architecture with premium storage and more robust replication mechanism. Standard is more cost-effective than Business Critical, but doesn’t guarantee zero data loss as strongly.
D. Azure SQL Managed Instance General Purpose:
Azure SQL Managed Instance General Purpose also offers high availability and can be configured for zone redundancy. It uses standard storage and provides good performance. However, similar to Standard single database, while it aims for minimal data loss, it doesn’t have the same explicit guarantee of zero data loss failover as Business Critical. Also, for a single database, Managed Instance is typically more expensive and more complex to manage than a single Azure SQL Database.
You need to design a highly available Azure SQL database that meets the following requirements:
- Failover between replicas of the database must occur without any data loss.
- The database must remain available in the event of a zone outage.
- Costs must be minimized.
Which deployment option should you use?
A. Azure SQL Database Hyperscale
B. Azure SQL Database Premium
C. Azure SQL Database Standard
D. Azure SQL Managed Instance General Purpose
The correct answer is B. Azure SQL Database Premium.
Rationale:
Let’s break down why Azure SQL Database Premium is the most suitable option based on the requirements:
Failover between replicas of the database must occur without any data loss.
Azure SQL Database Premium (and Business Critical, which is often considered the evolution of Premium) tiers are designed for mission-critical workloads that require the highest levels of availability and data durability. These tiers utilize synchronous replication. Synchronous replication means that a transaction is not considered committed until it is written to both the primary replica and at least one secondary replica. This ensures zero data loss in the event of a failover because the secondary replicas are always transactionally consistent with the primary.
The database must remain available in the event of a zone outage.
Azure SQL Database Premium (and Business Critical) supports Zone Redundancy. When you configure a database as zone-redundant in the Premium tier, Azure automatically provisions and maintains replicas of your database across multiple availability zones within the same Azure region. Availability Zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region. If one zone experiences an outage, the database remains available because the replicas in the other zones continue to function.
Costs must be minimized.
While Azure SQL Database Premium is more expensive than Standard and Hyperscale tiers, it is the most cost-effective option that fully meets the zero data loss and zone outage availability requirements. The “minimize costs” requirement must be balanced with the other critical requirements. In this scenario, the need for zero data loss and zone redundancy takes precedence over minimizing costs to the absolute lowest possible level. Basic and Standard tiers are cheaper but do not guarantee zero data loss and zone outage resilience to the same degree as Premium. Hyperscale, while potentially cost-effective for very large databases, might be more expensive for smaller to medium-sized databases than Premium and is not specifically designed for the same level of guaranteed zero data loss in failovers as Premium/Business Critical.
Let’s look at why the other options are less suitable:
A. Azure SQL Database Hyperscale:
Hyperscale is designed for very large databases and high scalability. While it offers high availability and can be zone-redundant, its architecture prioritizes scalability and performance for massive datasets. While it aims for high data durability, it doesn’t offer the same explicit guarantee of zero data loss during failover as the Premium/Business Critical tiers with synchronous replication across replicas designed for that specific purpose. Also, for smaller databases, Hyperscale might be more complex and not necessarily the most cost-effective for the specific needs outlined.
C. Azure SQL Database Standard:
Azure SQL Database Standard offers high availability, and can be configured for zone redundancy. However, it uses standard storage and while it uses synchronous replication within a single datacenter (for non-zone redundant), it doesn’t provide the same level of guaranteed zero data loss during failovers as the Premium/Business Critical tiers. Failovers in Standard tier are generally fast, but might have a very slight potential for data loss in extreme scenarios.
D. Azure SQL Managed Instance General Purpose:
Azure SQL Managed Instance General Purpose also offers high availability and can be zone-redundant. However, for a single database requirement, using Managed Instance is often overkill and more complex and potentially more expensive than using a single Azure SQL Database. While General Purpose Managed Instance is cheaper than Business Critical Managed Instance, it still doesn’t offer the same guaranteed zero data loss as Azure SQL Database Premium/Business Critical.
Important Note: The term “Azure SQL Database Premium” is sometimes used interchangeably with “Azure SQL Database Business Critical” in older documentation or exam questions. Business Critical is the current name for the tier that provides the highest level of availability, zero data loss, and zone redundancy for single Azure SQL Databases. If “Premium” in this question is intended to refer to the current highest availability tier, then it means Business Critical.
HOTSPOT
–
You company has offices in New York City, Sydney, Paris, and Johannesburg.
The company has an Azure subscription.
You plan to deploy a new Azure networking solution that meets the following requirements:
- Connects to ExpressRoute circuits in the Azure regions of East US, Southeast Asia, North Europe, and South Africa
- Minimizes latency by supporting connection in three regions
- Supports Site-to-site VPN connections
- Minimizes costs
You need to identify the minimum number of Azure Virtual WAN hubs that you must deploy, and which virtual WAN SKU to use.
What should you identify? To answer, select the appropriate options in the answer area.
NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
Answer Area
Number of Virtual WAN hubs:
1
2
3
4
Virtual WAN SKU:
Basic
Standard
Answer Area:
Number of Virtual WAN hubs: 3
Virtual WAN SKU: Standard
Explanation:
Number of Virtual WAN hubs: 3
Requirement for ExpressRoute in Four Regions: The company has ExpressRoute circuits in East US, Southeast Asia, North Europe, and South Africa. Virtual WAN hubs act as central connectivity points within Azure for these ExpressRoute circuits.
Minimizing Latency in Three Regions: To minimize latency for users in three of the four office locations, deploying Virtual WAN hubs in or near three of the four Azure regions is the most effective approach. You would strategically choose three locations that best serve the majority of your users and traffic patterns. For example, placing hubs in East US (for New York), North Europe (for Paris), and Southeast Asia (for Sydney) would cover three major office locations.
Connectivity to All Four Regions: Even with three hubs, you can still connect to ExpressRoute circuits in all four regions. A single Virtual WAN hub can connect to multiple ExpressRoute circuits, even if those circuits are in different Azure regions. The hubs act as aggregation points. You do not need a one-to-one mapping of hubs to ExpressRoute regions to achieve connectivity.
Minimizing Costs: Deploying three hubs is the minimum required to meet the latency requirement for three regions while still connecting to all four ExpressRoute circuits. Deploying four hubs would also technically work but would unnecessarily increase costs without providing additional benefit beyond the stated requirements.
Virtual WAN SKU: Standard
Requirement for ExpressRoute and Site-to-site VPN: The requirements explicitly state the need to connect to ExpressRoute circuits and support Site-to-site VPN connections.
SKU Capabilities:
Basic SKU: The Basic Virtual WAN SKU is limited. It only supports Site-to-site VPN connections. It does not support ExpressRoute connections.
Standard SKU: The Standard Virtual WAN SKU provides full functionality and supports both ExpressRoute and Site-to-site VPN connections, along with other advanced features like VPN encryption, routing policies, and more.
Choosing the Correct SKU: Since the solution must connect to ExpressRoute circuits, the Standard Virtual WAN SKU is mandatory. The Basic SKU is insufficient to meet the ExpressRoute connectivity requirement.
