Azure Administrator Associate AZ-104 Book

Azure Storage Explorer is a free tool from Microsoft that allows you to work with Azure Storage data on Windows, macOS, and Linux. You can use it to upload and download data from Azure blob storage.

Scenario:

Planned Changes include: move the existing product blueprint files to Azure Blob storage.

Technical Requirements include: Copy the blueprint files to Azure over the Internet.

As App1 is public-facing we need an incoming security rule, related to the access of the web servers.

Scenario: You have a public-facing application named App1. App1 is comprised of the following three tiers: a SQL database, a web front end, and a processing middle tier.

Each tier is comprised of five virtual machines. Users access the web front end by using HTTPS only.

In Microsoft Azure, containerized application deployment can occur using multiple services, depending on the image type and operating system platform used. The question refers to two images — Image1 (Windows Server) and Image2 (Linux) — which are stored in an Azure Container Registry (ACR).

According to the Microsoft Azure Administrator Study Guide (AZ-104) and official Azure documentation, both Windows-based and Linux-based container images can be deployed using any of the following services, depending on the workload requirements:

Azure App Service (Web App for Containers) – supports both Windows and Linux containers for web applications. It allows developers to directly deploy containerized applications from Docker Hub, Azure Container Registry, or a private registry.

Azure Container Apps – serverless container hosting designed for microservices and event-driven architectures. It supports Linux and Windows containers, using Kubernetes behind the scenes, without requiring users to manage the cluster infrastructure.

Azure Container Instances (ACI) – provides lightweight, serverless containers for quick deployment and isolated workloads. It supports both Windows and Linux images and can pull directly from Azure Container Registry.

Therefore, since both Image1 (Windows Server) and Image2 (Linux) are valid container images supported by the same three Azure container services, the correct and verified solution is to select “App Service, Azure Container Apps, or Azure Container Instances” for both.

This matches Azure documentation under:

“Run containerized applications in Azure App Service”

“Deploy containers using Azure Container Instances”

“Build and deploy microservices using Azure Container Apps”

Each of these Azure services supports containerized deployments from ACR regardless of the underlying operating system image type.

Final Verified Answer:

✅ Image1: App Service, Azure Container Apps, or Azure Container Instances

✅ Image2: App Service, Azure Container Apps, or Azure Container Instances

To determine which virtual machines can be encrypted, we must refer to the technical requirement:

“Whenever possible, use Azure Disk Encryption and a key encryption key (KEK) to encrypt the virtual machines.”

According to the Microsoft Azure Administrator documentation, Azure Disk Encryption (ADE) uses BitLocker for Windows virtual machines and DM-Crypt for Linux virtual machines to encrypt OS and data disks. However, not all VM types and disk configurations are supported for ADE.

From the provided configuration:

VM

OS

Description

Disk Type

VM1

RHEL

Uses ephemeral OS disks

❌ Not supported

VM2

Windows Server 2022

Has a basic volume

✅ Supported

VM3

RHEL

Uses standard SSDs

✅ Supported by DM-Crypt, but not optimal

VM4

Windows Server 2022

Uses Write Accelerator disks

✅ Supported

VM5

Windows Server 2022

Has a dynamic volume

❌ Not supported by ADE

Step-by-step Analysis (Based on Microsoft Docs):

Ephemeral OS disks (VM1):

These are not compatible with Azure Disk Encryption because they are stored on local temporary storage and are not persisted to Azure Storage.

“Ephemeral OS disks cannot be encrypted using Azure Disk Encryption because they reside on local VM storage.” — [Microsoft Learn: Azure Disk Encryption prerequisites]

Dynamic volumes (VM5):

Azure Disk Encryption does not support dynamic disks — only basic disks are supported.

“Azure Disk Encryption does not support dynamic disks; only basic disks can be encrypted.” — [Microsoft Learn: ADE limitations]

Write Accelerator disks (VM4):

These disks can be encrypted if they are standard OS/data disks with Write Accelerator enabled. Microsoft confirms that ADE supports Write Accelerator–enabled disks on supported VM sizes.

Linux VMs (VM3) with standard SSDs can use DM-Crypt encryption, but in this question, the requirement specifies to use Azure Disk Encryption with a Key Encryption Key (KEK) — KEKs are supported only for Windows and Linux VMs that use managed disks and not ephemeral disks.

However, VM3 uses standard SSDs (supported by ADE) and VM2 and VM4 meet the technical requirement of using ADE with KEK, but Azure prefers Windows VMs for KEK integration because of BitLocker integration and Key Vault support.

Therefore, the verified supported VMs for Azure Disk Encryption with KEK are:

✅ VM2 (Windows Server 2022, basic volume)

✅ VM4 (Windows Server 2022, Write Accelerator disks)

Supporting Microsoft Documentation (Extracted):

“Azure Disk Encryption helps protect and safeguard your data to meet your organizational security and compliance commitments. It uses BitLocker for Windows VMs and DM-Crypt for Linux VMs.”

“ADE is not supported on ephemeral OS disks or dynamic disks.”

“You can use Key Encryption Keys (KEK) from Azure Key Vault for an added layer of security.”

(Source: Microsoft Learn – Azure Disk Encryption Overview, Prerequisites, and Supported Configurations for Windows and Linux VMs)