Azure Administrator Associate AZ-104 Updated Exam

1️⃣ Create a Log Analytics workspace.

2️⃣ Collect Windows performance counters from the Log Analytics agents.

3️⃣ Create an alert rule.

The question states:

“You need to configure the alerts for VM1 and VM2 to meet the technical requirements.”

The technical requirement from the case study specifies:

“Trigger an alert if VM1 or VM2 has less than 20 GB of free space on volume C.”

This requirement involves monitoring performance metrics (disk space) and generating alerts based on those metrics. According to Microsoft Azure monitoring and management documentation, the process to configure such alerts involves using Azure Monitor and Log Analytics.

Step-by-Step Verified Solution:

Step 1: Create a Log Analytics workspace

A Log Analytics workspace is required to store and analyze logs and performance data collected from virtual machines.

Azure Monitor uses this workspace as the central repository for performance counters, events, and logs from connected agents.

From the Microsoft Documentation:

“Before you can collect and query data from virtual machines, you must create a Log Analytics workspace in your subscription.”

(Source: Azure Monitor and Log Analytics Guide)

Step 2: Collect Windows performance counters from the Log Analytics agents

After creating the workspace, you must connect VM1 and VM2 to the workspace and configure the Windows performance counters that you want to monitor.

In this case, you would collect the LogicalDisk(%) Free Space counter for C: drive.

Azure Monitor agent or Log Analytics agent collects these metrics and sends them to the workspace for analysis.

“To monitor system performance, configure the agent to collect performance counters such as available memory or free disk space.”

(Source: Azure Monitor Performance Counters Documentation)

Step 3: Create an alert rule

Once performance data is being collected, you can create an alert rule in Azure Monitor based on a Kusto query or metric threshold.

You would define a condition such as:

LogicalDisk | where FreeSpaceMB < 20480

and configure it to trigger an alert when free space on volume C drops below 20 GB.

This alert can notify via email, action group, or automation runbook.

“Alerts in Azure Monitor proactively notify you when important conditions are found in your monitoring data. Alerts can trigger automated actions or notifications.”

(Source: Azure Monitor Alerts Overview)

Incorrect Options (Eliminated):

Configure the Diagnostic settings:

Used for collecting activity logs or resource logs, not performance counters from VMs.

Create an Azure SQL database:

Not relevant to the scenario of monitoring disk space.

You must identify the correct storage account for flow logging of IP traffic from VM5 that satisfies the retention requirement of eight months.

Step 1 — Review the Requirements

Flow logs are stored in a StorageV2 (general purpose v2) account.

The selected storage account must support Network Watcher flow logs.

Data must be retained for eight months (≈ 240 days).

Step 2 — Evaluate Each Storage Account

Storage Account

Kind

Region

Remarks

storage1

Storage (general purpose v1)

West US

Does not support flow logs (deprecated type).

storage2

StorageV2 (general purpose v2)

East US

Fully supports flow logs and lifecycle management.

storage3

BlobStorage

East US 2

Not suitable — supports blobs only, not log structure or lifecycle retention.

storage4

FileStorage

Central US

File-only — cannot store flow logs.

Step 3 — Compliance with Flow Log Retention

Flow logs for Network Watcher NSG flow logging are supported only by StorageV2 accounts. You can use Azure Storage lifecycle management to automatically delete logs after a set period — such as 240 days (8 months) — to comply with retention requirements.

Official Microsoft Note:

“Network security group (NSG) flow logs are stored in Azure StorageV2 (General Purpose v2) accounts, which support lifecycle management for log retention.” — Azure Network Watcher documentation.

Conclusion

storage2 is the only StorageV2 account.

It’s located in East US, matching VM5’s region (East US) — this satisfies performance and compliance requirements.

In this scenario, Contoso Ltd. must designate a new user named Admin1 as the service administrator of the Azure subscription and ensure that Admin1 receives email alerts about service outages.

In Azure, there are three classic administrative roles associated with subscriptions:

Account Administrator – The individual who created the subscription and manages billing.

Service Administrator – The primary contact responsible for managing services and resources in the subscription.

Co-Administrator – Has the same management privileges as the Service Administrator but cannot change subscription associations.

According to Microsoft Azure Administrator documentation, to change the Service Administrator, you must perform the following steps:

In the Azure portal, navigate to Subscriptions.

Select the specific subscription.

Under Settings, choose Properties.

In the Service Administrator field, update the name and email address to that of the new administrator (in this case, Admin1).

This modification ensures that Admin1 becomes the Service Administrator, and Azure will automatically send service-related notifications and outage alerts to that user’s registered email address, as defined by Microsoft’s subscription notification process.

Option B (IAM settings) is used for Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and assigning Azure Resource Manager roles such as Owner, Contributor, or Reader. However, RBAC roles do not change the Service Administrator at the subscription level — that’s only done through the Properties blade.

Options C (AAD Properties) and D (AAD Groups) are unrelated to subscription-level administrative settings.

Therefore, the verified and Microsoft-documented answer is:

✅ A. From the Subscriptions blade, select the subscription, and then modify the Properties.

Final Verified Answer: ✅ A. From the Subscriptions blade, select the subscription, and then modify the Properties.

A Recovery Services vault is a logical container that stores the backup data for each protected resource, such as Azure VMs. When the backup job for a protected resource runs, it creates a recovery point inside the Recovery Services vault.

Scenario:

There are three application tiers, each with five virtual machines.

Move all the virtual machines for App1 to Azure.

Ensure that all the virtual machines for App1 are protected by backups.