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Difficulty: MediumAzure Storage Accounts, Blob, Disk, Files, and Storage Tiers

A company is deploying an application on Azure Virtual Machines. The deployment has the following requirements:
- A storage solution to host the operating system disks for the virtual machines, where the company maintains full administrative control over operating system patching and configurations.
- A shared storage volume that can be mounted simultaneously by multiple virtual machines using the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.

Which combination of Azure storage services should the company select?

  1. A
    Azure Files for the operating system disks, and Azure Blob Storage (Archive tier) for the shared volume
  2. B
    Azure Disk Storage for both the operating system disks and the shared volume, assuming Microsoft will manage the operating system patching and configuration of the virtual machines
  3. Azure Disk Storage for the operating system disks, and Azure Files for the shared volumeAnswer
  4. D
    Azure Blob Storage (Archive tier) for the operating system disks, and Azure Disk Storage for the shared volume

Answer

Azure Disk Storage for the operating system disks, and Azure Files for the shared volume
The correct solution uses Azure Disk Storage for the OS disks because it provides persistent block storage required for hosting VM operating systems, where the customer retains administrative control over patching and configuration. It uses Azure Files for the shared volume because it is a managed file share service that natively supports the SMB protocol for concurrent access by multiple VMs.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the storage service required for hosting the virtual machine operating system disks.
Azure Disk Storage provides persistent, high-performance block storage designed for virtual machine OS and data disks.
Other services like Azure Files or Blob Storage are not used as native OS disks for standard virtual machines.
2
Identify the service required for a shared volume that can be mounted concurrently using the SMB protocol.
Azure Files supports standard SMB and NFS protocols, allowing multiple virtual machines to mount the same share simultaneously.
Azure Disk Storage is primarily for single-VM attachment (unless using Shared Disks, which don't natively present an SMB file share), and Blob Storage is object storage.
3
Evaluate the administrative responsibilities and storage tier compatibility.
In IaaS (Virtual Machines), the customer is responsible for OS patching and configuration. Additionally, the Archive tier is offline and cannot be used for active disks or live shared shares.
This eliminates options that assume Microsoft manages VM OS patching or that attempt to use the Archive tier for active storage.

Key Concept

Selecting appropriate Azure Storage options (Disk Storage vs. Files) based on OS hosting requirements, access protocols, and the shared responsibility model.
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Topics

Azure Storage Accounts, Blob, Disk, Files, and Storage Tiers

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