Question

Difficulty: HardBlob, File, and Disk Storage Solutions

A healthcare organization is designing a shared storage solution to host sensitive patient records and medical imaging configuration files. The solution will support a clinical application running on multiple Azure Virtual Machines. The storage design must meet the following requirements:
- Allow simultaneous access from multiple Virtual Machines using the SMB protocol.
- Integrate with the organization's on-premises Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) to enforce NTFS-grade access control lists (ACLs).
- Provide sub-millisecond latency for configuration file metadata operations.
- Ensure that the shared data remains available if a single datacenter zone within the primary Azure region goes offline.
- Ensure any external diagnostic services are granted access to specific files via a token that can be easily revoked immediately if compromised.

Which two actions should you include in the design? (Select two.)

  1. Create a storage account that uses Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS).Answer
  2. Create an Azure Files share in a Premium performance storage account.Answer
  3. C
    Create a storage account that uses Locally Redundant Storage (LRS).
  4. D
    Create an Azure Files share in a Standard performance storage account.
  5. E
    Generate an ad-hoc Shared Access Signature (SAS) token with a five-year lifetime to grant external diagnostic services direct access.

Answer

To meet the performance, availability, and protocol requirements, you must create a Premium performance storage account configured with Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS), and host the share within it.
Creating a Premium performance storage account ensures that Azure Files can deliver the sub-millisecond latency required by the clinical application's metadata operations. Configuring the storage account with Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS) ensures that the synchronous copies are spread across three distinct availability zones, allowing the share to remain fully operational if a single zone experiences an outage.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Evaluate protocol and performance requirements.
The requirement for SMB access, NTFS ACLs, and AD DS integration points to Azure Files. The requirement for sub-millisecond latency requires SSD-backed Premium Azure Files, as Standard Azure Files (HDD-based) does not guarantee this level of performance.
This narrows the service choice to Premium Azure Files.
2
Evaluate high availability and redundancy requirements.
The requirement to survive a datacenter zone outage necessitates Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS). Locally Redundant Storage (LRS) is insufficient as it is confined to a single datacenter.
This determines the redundancy configuration for the storage account hosting the share.
3
Verify feature compatibility.
Azure Files Premium tier supports ZRS and integrates with on-premises AD DS for SMB access.
Ensures the selected components work together seamlessly.

Key Concept

Selecting appropriate performance tiers (Premium vs Standard) and redundancy configurations (ZRS vs LRS) for Azure Files workloads requiring domain-joined authentication and low latency.
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