Hotspot Question You have an Azure subscription that contains a virtual machine named VM1. To VM1, you plan to add a 1-TB data disk that meets the following requirements: - Provides data resiliency…

This question tests knowledge of Azure managed disk types and host caching options, requiring you to select the combination that provides datacenter-level resiliency, lowest latency/highest performance, and no data loss on host failure.

Submitted by minji_kr· Mar 4, 2026Implement and manage storage

Question

Hotspot Question You have an Azure subscription that contains a virtual machine named VM1. To VM1, you plan to add a 1-TB data disk that meets the following requirements: - Provides data resiliency in the event of a datacenter outage. - Provides the lowest latency and the highest performance. - Ensures that no data loss occurs if a host fails. You need to recommend which type of storage and host caching to configure for the new data disk. Answer:

Exhibit

Answer Area

Storage type:
Premium SSD that uses locally-redundant storage (LRS)Premium SSD that uses zone-redundant storage (ZRS)Standard SSD that uses locally-redundant storage (LRS)Standard SSD that uses zone-redundant storage (ZRS)
Host caching:
NoneRead-onlyRead/Write

Explanation

Approach. The correct configuration is Zone-redundant storage (ZRS) Premium SSD for the disk type and Read-only host caching (or None for data disks requiring write consistency). ZRS Premium SSD replicates data synchronously across three availability zones within a region, providing resiliency against a full datacenter outage while maintaining high IOPS and low latency. For host caching, Read-only caching is typically selected for data disks to maximize read performance, but because write-through caching can risk data loss on host failure, None caching is the safer choice for data integrity - ensuring no data loss if the host fails. The key combination is: Disk type = Premium SSD (ZRS) for resiliency and performance, and Host caching = None to guarantee no data loss on host failure, since Read-only caching does not cache writes and None eliminates any cache-related data loss risk entirely.

Concept tested. Azure managed disk types (LRS vs ZRS, Standard HDD/SSD vs Premium SSD vs Ultra Disk) and Azure VM disk host caching options (None, Read-only, Read/Write) - specifically understanding that ZRS provides availability zone redundancy for datacenter outage protection, Premium SSD provides the best latency/performance among standard managed disk tiers, and that host caching set to 'None' or 'Read-only' avoids write-cache data loss on host failure.

Reference. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/disks-redundancy and https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/premium-storage-performance#disk-caching

Topics

#Azure VM data disks#Managed Disks#Host caching#Disk performance tiers

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