Hotspot Question You have an on-premises web server farm that contains 10 servers. The servers run Windows Server 2016 and host a .NET Framework application named App1. The state data for App1 is…

This hotspot question tests knowledge of Azure VM scale sets, availability zones, and Azure Site Recovery to build a cost-effective, highly available, and disaster-recoverable web application hosting solution.

Submitted by haru.x· Mar 6, 2026Design infrastructure solutions

Question

Hotspot Question You have an on-premises web server farm that contains 10 servers. The servers run Windows Server 2016 and host a .NET Framework application named App1. The state data for App1 is maintained by using a database named DB1. The usage patterns of App1 vary significantly. You plan to perform the following actions: - Migrate App1 to Azure. - Migrate DB1 to an Azure SQL database. You need to recommend a virtual machine-based solution to host App1. The solution must meet the following requirements: - Minimize how long it takes to scale out resources during surges in demand for App1. - Ensure minimum capacity availability of the virtual machines at all times. - Ensure that the solution can be recovered if an Azure region fails. - Minimize compute costs. What should you include in the recommendation? To answer, select the appropriate options in the answer area. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point. Answer:

Exhibits

Answer Area

Compute resources:
Azure virtual machines in an availability setAzure Virtual Machine Scale Sets in Flexible orchestration modeAzure Virtual Machine Scale Sets in Uniform orchestration mode
To minimize costs:
A capacity reservation groupAn eviction policySpot Priority Mix

Explanation

Approach. The correct recommendation includes: (1) Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) with custom autoscale to minimize scale-out time during demand surges - VMSS pre-provisions instances and scales automatically; (2) Availability Zones (across 2 or 3 zones) to ensure minimum capacity availability and protect against datacenter-level failures within a region; (3) Azure Site Recovery (ASR) to replicate VMs to a secondary Azure region, ensuring recovery if an entire Azure region fails; (4) Spot instances or reserved instances combined with autoscale-in policies to minimize compute costs by deallocating VMs when demand drops. The combination of VMSS with Availability Zones provides intra-region resilience, while ASR provides inter-region disaster recovery. Autoscaling ensures you only pay for compute when needed, directly minimizing costs.

Concept tested. Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS), Availability Zones for intra-region high availability, Azure Site Recovery (ASR) for cross-region disaster recovery, and autoscaling policies to minimize cost and maximize responsiveness during demand surges.

Reference. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machine-scale-sets/overview | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/site-recovery/azure-to-azure-tutorial-enable-replication

Topics

#Virtual Machine Scale Sets#VM migration#Auto-scaling#Cost optimization

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