Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ104) Practice Exam

If a virtual machine has an associated public IP address, what is a necessary configuration for remote access?

1. Proper Network Security Group rules

2. Ensure it is part of an availability set

3. Use of a VPN connection

4. Public DNS configuration

The correct answer is: Proper Network Security Group rules

To enable remote access to a virtual machine (VM) that has an associated public IP address, configuring proper Network Security Group (NSG) rules is essential. NSGs act as a firewall for Azure resources, allowing or denying inbound and outbound traffic based on defined rules. When you want to allow remote access to a VM, such as for remote desktop protocol (RDP) or SSH, you need to ensure that the corresponding ports (like port 3389 for RDP or port 22 for SSH) are open in the NSG that is associated with the network interface or the subnet of the VM. Without these rules configured correctly to allow traffic on those ports, even if the VM has a public IP address, remote access would still be blocked, making it impossible to connect. Other configurations, while potentially beneficial or necessary in different contexts, do not specifically grant access rights through the firewall rules. Being part of an availability set improves reliability and availability but does not impact security or access directly. A VPN connection might secure your access but is not required if accessing the VM directly via its public IP, and public DNS configuration can help with ease of access by providing a human-readable name instead of an IP address, but it does not influence firewall rules