Mastering Azure: Real-World Scenarios based Interview Question and Solutions

1. You are managing a virtual machine in Azure that has recently been experiencing performance degradation?

Answer: To troubleshoot and improve the performance of the virtual machine (VM), follow these steps:

Upgrade VM Size: If CPU and memory usage are consistently high, resizing the VM to a larger instance with more CPU and memory resources.

Switch to SSD Storage: If your VM is currently using HDDs, upgrading to Premium SSD or Standard SSD disks can significantly improve I/O performance due to faster data access speeds.

Increase Disk Size: Increasing the size of the disk can help enhance performance, 

Address IOPS or Throughput Limitations: If the current VM size has IOPS or throughput limitations, upgrading to a higher-tier VM type can unlock greater disk performance capabilities, ensuring that resource bottlenecks are minimized.

2. Can I use the temporary disk in Azure to store data?

Answer: No we should not use the temporary disk to store data. It is only temporary storage, so you would risk losing data that can't be recovered

Temporary disk in Azure is used for paging to improves performance of VM

Paging means disk space used as RAM

3. Is it possible to enable Network Security Groups (NSGs) at the VNET level?

Answer: It is not possible to apply Network Security Groups (NSGs) directly at the VNET level. However, you can associate NSGs with individual subnets within the VNET. By applying the NSG to the subnet, any resources (such as VMs) within that subnet will be affected by the security rules defined in the NSG. Applying NSGs at the subnet level is considered a best practice.

4. Imagine you are managing a cloud infrastructure in Azure, and you need to provide remote access to a Virtual Machine (VM) for a third-party vendor. The vendor does not have an Azure account and should not be given access to the Azure portal. However, they need to securely connect to the VM using only their web browser. How can you achieve this?

Answer: You can use the Azure Bastion Shareable Link feature, which allows users to connect to the VM without requiring Azure portal access. The link provides a secure, web-based connection where the vendor only needs the VM’s login credentials.

Security considerations:

• Only share the link with authorized users.
• Delete or regenerate the link when access is no longer required.

5. One of your clients escalated that his VM has been rebooted without intimating to him and you need to know logs on who has rebooted the VM, and how can get the details?

Answer: In that case, Activity logs will help, as any activity happens in VMs through the portal, you will get log alerts stored in the activity logs, so you will go to activity logs and find who has rebooted the VM and can share with clients after manager approval.

6. A customer has Prod and Test environments. How do implement a solution that each environment can’t connect to each other?

Answer: Create separate Azure subscriptions for each environment (Prod and Test). This provides clear boundaries and helps enforce isolation, as resources in different subscriptions can't communicate with each other by default unless explicitly allowed.

7. What are the various states of the Virtual Machine in Azure?

Answer: Below are the States of Azure VM

• Running: The VM is up and running.
• Stopped (De allocated): The VM is stopped, and you are not charged for the VM
• Stopped: The VM is stopped, but you are being charged for the VM

8. If your Azure VM fails to start, how would you investigate the cause of the issue?

Answer: If the VM fails to start, you should check Boot Diagnostics in the Azure portal. Boot Diagnostics will provide detailed console output and may display error codes related to the startup failure. Once you have the error code, you can refer to Microsoft’s official documentation to troubleshoot the issue based on the specific error and resolve the problem accordingly. If you are unable to resolve the issue yourself, you can raise a support ticket with Azure support,

9. What steps would you take to optimize costs in Azure?

Answer: Below are the steps which can be taken

Cost Analysis: Drill down into cost details, filter by various dimensions, and visualize spending.

Set budgets and alerts: Get notified when spending exceeds thresholds.

Right-Sizing: Analyze VM utilization (CPU, memory). Often, VMs are over-provisioned. Right-size them to match actual need

Reserved Instances (RIs): For predictable workloads, RIs offer significant discounts compared to pay-as-you-go pricing.

Spot VMs: For fault-tolerant workloads, Spot VMs offer substantial cost savings by leveraging spare Azure compute capacity

Azure Hybrid Benefit: If you have on-premises Windows Server licenses, you can use the Azure Hybrid Benefit to reduce the cost of running Windows VMs in Azure.

Stop Unused VMs: Automatically shut down VMs during non-business hours or when not in use.

Rightsized Storage Accounts: Review and optimize storage account configurations, ensuring you're using the correct type (Standard vs. Premium) based on your performance and redundancy

Right Storage Tier: Choose the appropriate storage account tier (Hot, Cool, Archive) based on access frequency. Move less frequently accessed data to cooler tiers to reduce storage costs.

Unused Resources: Periodically audit and delete unused resources after proper approvals to ensure you’re not paying for unnecessary services.

10. How can you enable an Availability Set for existing virtual machines in an Azure environment?

Answer: It is not possible to enable an Availability Set for virtual machines that are already running. Due to limitations in Azure, the Availability Set can only be applied during the creation of a virtual machine. To enable an Availability Set, you would need to take a snapshot of the VM's disk, delete the VM, and then recreate the VM from the snapshot. During the VM creation process, you can add the VM to the desired Availability Set.

11. You have a web application running on an Azure Virtual Machine, and you want to ensure high availability and fault tolerance. How can you achieve this?

Answer: To ensure high availability and fault tolerance for a web application running on an Azure Virtual Machine, you can utilize Availability Sets or Availability Zones. Availability Sets distribute VMs across multiple fault domains and update domains, ensuring that your application stays online even during hardware or rack failures. On the other hand, Availability Zones provide an additional layer of protection by deploying VMs across physically separate data centers within the same region, offering enhanced fault tolerance and resiliency.

12. You have an Azure Virtual Machine running Windows Server, and you need to manage it remotely. What are the different options available to remotely connect to an Azure Virtual Machine?

Answer: There are several options available to remotely connect to an Azure Virtual Machine running Windows Server:

Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP): RDP allows you to connect to the VM using a Remote Desktop client, providing a graphical interface for remote management.

Azure Bastion: Azure Bastion is a fully managed service that enables secure and seamless RDP and SSH connectivity directly from the Azure portal. It allows you to connect to your Azure VMs without exposing them to the public internet, eliminating the need for a public IP address

Azure Virtual Network VPN Gateway: By configuring an Azure Virtual Network VPN Gateway, you can establish a secure site-to-site or point-to-site VPN connection between your on-premises network and the Azure Virtual Network. This provides secure access to your VMs through private IP addresses, ensuring the connection remains within a private network.

13. How can you distribute incoming traffic evenly across multiple Azure Virtual Machines hosting a web application?

Answer: To evenly distribute incoming traffic across multiple Azure Virtual Machines hosting a web application, you can use Azure Load Balancer. It efficiently distributes network traffic to VMs in a backend pool, ensuring high availability and scalability for your application. Azure Load Balancer can be configured to work with both public and private IP addresses, providing flexibility depending on your requirements.

14. How can you automate the deployment and configuration of an Azure Virtual Machine using Infrastructure as Code (IaC)? 

Answer: To automate the deployment and configuration of an Azure Virtual Machine, you can use Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates. ARM templates are declarative JSON files that specify the desired state of your infrastructure, allowing you to automate the provisioning and configuration of resources, in a consistent and repeatable manner. 

15. How can you ensure secure remote access to an Azure Virtual Machine without exposing RDP or SSH ports to the public internet? 

Answer: To ensure secure remote access to an Azure Virtual Machine without exposing RDP or SSH ports to the public internet, you can use Azure Bastion. Azure Bastion is a fully managed service that allows secure RDP and SSH connectivity directly from the Azure portal. It eliminates the need for public IP addresses on your VMs, thereby reducing the attack surface and enhancing security.

16. How can you ensure scalability and load balancing for a web application hosted on an Azure Virtual Machine?

Answer: To ensure scalability and load balancing for a web application hosted on an Azure Virtual Machine, you can use Azure Load Balancer in combination with Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS). Azure Load Balancer distributes incoming traffic across multiple VM instances to maintain high availability. VMSS allows you to automatically scale the number of VM instances based on demand, providing elasticity and efficient load distribution for your application.

17. How can you quickly replicate an existing environment to another region for testing purposes?

Answer: To quickly replicate an existing environment to another region for testing, you can capture an image of the VM. This image will include everything. Once the image is captured, you can create a new VM in the desired region using this image, effectively replicating the environment in a different location for testing.

18. You have an Azure Virtual Machine and need to ensure that its data is protected and can be recovered in case of failure?

Answer: To ensure protection for your Azure Virtual Machine, you can configure Azure Backup. Azure Backup automatically backs up the VM to a Recovery Services Vault, providing a secure and reliable way to protect data. You can schedule regular backups and in case of data loss or disaster, also you can restore the VM to a previous state or even perform file-level recovery.

19. You are managing a critical Azure Virtual Machine that hosts an important web application. To ensure business continuity and minimize downtime in case of a disaster (such as a region-wide outage) which service in azure you will use?

Answer: To implement disaster recovery for your Azure Virtual Machine, you can use Azure Site Recovery (ASR). ASR enables replication of your VM to another Azure region, ensuring that if the primary region experiences an outage, you can failover to the secondary region.

20. You need to securely share files and folders with external partners for a project. The files should be stored in Azure and be accessible over the internet?

Answer: To securely share files and folders with external partners, you can use Azure File share within an Azure Storage account. This file share is fully managed and can be accessed over the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.

21. You have two Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) located in different virtual networks (VNets) within the same Azure region. These VMs need to communicate securely and privately how can you achieve this communication without exposing traffic to the public internet?

Answer: To enable secure and private communication between Azure Virtual Machines located in different VNets, you can use Azure Virtual Network (VNet) Peering. VNet peering establishes a direct, low-latency connection between the VNets, allowing the VMs to communicate securely over Azure's private backbone network.

By configuring VNet peering, traffic between the VMs in the different networks remains private and does not traverse the public internet. This ensures that communication between the VMs is secure,

22. You are managing an Azure Virtual Machine hosting a critical application. Recently, the application has been experiencing performance issues, but you are unsure of the root cause. You need a solution to monitor the VM's performance and track its metrics in real-time to identify any anomalies. How can you use Azure Monitor to diagnose and address these issues?

Answer: To monitor the performance of your Azure Virtual Machine and diagnose the issues, you can use Azure Monitor. Azure Monitor provides a comprehensive set of tools to track real-time performance metrics, such as CPU usage, memory consumption, disk I/O, and network traffic.

Additionally, you can configure alerts in Azure Monitor to notify you when specific thresholds are exceeded, allowing for proactive troubleshooting.

23. You have an Azure Virtual Machine that needs to securely connect with your on-premises network to access internal resources. How can you establish a secure connection between the VM in Azure and your on-premises infrastructure?

Answer: To securely connect your Azure Virtual Machine on-premises network, you can use Azure Virtual Network Gateway. First, deploy a Virtual Network Gateway in Azure and configure a site-to-site VPN connection between the gateway and your on-premises network. This setup ensures secure, encrypted communication between the Azure VM and your on-premises resources, allowing the VM to access the internal network securely over the VPN tunnel.