AZ-305 Question 190
Single answerA company is developing a microservices-based application hosted on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and Azure App Service. They need a centralized way to store and manage application settings and feature flags across multiple environments, ensuring that updates to these settings can be made without redeploying code. Security is also a concern because some settings include sensitive data such as connection strings. Which Azure service best meets these requirements for comprehensive application configuration management?
- A
Azure Key Vault
- B
Azure App Configuration
- C
Azure DevOps variable groups
- D
Azure Policy
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
Azure App Configuration is the recommended service for centralizing and managing application configuration data across multiple Azure-hosted services. It supports real-time updates of configuration settings and feature flags, integrates with Azure Key Vault for secure secret storage, and provides versioning to track changes. For more details, refer to Microsoft's official documentation on Azure App Configuration: https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/azure-app-configuration/overview.
- A. Incorrect.
Option 1: Azure Key Vault is excellent for securely storing secrets, certificates, and keys, but it does not provide native features for managing general configuration parameters or feature flags. It can be used in conjunction with another service like Azure App Configuration to store sensitive information, but it does not fully address the need for a unified application configuration management solution on its own.
- B. Correct.
Option 2: Azure App Configuration is designed specifically to store and manage application settings and feature flags in a centralized manner. It can integrate directly with applications running in Azure Kubernetes Service and Azure App Service, and it supports updates in real time without requiring code redeployment. It also handles versioning and can secure sensitive settings by referencing secrets from Azure Key Vault.
- C. Incorrect.
Option 3: Azure DevOps variable groups are primarily used to store variables related to build and release pipelines, rather than serving as a runtime configuration management solution. While they can store some settings, they are not intended for dynamic, production-scale configuration updates or managing feature flags across multiple environments.
- D. Incorrect.
Option 4: Azure Policy is used for defining and enforcing environment-wide governance and compliance rules (for example, ensuring that certain resources are always deployed in specific regions). It is not designed for storing or managing application configuration data.