Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator AssociateImplement an identity management solutionHard
A company is planning to deploy Azure AD Connect to synchronize their on-premises Active Directory with Azure AD. They want to implement Pass-through Authentication (PTA) to ensure that users authenticate against their on-premises domain controllers, but they also need to maintain authentication availability even if the on-premises domain controllers or network connectivity to them is temporarily unavailable. What specific component or configuration is essential to meet the high availability requirement for PTA?
- AInstall multiple Pass-through Authentication agents on different servers.
- BImplement Azure AD Domain Services (Azure AD DS) for redundancy.
- CDeploy multiple Azure AD Connect servers in staging mode.
- DConfigure Password Hash Synchronization (PHS) as a fallback mechanism.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. Install multiple Pass-through Authentication agents on different servers.
For high availability with Pass-through Authentication, you must deploy multiple PTA agents on separate servers. If one agent or its connection to on-premises AD fails, other agents can continue to process authentication requests.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. Azure AD DS is a managed domain service, not a component for providing high availability for on-premises PTA.
- C. Staging mode is for Azure AD Connect server redundancy (sync engine), not PTA agent redundancy.
- D. PHS is an alternative authentication method, not a high-availability component for PTA itself. While it can be a fallback, the question asks for HA for PTA.
PTA Agent High Availability
To ensure high availability for Azure AD Pass-through Authentication, multiple authentication agents must be installed on separate servers in the on-premises environment.
- Each agent registers with Azure AD and becomes active.
- Azure AD automatically load-balances authentication requests.
- Provides resilience against agent or network failures.
Memory trick: PTA agents are like guards at multiple gates, always one open.