Minimize Health Probe Traffic in Azure Front Door

AZ-700 By islever Editorial Last updated

Design and implement Azure Front Door

Short answer

B Use the HEAD HTTP method to configure the health probe and minimize traffic by preventing the return of a message body.

Question

You have an Azure Front Door instance named FD that contains an origin group named OG1. You need to configure a health probe for OG1. The solution must minimize the amount of traffic generated by the health probe. Which HTTP method should you use?
  1. CONNECT
  2. HEAD Correct Answer
  3. TRACE
  4. GET

Key Takeaways

This question tests Azure Front Door health probe configuration, specifically identifying that the HEAD method minimizes traffic by omitting the response body.

Configuring a health probe for an Azure Front Door origin group requires selecting an HTTP method that minimizes network traffic. The HEAD method is the correct choice because it retrieves only the response headers without the message body.

Common mistake: Choosing GET is the most common mistake because it is a standard HTTP method for retrieving data, but it unnecessarily downloads the full message body, generating excess health probe traffic.

Expert Analysis

Why the Answer Is Correct

The HEAD method is identical to GET except that the server must not return a message-body in the response. When configuring a health probe, the objective is simply to verify that the origin is available and responsive, which can be determined solely from the HTTP status code and headers. By using HEAD, Azure Front Door minimizes the bandwidth and traffic generated by continuous health checks, making it the correct choice for this requirement.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

The GET method retrieves the full message body, which generates significantly more traffic than necessary for a health probe. The CONNECT method is used to establish a tunnel to the server, typically for SSL/TLS communication via a proxy, and is not used for health probes. The TRACE method is used for diagnostic purposes to loop back the request message, is not supported for Front Door health probes, and does not minimize traffic.

Community Comment Notes

Commenters agree that the HEAD method is correct because it avoids downloading the message body. As Stevo3 noted, the HEAD method "is identical to GET except that the server MUST NOT return a message-body in the response." xRiot007 also pointed out that "We do not care about what is retrieved, only about the server response," which perfectly captures why HEAD is sufficient.

Official Reference

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/frontdoor/health-probes

This link opens the official vendor documentation in a new tab.

Exam Strategy

When asked to minimize health probe traffic, always select the HEAD method over GET, as it retrieves only headers and not the payload. Remember that HEAD is also the default probe method for new Azure Front Door profiles.

Community Votes

B
100%

100% of anonymous learners picked answer B. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.

Discussion 3 contributions

Compiled from public community threads and reader submissions, lightly edited for clarity. Handles and vote tallies are shown as recorded, and comments reflect the views of individual contributors.

From public community threads 3

  1. Stevo3 👍 5 Answered B
    Azure Front Door supports the following HTTP methods for sending the health probes: GET: The GET method means retrieve whatever information (in the form of an entity) gets identified by the Request-URI. HEAD: The HEAD method is identical to GET except that the server MUST NOT return a message-body in the response. For new Front Door profiles, by default, the probe method is set as HEAD. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/frontdoor/health-probes
  2. xRiot007 👍 1 Answered B
    B - HEAD We do not care about what is retrieved, only about the server response. HEAD will return only the headers and the status code (the part that we care about)
  3. maciek8131 👍 2 Answered B
    B is correct answear

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