You have several Azure virtual machines where a Recovery Services vault currently protects VM1 and VM2. You need to protect VM3 and VM4 with Recovery Services. What is the first action you should take?

The correct first step is to create a new Recovery Services vault. While a single vault can protect multiple VMs, Azure Backup has a limit of 1000 protected items per vault. If VM1 and VM2 are already protected, adding VM3 and VM4 might exceed this limit, or it's a best practice to distribute protected items across multiple vaults for better management and scalability. Creating a new vault ensures you have a dedicated resource for these new VMs. Creating a storage account is incorrect because Recovery Services vaults automatically manage the underlying storage for backups; you don't need to manually create one. Configuring extensions is done after the vault is in place and the backup process is initiated, not as the first step. Creating a new backup policy is also done after the vault is established and you're ready to define backup schedules and retention, not as the initial action.