You will deploy an application to multiple Azure virtual machines running Windows Server 2019. The deployment must ensure virtual machines maintain a consistent configuration while minimizing administrative effort. Which combination should you recommend?

Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates define the infrastructure declaratively, ensuring consistent resource deployment. PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) is ideal for maintaining consistent configurations on Windows VMs by defining the desired state and automatically correcting deviations. The DSC extension for Windows allows ARM templates to apply DSC configurations to VMs during or after deployment, minimizing administrative effort. Deployment YAML and Azure pipeline deployment groups are used for orchestrating deployments, not primarily for defining and maintaining VM configurations. The Custom Script Extension for Windows can run scripts, but it doesn't inherently provide the state management and drift correction capabilities of DSC. Azure pipeline stage templates are for structuring pipeline stages, not for VM configuration management.