Plan and manage an Azure AI solution 1.2 Set up AI solutions in Foundry
A bank builds agents in Foundry Agent Service and must keep all agent data in its own…
Study guide skill: Design Azure infrastructure for AI apps and agent-based solutions
Question B3-001
A bank builds agents in Foundry Agent Service and must keep all agent data in its own Azure tenant, so it uses the standard agent setup with bring-your-own resources. Which of these resources stores the agents' messages and conversation history?
Select one answer.
Answer: A
In the standard agent setup, the bring-your-own Azure Cosmos DB account is the thread storage: it holds messages, conversation history, and agent metadata. The Azure Storage account holds files that developers and end users upload, and Azure AI Search holds the vector stores the agent creates. Key Vault is a prerequisite for secrets management, not for conversation data.
Deep dive
How it works
The standard agent setup exists for exactly this requirement. It uses bring-your-own (BYO) resources so that all agent data stays in your own Azure tenant. Each resource has a specific job:
- Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL (BYO thread storage): messages, conversation history and agent metadata.
- Azure Storage (BYO file storage): files uploaded by developers and end users.
- Azure AI Search (BYO search): vector stores created by the agent.
Key Vault is also a prerequisite, for secrets management. All data processed by Foundry Agent Service is stored at rest in these resources, which helps with compliance.
Plan Cosmos DB capacity up front. The account needs a total throughput limit of at least 3000 RU/s, because the standard setup creates five containers at 1000 RU/s each, including thread-message-store for end-user conversations. Provisioned throughput and serverless are both supported. The identity that runs the capability deployment also needs Cosmos DB Operator on the Cosmos DB account and Storage Blob Data Contributor on the storage account.
The other options, and when you'd use them
- The Azure Storage account: It stores files uploaded by developers and end users, not the conversation threads.
- Azure AI Search: It holds the vector stores the agent creates, for retrieval over files.
- Azure Key Vault: It's in the prerequisites for secrets management. It doesn't store conversation data.
Exam tip
Standard agent setup: Cosmos DB = threads and messages, Storage = files, AI Search = vector stores, Key Vault = secrets.
References
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