AZ-305 Practice Test 44 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company runs a critical SQL Server database on an Azure virtual machine in the West US region. They need a disaster recovery solution that replicates the database to a secondary region (East US) with a recovery point objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a recovery time objective (RTO) of 2 hours. The solution must also support non-disruptive disaster recovery drills. The company currently uses SQL Server Standard Edition. Which Azure service should they implement?

Accepted Answer

Azure Site Recovery. Azure Site Recovery (ASR) replicates the entire VM, including the SQL Server database, to the secondary region with an RPO as low as 15 minutes and an RTO of 2 hours when using a recovery plan. It supports non-disruptive disaster recovery drills by allowing test failovers that run in an isolated network without impacting the production environment. This makes ASR the correct choice for a SQL Server Standard Edition VM requiring cross-region DR with drills.

Answer

SQL Server Always On Availability Groups

Answer

Azure Backup with cross-region restore

Answer

Azure SQL Database geo-replication

Question 2

A company runs a critical application that uses Azure SQL Managed Instance in the West Europe region. They need to ensure that the database remains available if a regional failure occurs. The solution must provide automatic failover with an RPO of less than 5 seconds and an RTO of less than 1 minute. The secondary region must also be able to serve read-only queries for reporting purposes. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Configure Azure SQL Managed Instance with an auto-failover group to a secondary instance in North Europe.. Azure SQL Managed Instance supports auto-failover groups, which enable automatic, synchronous replication of databases to a secondary instance in a paired region (North Europe). This provides an RPO of less than 5 seconds (synchronous commit) and an RTO of under 1 minute, while the secondary can be used for read-only queries by adding the `-AllowReadOnlyFailoverToSecondary` parameter or using the listener's read-only endpoint. This meets all stated requirements for regional failover, low RPO/RTO, and read-only reporting.

Answer

Enable read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS) on the storage account hosting the database files.

Answer

Deploy SQL Server Always On Availability Groups with a synchronous replica in North Europe.

Answer

Use Azure Site Recovery to replicate the SQL Managed Instance to a secondary region as a virtual machine.

Question 3

A company runs a mission-critical application on Azure VMs in West US. They need a disaster recovery plan with an RPO of 5 minutes and an RTO of 30 minutes. The application consists of multiple VMs that must be recovered in a specific order: the database VM first, then the front-end VMs. They also need to ensure that after failover, the IP addresses of the VMs are retained to avoid DNS propagation delays. The company wants to test the recovery process periodically without affecting production. Which Azure Site Recovery features should they use?

Accepted Answer

Use recovery plans with virtual machine group ordering and failover network settings to assign static IPs.. Option A is correct because Azure Site Recovery recovery plans allow you to define the order of VM recovery using groups, and you can assign static IP addresses via failover network settings to retain IPs after failover. This meets the RPO of 5 minutes (via continuous replication) and RTO of 30 minutes (via orchestrated failover), while test failover can be performed without impacting production.

Answer

Use failover settings with retention IP and test failover.

Answer

Use recovery plans with custom scripts for ordering and Azure Traffic Manager for IP retention.

Answer

Use Azure Site Recovery with Application Consistent Snapshots and ignore IP retention.

Question 4

A solution stores critical VM backups in Azure. The company wants protection against accidental or malicious deletion of backups. Which two controls should be included?

Accepted Answer

Soft delete for Azure Backup. Soft delete for Azure Backup (Option C) is correct because it retains backup data for an additional 14 days after deletion, allowing recovery from accidental or malicious deletion. This feature is enabled by default for Recovery Services vaults and protects backup data even if the backup itself is deleted, providing a critical safety net against data loss.

Answer

Disabling backup alerts

Answer

Storing all backups on the original VM disk

Question 5

A company runs a critical application on Azure VMs in a single region. They need to implement disaster recovery using Azure Site Recovery (ASR) with a recovery point objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a recovery time objective (RTO) of 2 hours. The database VMs have a very high data change rate, and the company wants to minimize replication costs. They also need to ensure that in the recovery plan, database VMs start before application VMs, and a script updates DNS records after failover. Which combination of ASR configurations should they use?

Accepted Answer

Enable crash-consistent replication and use recovery plans with pre- and post-actions.. Option D is correct because crash-consistent replication is the most cost-effective ASR option for VMs with high data change rates, as it replicates only the data that has changed since the last snapshot without requiring application-level consistency. The RPO of 15 minutes and RTO of 2 hours can be met with crash-consistent replication, and recovery plans with pre- and post-actions allow you to specify that database VMs start before application VMs and run a script to update DNS records after failover.

Answer

Enable multi-VM consistency groups and use recovery plans with manual ordering.

Answer

Enable app-consistent replication and use deployment plans with pre- and post-actions.

Answer

Enable replication with high churn protection and use recovery plans with availability groups.

Question 6

A company runs a critical Azure SQL Database in a single region. They need to ensure availability if an entire Azure datacenter fails. They require automatic failover with zero data loss and an RTO of 30 seconds. They also want to use the secondary database for read-only query offloading during normal operations. Which Azure SQL Database feature should they enable?

Accepted Answer

Auto-failover groups with read-scale enabled. Auto-failover groups with read-scale enabled meet all requirements: they provide automatic failover across regions with zero data loss when configured with the 'graceful' data loss policy (ensuring all committed transactions are replicated), an RTO of 30 seconds or less, and the ability to offload read-only queries to the secondary replica via the read-scale listener endpoint. This feature uses a secondary readable replica in a paired region, supporting both high availability and read workload distribution.

Answer

Active geo-replication

Answer

Zone-redundant database

Answer

Point-in-time restore

Question 7

A company runs a critical application on Azure virtual machines (VMs) in the West US region. They need a disaster recovery solution that replicates the VMs to East US with a recovery point objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a recovery time objective (RTO) of 2 hours. The application consists of multiple VMs, and the company needs to be able to fail over a single VM without impacting others during an actual disaster. They also want to periodically test the recovery process without affecting the production environment. Which Azure Site Recovery feature should they use to enable non-disruptive testing?

Accepted Answer

Test failover. Test failover (Option C) is the correct feature because it allows you to validate your disaster recovery process by creating an isolated copy of your replicated VMs in a separate test network, without impacting the ongoing replication or the production environment. This directly meets the requirement for periodic, non-disruptive testing while maintaining the RPO of 15 minutes and RTO of 2 hours.

Answer

Recovery Plans

Answer

Planned failover

Answer

Network mapping

Question 8

A company runs a critical application on Azure VMs in a single region. The application uses Azure SQL Database as its data store. The company needs a disaster recovery solution that can fail over the entire application stack (VMs and database) to another region with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 5 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 1 hour. The solution must be automated and minimize manual steps. Which combination of Azure services should they implement?

Accepted Answer

Azure Site Recovery for VMs and active geo-replication with auto-failover groups for Azure SQL Database. Azure Site Recovery (ASR) orchestrates replication and automated failover of Azure VMs to a secondary region, meeting the RTO of 1 hour. Active geo-replication with auto-failover groups for Azure SQL Database provides a readable secondary replica in another region with an RPO of 5 seconds (well under the 5-minute requirement) and enables automatic failover without manual intervention. Together, they automate the entire application stack failover, minimizing manual steps.

Answer

Azure Backup for VMs and Azure SQL Database backup to another region

Answer

Azure Site Recovery for VMs and Azure DNS for database failover

Answer

Azure Load Balancer for VMs and Azure SQL Database failover groups

Question 9

A company runs a critical web application on Azure VMs that uses Azure SQL Database. They need a disaster recovery solution that provides automatic failover to a secondary region with an RPO of 5 seconds and an RTO of 1 minute. The secondary region must also be able to serve read-only queries for reporting purposes. Which Azure SQL Database feature should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication and an auto-failover group. Active geo-replication with an auto-failover group is the correct choice because it provides automatic, asynchronous replication of data to a secondary region with an RPO of 5 seconds (typically under 5 seconds) and an RTO of 1 minute when the failover group is configured with a grace period. Additionally, the secondary replica can be used for read-only queries by connecting with ApplicationIntent=ReadOnly, meeting the reporting requirement.

Answer

Azure SQL Database with geo-restore

Answer

Azure SQL Database with a standby replica

Answer

Azure SQL Database with cross-region failover

Question 10

A company runs a file server on an Azure VM in the East US region. They want to back up the file shares to Azure and be able to restore individual files if accidentally deleted. They also need to be able to restore the entire file share to a secondary region (West US) in case of a regional disaster. The solution should automatically protect the file shares and provide versioning for up to 30 days. Which Azure service and configuration should they recommend?

Accepted Answer

Configure Azure Backup on the Azure file share using a Recovery Services vault with geo-redundant storage (GRS). Enable cross-region restore on the vault.. Azure Backup for Azure file shares uses a Recovery Services vault and can be configured with geo-redundant storage (GRS) to replicate backup data to a paired secondary region. Enabling cross-region restore on the vault allows restoring the entire file share to the secondary region (West US) during a regional disaster. Azure Backup automatically protects the file share with scheduled backups and provides up to 30 days of retention for point-in-time restores of individual files or the entire share.

Answer

Use Azure File Sync to sync the file share to an on-premises server, and then back up the on-premises server using Azure Backup.

Answer

Enable soft delete and versioning on the storage account, and configure replication to a secondary region using RA-GRS.

Answer

Create a scheduled Azure Automation runbook that takes snapshots of the file share every day and copy them to a storage account in West US.

Question 11

A company runs a critical SQL Server database on an Azure virtual machine. They need a high-availability solution within a single region that provides automatic failover, zero data loss (synchronous replication), and support read-only routing for reporting workloads. Which solution should they implement?

Accepted Answer

SQL Server Always On Availability Group with synchronous replication across availability zones. SQL Server Always On Availability Group with synchronous replication across availability zones meets all requirements: it provides automatic failover, zero data loss through synchronous commit mode, and supports read-only routing by directing reporting workloads to readable secondary replicas. This solution operates within a single Azure region using availability zones for high availability.

Answer

SQL Server Always On Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) with shared disks

Answer

Azure SQL Database Managed Instance with active geo-replication

Answer

Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication

Question 12

A company runs a global e-commerce platform on Azure VMs in a single region. They need to replicate the VMs to a secondary region for disaster recovery. Recovery must be possible within 30 minutes of a failure. The VMs run custom software that must be started in a specific order (database tier before web tier). Which Azure service should they use to meet both the replication and orchestration requirements?

Accepted Answer

Azure Site Recovery with recovery plans. Azure Site Recovery (ASR) with recovery plans is the correct choice because it provides both VM replication to a secondary region and the ability to orchestrate the startup order of VMs. Recovery plans allow you to group VMs into tiers (e.g., database and web) and define dependencies, ensuring the database tier starts before the web tier. ASR meets the 30-minute recovery time objective (RTO) by enabling failover to the secondary region within that timeframe.

Answer

Azure Backup with cross-region restore

Answer

Azure Migrate with replication

Answer

Azure Automation runbooks

Question 13

A company runs a mission-critical application on Azure virtual machines (VMs) in the West US region. The application consists of multiple VMs that must be recovered in a specific order during a disaster: database VM first, then application VMs, then web VMs. They also require that after failover to East US, the VMs retain their private IP addresses to avoid DNS updates. The recovery point objective (RPO) is 5 minutes and recovery time objective (RTO) is 30 minutes. The company needs to perform quarterly disaster recovery tests without impacting production. Which combination of Azure Site Recovery features should they configure?

Accepted Answer

Use app-consistent replication, recovery plans with pre/post scripts for ordering, and static IP address assignment in failover settings. Option B is correct because the requirement for an RPO of 5 minutes and RTO of 30 minutes necessitates application-consistent replication, which ensures database and application integrity. The need to recover VMs in a specific order is met by recovery plans with pre/post scripts, which allow custom actions (e.g., starting the database VM first, then application, then web). Static IP address assignment in failover settings ensures that VMs retain their private IP addresses after failover to East US, avoiding DNS updates.

Answer

Use crash-consistent replication, recovery plans with manual ordering, and target network with same IP address range

Answer

Use multi-VM consistency groups, recovery plans with automation runbooks, and Azure Traffic Manager to redirect traffic

Answer

Use application-consistent replication, recovery plans with pre/post scripts for ordering, and target network with different IP address range and DNS updates

Question 14

A company runs a multi-tier application on Azure VMs. The application has front-end and back-end VMs that must be started in a specific order during failover (front-end first, then back-end). The company uses Azure Site Recovery to replicate to a secondary region. After failover, they also need to run custom PowerShell scripts to update DNS records. Which Azure Site Recovery feature should they configure?

Accepted Answer

Recovery plan with automation runbooks and order groups. Option B is correct because Azure Site Recovery recovery plans support order groups to enforce the startup sequence of VMs (front-end first, then back-end) and can include automation runbooks to execute custom PowerShell scripts, such as updating DNS records after failover. This provides a structured, automated failover workflow that meets both the sequencing and scripting requirements.

Answer

Recovery plan with manual steps

Answer

Failover with network mapping

Answer

Test failover with isolation

Question 15

A company runs a SQL Server database on an Azure VM in West Europe. They need to back up the database daily and retain backups for 7 years for compliance. They also require the ability to restore the database to a secondary Azure region (North Europe) if the primary region fails. They want to minimize operational overhead and costs. Which Azure Backup configuration should they use?

Accepted Answer

A. Option A is correct because Azure Backup's built-in cross-region restore (CRR) for Azure VMs allows you to restore SQL Server databases hosted on Azure VMs to a paired secondary region (North Europe) in the event of a disaster, while retaining backups for up to 10 years (covering the 7-year compliance requirement). This configuration minimizes operational overhead by using Azure Backup's native policy-based scheduling and storage management, and it is cost-effective as it uses geo-redundant storage (GRS) for the Recovery Services vault without needing a separate backup infrastructure.

Answer

B

Answer

C

Answer

D