AZ-305 Design business continuity solutions — 30 Questions

Question 1

A company runs a critical web application on Azure App Service in a single region. They need to achieve high availability across regions with automatic failover in the event of a regional outage. Which approach should they recommend?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Deploy to multiple regions with Azure Front Door. Azure Front Door provides global load balancing and automatic failover across multiple regions by routing traffic to the nearest healthy backend. For a critical web application requiring cross-region high availability, deploying App Service instances in multiple regions behind Front Door ensures seamless failover during a regional outage, as Front Door monitors endpoint health and redirects traffic away from failed regions.

Answer

Deploy multiple App Service instances in the same region with Traffic Manager

Answer

Use App Service auto-scaling rules to handle increased load

Answer

Enable Azure Site Recovery for the App Service

Question 2

A company runs multiple on-premises workloads that are critical. They need a disaster recovery solution that can replicate workloads to Azure and enable failover in the event of an on-premises outage. The solution must support non-VMware and non-Hyper-V physical servers. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Site Recovery. Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is the correct service because it provides orchestrated replication and failover for on-premises physical servers (including non-VMware, non-Hyper-V) to Azure. It supports physical-to-Azure (P2A) replication using the Mobility service installed on the source server, enabling automated failover during an outage. This directly meets the requirement for critical workload disaster recovery with failover capability.

Answer

Azure Backup

Answer

Azure Migrate

Answer

Azure Disaster Recovery

Question 3

A company wants to back up their Azure VMs (running Windows and Linux) to a Recovery Services vault. The backup data must be encrypted at rest using customer-managed keys. They also need to retain monthly backups for 5 years for compliance. Which configuration should they use?

Accepted Answer

A. Azure Backup encrypts backup data using customer-managed keys by configuring encryption on the Recovery Services vault with a key from Azure Key Vault. ADE/DES are for VM disk encryption, not for backup data. The vault's CMK setting is the correct method.

Answer

B

Answer

C

Answer

D

Question 4

A company runs a critical application on an Azure virtual machine in the West US region. They want to enable disaster recovery to East US with the ability to perform non-disruptive DR drills. They need an RPO of a few minutes. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Site Recovery. Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is the correct service because it provides continuous replication of Azure VMs from a primary region (West US) to a secondary region (East US) with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of a few minutes. It also supports non-disruptive disaster recovery drills by allowing you to perform test failovers in an isolated network without impacting the production workload.

Answer

Azure Backup

Answer

Azure Traffic Manager

Answer

Azure Blueprints

Question 5

A company runs a three-tier application on Azure VMs in the West US region. They want to enable disaster recovery to East US using Azure Site Recovery. The application requires that the web tier starts first, then the application tier, and finally the database tier after a consistency check. They also need to be able to perform non-disruptive DR drills. Which Azure Site Recovery capabilities should they use together?

Accepted Answer

Recovery Plan with pre/post actions and Test Failover. A Recovery Plan in Azure Site Recovery allows you to define the startup order of tiers (web, app, database) using pre-actions and post-actions, which can invoke Azure Automation runbooks or scripts to perform the consistency check. Test Failover enables non-disruptive DR drills by creating an isolated copy of the replicated VMs in East US without impacting the production environment. Together, these capabilities meet both the ordered startup and drill requirements.

Answer

Network mapping and IP customization

Answer

Replication policy with crash-consistent snapshots

Answer

Azure Automation runbooks and Azure Monitor alerts

Question 6

A company runs SQL Server on an Azure virtual machine. They need to automate database backups with application-consistency and retain backups for 10 years to meet compliance. They also want to restore to any point in time within the last 35 days. Which Azure Backup solution should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Backup for SQL Server in Azure VM. Azure Backup for SQL Server in Azure VM (Option A) is correct because it provides native application-consistent backups for SQL Server databases running on Azure VMs, supports long-term retention (LTR) up to 10 years using the backup vault's retention rules, and enables point-in-time restore (PITR) for the last 35 days by leveraging SQL Server transaction log backups. This solution is specifically designed for SQL Server workloads and meets both compliance and recovery requirements without additional infrastructure.

Answer

Azure Backup for Azure VM

Answer

Azure Site Recovery

Answer

SQL Server Always On Availability Groups

Question 7

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

Deploy SQL Server Always On Availability Groups with a synchronous replica in North Europe.. Auto-failover groups for Azure SQL Managed Instance provide automatic failover and readable secondaries, but they are designed for an RPO of 5 seconds and an RTO of about 1 hour. This does not satisfy the required RTO of <1 minute. To achieve the required RPO and RTO, a synchronous replica with automatic failover is needed, which is provided by SQL Server Always On Availability Groups on IaaS VMs (option C). This configuration can have an RPO of 0 (synchronous commit) and an RTO of seconds, and the secondary can be configured to accept read-only queries.

Answer

Configure Azure SQL Managed Instance with an auto-failover group to a secondary instance in North Europe.

Answer

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

Answer

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

Question 8

A company backs up their Azure VMs using Azure Backup. They need to meet compliance that requires backups to be stored in a separate geographic region. Additionally, they want to be able to restore the entire VM to that secondary region in case of a regional disaster. What should they configure?

Accepted Answer

Use a Recovery Services vault with Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS) and enable cross-region restore. Azure Backup with a Recovery Services vault using Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS) replicates backup data to a paired secondary region, meeting the compliance requirement for geographic separation. Enabling cross-region restore allows the entire VM to be restored in that secondary region during a regional disaster, as the backup data is already available there.

Answer

Use a Recovery Services vault with Locally Redundant Storage (LRS) and enable cross-region restore

Answer

Use Azure Site Recovery to replicate the entire VM to the secondary region

Answer

Manually copy backup snapshots to a storage account in the secondary region

Question 9

A company runs a critical web application on Azure App Service in a single region. They need to achieve high availability across regions with automatic failover in the event of a regional outage. Which approach should they recommend?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

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 multi-tier application on Azure VMs in the West US region. The application has web, application, and database tiers. They want to use Azure Site Recovery for disaster recovery to East US. They need to ensure that after failover, the web tier starts first, then the application tier, and finally the database tier after a consistency check. They also need to be able to perform non-disruptive DR drills. Which Azure Site Recovery capabilities should they use together?

Accepted Answer

Create a recovery plan with custom groups and scripts for startup order, and use test failover for DR drills. Azure Site Recovery (ASR) recovery plans allow you to define custom groups and scripts to control the startup order of VMs after failover. By placing the web, application, and database tiers into separate groups with pre- and post-actions (e.g., PowerShell scripts), you can ensure the web tier starts first, then the application tier, and finally the database tier after a consistency check. ASR's test failover capability performs a non-disruptive DR drill by creating isolated copies of VMs in a separate VNet without impacting the production environment.

Answer

Use Azure Backup for the VMs and restore them in order after failover

Answer

Use an availability set to control startup order and use disaster recovery drills in a separate VNet

Answer

Use Azure Traffic Manager to route traffic after failover and manually start VMs in order

Question 11

A company runs SQL Server on an Azure virtual machine. They need to ensure high availability within a single Azure region. The solution must provide automatic failover with 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. SQL Server Always On Availability Groups (AG) provide high availability and disaster recovery at the database level. They support synchronous replication with automatic failover, ensuring zero data loss (RPO=0) within a single Azure region. Additionally, AGs allow secondary replicas to be configured as readable, enabling read-only routing for reporting workloads, which directly meets all stated requirements.

Answer

SQL Server Failover Cluster Instance (FCI)

Answer

Azure Site Recovery

Answer

Azure Backup

Question 12

A company runs a critical line-of-business application on 10 Azure VMs. They need a disaster recovery solution that replicates the VMs to a secondary region with a recovery point objective (RPO) of 30 minutes and a recovery time objective (RTO) of 1 hour. The solution must support non-disruptive testing of failover for quarterly compliance drills. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Site Recovery. Azure Site Recovery (ASR) orchestrates replication, failover, and failback of Azure VMs to a secondary region, meeting the RPO of 30 minutes (continuous replication with 30-second RPO) and RTO of 1 hour (orchestrated recovery). It supports non-disruptive test failovers via isolated networks, which is essential for quarterly compliance drills without impacting production.

Answer

Azure Backup

Answer

Azure Migrate

Answer

Manual VM replication to secondary region

Question 13

A company uses Azure Backup to protect their critical Azure VMs. An administrator accidentally deleted a file from one of the VMs. They need to restore that specific file quickly without restoring the entire VM. Which Azure Backup feature should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Backup file recovery. Azure Backup's file recovery feature allows you to mount a recovery point as a drive on the VM (or another machine) using iSCSI, enabling you to browse and copy individual files without restoring the entire VM. This is the correct choice because it meets the requirement for a quick, granular restore of a single deleted file.

Answer

Azure Backup full VM restore

Answer

Azure Site Recovery

Answer

Azure Storage snapshots

Question 14

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 15

A company runs a critical web application on Azure VMs in the West US region. They need a disaster recovery solution that replicates the VMs to the East US region. The recovery point objective (RPO) must be 30 minutes, and the recovery time objective (RTO) must be 1 hour. The company also needs to perform quarterly disaster recovery drills without impacting the production environment. Additionally, after a failover, the solution must automatically update traffic management to route users to the East US region. Which combination of Azure services should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Site Recovery and Azure Traffic Manager. Azure Site Recovery (ASR) orchestrates replication, failover, and failback of Azure VMs from West US to East US, meeting the 30-minute RPO and 1-hour RTO. Azure Traffic Manager automatically updates DNS-based traffic routing to the East US region after failover, ensuring users are redirected without manual intervention. This combination satisfies all requirements: DR replication, RPO/RTO, quarterly drills (via test failover), and automated traffic management.

Answer

Azure Backup and Azure Traffic Manager

Answer

Azure Site Recovery and Azure Front Door

Answer

Azure Backup and Azure Front Door

Question 16

A company uses Azure Site Recovery to replicate critical Azure virtual machines (VMs) to a secondary Azure region for disaster recovery. The VMs use managed disks and are part of a multi-tier application. After a failover, the recovery VMs must be automatically placed into a specific availability set to maintain the application architecture. How should the administrator configure this in Azure Site Recovery?

Accepted Answer

Configure the target availability set in the VM replication settings in the Recovery Services vault. Azure Site Recovery (ASR) allows you to configure the target availability set directly in the replication settings for each VM. When you enable replication for a VM, under the 'Target availability set' setting, you can select an existing availability set in the target region. ASR will then automatically place the recovered VM into that availability set during failover, ensuring the multi-tier application architecture is maintained without manual intervention.

Answer

Create a recovery plan and add a manual step or script to move VMs to the availability set after failover

Answer

Convert the managed disks to unmanaged disks for replication, then specify the availability set

Answer

Azure Site Recovery does not support placing VMs into an availability set in the target region

Question 17

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. 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 18

A company runs a multi-tier application on Azure virtual machines (VMs) in the West US region. The application consists of a web tier, an application tier, and a database tier. They need to implement a disaster recovery plan to a secondary region (East US) with a recovery point objective (RPO) of 5 minutes and a recovery time objective (RTO) of 15 minutes. The VMs must be recovered in the correct order: database tier first, then application tier, then web tier. The company also wants to test the recovery process periodically without affecting production. They need to ensure that after failover, the VMs retain their IP addresses to minimize DNS propagation delays. Which combination of Azure Site Recovery features should they use?

Accepted Answer

Use Azure Site Recovery with a replication policy of 5-minute frequency, configure a recovery plan with manual ordering, and rely on default IP assignment. Azure Site Recovery supports a replication frequency of 5 minutes, which meets the 5-minute RPO. A recovery plan with manual ordering can enforce the correct startup sequence (database first, app tier, web tier). Although the option says 'rely on default IP assignment,' static IP mapping can be configured within the recovery plan to retain IP addresses after failover. Test failover is supported for non-disruptive drills. This combination meets all requirements, unlike other options that miss the RPO or ordering constraints.

Answer

Use Azure Site Recovery with a replication policy of 30-second frequency, create multi-VM consistency groups for each tier, build a recovery plan with script actions for ordering and static IP mapping, and use test failover for drills

Answer

Use Azure Site Recovery with a replication policy of 15-minute frequency and configure manual IP mapping after failover

Answer

Use Azure Backup with daily snapshots and a geo-restore option, then manually restore VMs in order

Question 19

A company runs critical Azure virtual machines (VMs) in the West US region. They need a disaster recovery solution that replicates VMs to East US. The recovery point objective (RPO) must be 15 minutes and the recovery time objective (RTO) must be 2 hours. The VMs use managed disks and the application requires consistent state across multiple VMs. They want to test failover without impacting production. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Site Recovery with app-consistent replication. Azure Site Recovery with app-consistent replication (Option C) is correct because it meets the RPO of 15 minutes and RTO of 2 hours while ensuring consistent state across multiple VMs. App-consistent replication uses Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to quiesce applications and flush memory writes to disk, guaranteeing that the recovered VMs are in an application-consistent state. This is essential for multi-VM applications that require transaction consistency, and Azure Site Recovery supports planned and unplanned failover testing without impacting production via isolated test failover networks.

Answer

Azure Backup with backup policies set to 15-minute frequency

Answer

Azure Site Recovery with crash-consistent replication

Answer

Azure Backup with application-consistent snapshot

Question 20

A company runs a critical application on Azure SQL Managed Instance in the West US region. They need a disaster recovery solution that provides automatic failover to a secondary region (East US) with no data loss (synchronous replication) and a recovery time objective (RTO) of less than 1 hour. They also want to offload read-only workloads to the secondary during normal operations. Which Azure feature should they implement?

Accepted Answer

Auto-failover groups with synchronous replication. Auto-failover groups for Azure SQL Managed Instance provide automatic failover and readable secondaries, but replication is asynchronous with a typical RPO of 5 seconds, not zero. Active geo-replication also uses asynchronous replication. Geo-restore has an RPO of hours, and Azure Site Recovery is not designed for PaaS SQL Managed Instance. Therefore, none of the options satisfy the stated RPO=0 and synchronous replication requirement.

Answer

Active geo-replication

Answer

Geo-restore of backups

Answer

Azure Site Recovery