Be able to choose and configure the right HA/DR feature for Azure SQL Database, Managed Instance, and SQL Server on Azure VMs, including failover groups, geo-replication, and Always On. The most important thing is matching the feature to the required RPO, RTO, and failover automation.
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Domain overview
This domain covers designing and implementing high availability and disaster recovery for Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and SQL Server on Azure VMs. Questions test failover groups, auto-failover groups, active geo-replication, zone-redundant and geo-redundant backups, Business Critical vs General Purpose tiers, Always On availability groups, and backup/restore retention and restore points.
Exam objectives
Configuring auto-failover groups and active geo-replication for Azure SQL Database
Selecting Business Critical, General Purpose, or Hyperscale tiers for HA and local redundancy
Implementing Always On availability groups on SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines
Configuring backup retention, long-term retention, and point-in-time restore for Azure SQL
Confusing auto-failover groups, which provide a listener endpoint and automatic failover, with active geo-replication, which requires manual failover and no listener.
Assuming zone redundancy is available in all tiers and regions; it depends on the service tier and region support.
Mixing up RPO and RTO when choosing between geo-redundant backups, failover groups, and Always On availability groups.
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A company runs SQL Server 2019 on Azure Virtual Machines in an availability set. They need to achieve high availability for a critical database with automatic failover and no shared storage. The solution must minimize downtime during planned maintenance. What should they implement?
2Which TWO options are required to configure a SQL Server Always On Availability Group on Azure Virtual Machines?
3You are the database administrator for a global e-commerce company. The company runs its production SQL Server on an Azure Virtual Machine (IaaS) in the West US region. The database is mission-critical and requires a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 5 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 30 minutes in the event of a regional disaster. The VM uses premium SSDs and is backed up daily to a Recovery Services vault with geo-redundant storage. The current backup policy takes full backups weekly, differential backups daily, and transaction log backups every 15 minutes. The VM is in an availability set for high availability within the region. During a recent regional outage simulation, the database was unavailable for 4 hours because the backups needed to be restored to a different region, and the restore process took longer than expected. You need to recommend a solution to meet the RPO and RTO requirements. What should you do?
4Drag and drop the steps to configure automatic tuning for an Azure SQL Database in the correct order.
5Drag and drop the steps to configure a SQL Server Agent job in Azure SQL Managed Instance to run a maintenance task in the correct order.
6Match each Azure SQL Database security feature to its purpose.
7Refer to the exhibit. After a brief outage, the availability group recovered. However, SQL2 shows NOT_HEALTHY and DISCONNECTED. What is the most likely cause?
8You manage an Azure SQL Database named SalesDB in the East US region, Business Critical tier. The database has a long-term retention policy that stores weekly full backups in a geo-redundant storage account. During a compliance audit, you need to prove that you can recover SalesDB to a point in time in the event of a complete East US regional outage. You must perform a geo-restore to the West US region. What is the maximum retention period for point-in-time restore that you can expect when performing this geo-restore?
9You administer an Azure SQL Database that must remain available if the primary region becomes unavailable. The business requires a secondary region with read-only access for reporting, and during a failover the application connection string must not change. You configure an auto-failover group. Which feature of the auto-failover group satisfies the requirement that the application connection string remains unchanged after failover?
10You manage an Azure SQL Database named OrdersDB in the East US region. The business requires that OrdersDB be readable from a secondary region during a planned regional failover, and that the failover be initiated manually by a database administrator. You create a failover group and add OrdersDB as a member. Which read-write listener endpoint should applications use to connect to OrdersDB after a manual failover to the secondary region?
11You manage an Azure SQL Database in the Business Critical service tier. The database has a zone-redundant configuration. During a planned maintenance event, you need to ensure that the database remains online with no data loss and minimal downtime. What should you configure?
12You manage a SQL Server 2019 availability group on Azure Virtual Machines. The availability group has three replicas: one primary and two synchronous secondary replicas in the same region. A fourth asynchronous replica is in a different Azure region for disaster recovery. During a planned maintenance window, you need to perform a manual failover to one of the synchronous secondary replicas without data loss. Which Transact-SQL command should you run on the target secondary replica?
13You are deploying SQL Server on an Azure Virtual Machine. You need to configure a high availability solution that provides automatic failover and does not require a shared storage solution. The solution must support multiple databases and allow for readable secondary replicas. What should you implement?
14You manage a business-critical Azure SQL Database named OrdersDB in the Business Critical service tier. The database is in the East US region. The company requires a secondary readable copy in West US that provides a recovery point objective (RPO) of 5 seconds and a recovery time objective (RTO) of 30 seconds during a regional outage. You need to implement the solution with the least administrative effort. What should you do?
15You manage an Azure SQL Database named SalesDB in the East US region. The database is in the Business Critical service tier. You need to implement a disaster recovery strategy that provides a recovery point objective (RPO) of less than 5 seconds and a recovery time objective (RTO) of less than 30 seconds during a regional outage. You configure an auto-failover group with a secondary server in the West US region. Which action should you take to meet the RPO and RTO requirements?
16You manage a SQL Server 2019 Always On availability group on Azure Virtual Machines. The availability group has two synchronous replicas in an availability set and one asynchronous replica in a different Azure region. During a planned maintenance window, you need to patch the operating system on the primary replica with minimal downtime and no data loss. What should you do first?
17A company uses Azure SQL Managed Instance in the East US region. They need to configure a disaster recovery strategy that provides a readable secondary in a paired region and supports manual failover. The solution must minimize administrative overhead and use built-in Azure capabilities. What should they implement?
18You are the database administrator for a SQL Server 2019 instance on Azure Virtual Machines. The instance hosts a database that must be available during a planned operating system update that requires a restart of the virtual machine. You need to ensure that the database remains online with minimal downtime. What should you do?
19You have an Azure SQL Managed Instance named MI1 in the East US region. The company requires a disaster recovery solution that provides a readable secondary in the West US region and automatic failover. You need to configure the solution with the least administrative effort. What should you do?
20You are the database administrator for a company that uses Azure SQL Database. The company wants to ensure that the database remains available even if the entire Azure region experiences an outage. The solution must provide a read-write endpoint that automatically redirects connections after a failover. What should you configure?
21You are the database administrator for a company that uses Azure SQL Managed Instance named MI1 in the East US region. The company requires a disaster recovery plan that ensures the instance can be failed over to a secondary region with minimal data loss and minimal downtime. The solution must support read-only workloads on the secondary. You need to configure the disaster recovery solution. What should you do?
Deep-dive questions
The most-searched questions in this domain — detailed explanations, worked examples, full answer breakdowns.
Be able to choose and configure the right HA/DR feature for Azure SQL Database, Managed Instance, and SQL Server on Azure VMs, including failover groups, geo-replication, and Always On. The most important thing is matching the feature to the required RPO, RTO, and failover automation.
The Courseiva DP-300 question bank contains 21 questions in the Plan and configure high availability and disaster recovery domain, covering the 11% of the exam attributed to this domain in the official Microsoft blueprint. Click any question to see the full explanation and answer breakdown.
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