DP-300 Practice Test 41 — 15 Questions

Question 1

You have an Azure SQL Managed Instance configured with a failover group for disaster recovery. The primary instance is in the East US region and the secondary is in West US. You need to perform a planned failover for maintenance with zero data loss. What is the correct sequence of steps?

Accepted Answer

Use the Azure portal to perform a planned failover for the failover group.. Option A is correct because to perform a planned failover with zero data loss, you should first trigger a failover from the primary to the secondary. The failover group will automatically ensure no data loss. After the failover, the secondary (now primary) is online. During maintenance, you can perform the maintenance on the former primary (now secondary). After maintenance, you can fail back. Option B is incorrect because you should not remove the failover group. Option C is incorrect because you should not scale down. Option D is incorrect because you should not take the primary offline before failover.

Answer

Take the primary instance offline, then failover.

Answer

Scale down the primary to reduce cost, then failover.

Answer

Remove the failover group, perform maintenance, then recreate the failover group.

Question 2

Which THREE of the following are required considerations when configuring a failover group for Azure SQL Managed Instance?

Accepted Answer

Both instances must be in the same partner region pair.. Options A, B, and D are correct. Both instances must be in the same partner region pair (e.g., East US and West US). The secondary instance must be in a different region. The databases must be in the same resource group. Option C is incorrect because the secondary instance can have different service tiers. Option E is incorrect because failover groups support automatic failover, but the question asks for considerations; automatic failover is a feature, not a requirement.

Answer

Both instances must have the same service tier.

Answer

Automatic failover must be enabled.

Question 3

Which TWO of the following are valid disaster recovery options for Azure SQL Database that provide a secondary in a different Azure region?

Accepted Answer

Active geo-replication. Options B and D are correct. Active geo-replication and failover groups both create a readable secondary in a different region. Options A, C, and E are incorrect. Zone-redundant configuration provides high availability within a single region. Auto-failover groups is another term for failover groups, but it is not a separate option. Geo-restore restores from backups and does not maintain a continuous secondary.

Answer

Geo-restore

Answer

Zone-redundant configuration

Answer

Auto-failover groups

Question 4

Your company has an Azure SQL Managed Instance in the West US region. You need to configure a disaster recovery solution that provides automatic failover to a secondary region with minimal data loss. The solution must also allow read-only access to the secondary database for reporting purposes. Which option should you use?

Accepted Answer

Configure a failover group between the primary and secondary managed instances.. Option A is correct because failover groups support Azure SQL Managed Instance and provide automatic failover, a readable secondary, and minimal data loss with a synchronization mode that prioritizes data durability. Option B (geo-replication) is for single databases and elastic pools, not managed instances. Option C (auto-failover groups with active geo-replication) is redundant wording; failover groups are the feature. Option D (log shipping) is not built-in for managed instances and does not provide automatic failover or readable secondary.

Answer

Create an auto-failover group with active geo-replication.

Answer

Use log shipping to a secondary managed instance.

Answer

Enable active geo-replication on the database.

Question 5

You have an Azure SQL Database configured with active geo-replication to a secondary region. A regional outage occurs in the primary region. You need to manually fail over to the secondary database with the least amount of data loss. Which PowerShell cmdlet should you run?

Accepted Answer

Set-AzSqlDatabaseSecondary -ResourceGroupName ... -ServerName ... -DatabaseName ... -PartnerResourceGroupName ... -Failover. Option B is correct because Set-AzSqlDatabaseSecondary with -Failover initiates a planned failover that synchronizes data before failing over, minimizing data loss. Option A (Start-AzSqlDatabaseFailover) is for failing over a single database within the same region, not geo-failover. Option C (Invoke-AzSqlDatabaseFailover) does not exist. Option D (Switch-AzSqlDatabaseSecondary) is not a valid cmdlet.

Answer

Start-AzSqlDatabaseFailover -ResourceGroupName ... -ServerName ... -DatabaseName ...

Answer

Invoke-AzSqlDatabaseFailover -ResourceGroupName ... -ServerName ... -DatabaseName ... -Secondary

Answer

Switch-AzSqlDatabaseSecondary -ResourceGroupName ... -ServerName ... -DatabaseName ...

Question 6

You have an Azure SQL Database in the Business Critical tier with zone redundancy enabled. You need to maintain high availability during a planned patching event. Which THREE actions should you take? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Verify that zone redundancy is enabled on the database.. Options A, B, and D are correct. Business Critical with zone redundancy automatically handles patching with no data loss and minimal downtime. You should verify zone redundancy is enabled (A), ensure the database is configured to use a read-scale replica (B) to offload read workloads, and test failover (D) to ensure readiness. Option C (enable geo-replication) is not necessary for HA. Option E (scale down) is not needed.

Answer

Enable active geo-replication to a secondary region.

Answer

Scale the database to a lower tier to reduce cost.

Question 7

You need to configure high availability for an Azure SQL Database that supports a critical application. The database must be resilient to a single compute node failure. Which TWO options should you consider? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Use the Business Critical service tier.. Options A and D are correct. The Business Critical tier provides synchronous replicas that automatically failover on node failure. Zone redundancy places replicas in different zones for additional resilience. Option B (active geo-replication) is for DR across regions. Option C (auto-failover group) is for managed instances. Option E (Hyperscale read replicas) are for read scale, not HA.

Answer

Configure Hyperscale read replicas.

Answer

Enable active geo-replication.

Answer

Create an auto-failover group.

Question 8

Your company uses Azure SQL Managed Instance for a critical application. You need to meet a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 seconds and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 30 seconds for planned maintenance. You also need to protect against a regional failure with an RPO of 5 minutes and an RTO of 1 hour. What combination of features should you use?

Accepted Answer

Deploy the instance in the Business Critical tier with zone redundancy, and configure a failover group to a secondary region.. Option A is correct because a failover group provides cross-region DR with RPO of 5 minutes and RTO of 1 hour, while zone redundancy (available in Business Critical) provides HA within region with RPO of 0 and RTO of ~30 seconds for planned maintenance. Option B is wrong because active geo-replication is not available for Managed Instance. Option C is wrong because failover groups do not provide sub-minute RTO for planned maintenance alone. Option D is wrong because zone redundancy alone does not protect against regional failure.

Answer

Configure active geo-replication to a secondary region and use automatic failover.

Answer

Deploy in General Purpose tier with zone redundancy and geo-redundant backup.

Answer

Create a failover group to a secondary region and rely on that for both HA and DR.

Question 9

You have an Azure SQL Database that uses active geo-replication with a readable secondary in another region. You need to ensure that if a failover occurs, the application can automatically reconnect to the new primary with minimal code changes. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

Implement retry logic in the application to reconnect to the secondary server after failover.. Option D is correct because using a retry logic with a connection string that includes the failover partner (or using the ApplicationIntent=ReadWrite) and implementing retry logic allows the application to reconnect automatically. Option A is wrong because the listener endpoint is a feature of failover groups, not active geo-replication. Option B is wrong because Traffic Manager can be used but adds complexity. Option C is wrong because the application needs to handle failover; DNS change is not automatic.

Answer

Manually update the DNS record to point to the new primary after failover.

Answer

Configure a failover group listener endpoint and use that in the connection string.

Answer

Use Azure Traffic Manager with priority routing to the secondary server.

Question 10

Your company runs a global e-commerce application using Azure SQL Database in the West Europe region. You need to implement a solution that provides automatic failover and allows the secondary region to be used for read-only queries during normal operations. The secondary must be in a different region. Which configuration meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Configure active geo-replication to a secondary server in West US and implement application-level failover logic.. Option D is correct because active geo-replication allows a readable secondary in a different region, and application-level failover can be automated. Option A is wrong because auto-failover groups with a secondary in the same region cannot be used for cross-region read-only queries. Option B is wrong because read scale-out only works within the same region. Option C is wrong because geo-restore is not for continuous read access.

Answer

Enable read scale-out on the primary database.

Answer

Create an auto-failover group with a secondary in West US and use the secondary as readable.

Answer

Configure geo-restore with a recovery point objective of 1 hour.

Question 11

You are responsible for a SQL Server 2019 instance on an Azure VM. The VM is part of a failover cluster instance (FCI) using Azure shared disks. During a recent failover test, the cluster took 15 minutes to bring the database online. You need to reduce the failover time to under 5 minutes. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Remove unnecessary databases from the FCI and distribute them to other instances.. Option C is correct because reducing the number of databases in the FCI reduces the time to recover each database during failover. Option A is wrong because increasing the disk size does not improve failover time. Option B is wrong because increasing VM size may help but not directly address the root cause. Option D is wrong because enabling instant file initialization helps with data file growth, not failover recovery.

Answer

Upgrade the VM to a larger size with more CPU and memory.

Answer

Increase the size of the Azure shared disks.

Answer

Enable instant file initialization on all SQL Server instances.

Question 12

You are designing a high availability solution for a mission-critical Azure SQL Database. The database must have an uptime SLA of 99.995% and automatically recover from zone-level failures without data loss. Which service tier and redundancy option should you choose?

Accepted Answer

Business Critical tier with zone redundancy. Option C is correct because the Business Critical tier with zone redundancy provides an SLA of 99.995% and automatic recovery from zone failures. Option A (General Purpose with zone redundancy) has a lower SLA (99.99%). Option B (Hyperscale with zone redundancy) offers 99.95% SLA for zone-redundant configuration. Option D (Basic tier) does not support zone redundancy and has a lower SLA.

Answer

Basic tier with zone redundancy

Answer

General Purpose tier with zone redundancy

Answer

Hyperscale tier with zone redundancy

Question 13

Refer to the exhibit. You are reviewing the JSON configuration of an Azure SQL Database in the Business Critical tier. What is the primary benefit of setting highAvailabilityReplicaCount to 2?

Accepted Answer

It provides more read-only replicas to offload read workloads.. Option B is correct. Setting highAvailabilityReplicaCount to 2 in Business Critical tier creates two additional readable replicas (total of 3 replicas including primary). This improves read performance by allowing more read-only connections to be offloaded to replicas. Option A (zero data loss) is achieved by synchronous replication, not replica count. Option C (automatic failover) is inherent to Business Critical. Option D (zone redundancy) is determined by the zoneRedundant property, not replica count.

Answer

It enables automatic failover in case of a node failure.

Answer

It enables zone redundancy for the database.

Answer

It ensures zero data loss during a failover.

Question 14

You are planning a disaster recovery strategy for an Azure SQL Database that is used by a non-critical application. The database is in the Standard tier. You need to minimize cost while ensuring the database can be restored to a different region within 12 hours of a regional disaster. What should you use?

Accepted Answer

Use geo-restore from geo-redundant backups.. Option B is correct because geo-redundant backup storage (RA-GRS) is automatically enabled for databases in the Standard tier, allowing geo-restore to any region within 12 hours. Option A is wrong because active geo-replication is not available in Standard tier. Option C is wrong because failover groups require Premium or Business Critical. Option D is wrong because cross-region replication is a setting for backup storage, not a separate feature.

Answer

Enable cross-region replication on the database.

Answer

Configure active geo-replication to a secondary region.

Answer

Create a failover group with the secondary in a paired region.

Question 15

You manage an Azure SQL Database in the East US region. The database uses the General Purpose service tier with geo-redundant backup storage. You need to ensure that in the event of a regional outage, you can restore the database to the West US region with the least possible downtime. What should you use?

Accepted Answer

Use the geo-restore feature to restore from the geo-redundant backups to a new database in West US.. Option B is correct because geo-restore from geo-redundant backups allows restoring to a different region. Option A is wrong because active geo-replication is not configured by default. Option C is wrong because point-in-time restore is for within the same region. Option D is wrong because copy-only backup is not relevant.

Answer

Configure active geo-replication to a secondary server in West US.

Answer

Create a copy-only backup and manually transfer it to West US.

Answer

Perform a point-in-time restore to a new database in West US.