DP-300 Plan and configure high availability and disaster recovery Practice Test 2 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Refer to the exhibit. An administrator is trying to perform a point-in-time restore for a managed instance database. The output shows the state of the instance and databases. What is the most likely reason db1 shows 'Restoring' status?

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

Accepted Answer

The database is being restored from a geo-redundant backup.. The 'Restoring' status on db1 indicates that a restore operation is currently in progress on that database. The geo-backup list shows an available backup, which might be used for a geo-restore or point-in-time restore that is ongoing.

Answer

The database is being upgraded to a new service tier.

Answer

The database is corrupted and Azure is automatically repairing it.

Answer

The database is in the process of replication to a secondary region.

Question 2

Refer to the exhibit. An administrator configures an Azure Cache for Redis instance with zone redundancy and a replica in a different region. What is the current state of the geo-replication setup?

Accepted Answer

The geo-replication is partially configured; the East US replica is still being provisioned.. The exhibit shows that zone redundancy is enabled on the primary cache, but the geo-replication link to the East US replica is still in the provisioning state, meaning the secondary cache has not finished syncing. Until provisioning completes, the geo-replication is only partially configured and failover is not yet possible.

Answer

The zone redundancy is enabled but geo-replication is not configured.

Answer

The geo-replication failed because the SKU does not support it.

Answer

The geo-replication is fully functional and ready for failover.

Question 3

You administer an Azure SQL Database named SalesDB in the East US region. The business requires a secondary read-only copy in West US for disaster recovery. You need the secondary to become writable automatically if East US fails, with no application connection string changes. The solution must minimize cost. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

A failover group containing SalesDB with the West US server as the secondary.. A failover group is the only option that combines cross-region replication, automatic failover, and stable listener endpoints. Because applications use the listener, no connection string changes are needed after a failover. Active geo-replication requires manual failover and connection string updates, and read-scale out replicas are not a DR solution.

Answer

A read-scale out replica in West US and an Azure Traffic Manager profile.

Answer

A geo-secondary in West US with auto-failover enabled on the database.

Answer

An active geo-replication secondary in West US and a manual failover runbook.

Question 4

You manage a SQL Server 2019 instance on an Azure Virtual Machine named SQLVM1. The instance hosts a database that must be highly available. You have configured an Always On availability group with a primary replica on SQLVM1 and a secondary replica on SQLVM2 in the same region. You need to ensure that the availability group automatically fails over to SQLVM2 if SQLVM1 becomes unresponsive. The cluster quorum is currently configured with a disk witness. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Set the availability group to automatic failover mode.. To enable automatic failover, the availability group must be set to automatic failover mode, and the secondary replica must be configured for synchronous commit. The disk witness provides quorum, so no quorum change is needed. Asynchronous commit would prevent automatic failover, and adding a third replica is unnecessary for this requirement.

Answer

Change the quorum configuration to use a cloud witness.

Answer

Configure the secondary replica to asynchronous commit mode.

Answer

Add a third replica in a different region to the availability group.

Question 5

You manage an Azure SQL Database in the East US region using the Business Critical service tier. The database is critical and must be recoverable in a different Azure region with an RPO of less than 5 minutes and an RTO of less than 1 hour. You need to configure a disaster recovery solution that meets these requirements with minimal administrative effort. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Configure an auto-failover group that includes the primary server and a secondary server in West US.. Auto-failover groups are designed for cross-region disaster recovery with automatic failover, low RPO, and minimal administrative effort. They allow the application to continue using the same connection string, and failover can be automatic based on policies. Geo-replicas and active geo-replication require manual failover, and backup/restore is not automatic and may not meet the RTO.

Answer

Enable active geo-replication and configure a failover policy with automatic failover.

Answer

Use Azure SQL Database built-in backup and restore to a different region.

Answer

Create a geo-replica in West US and manually initiate a failover when needed.

Question 6

You are configuring a disaster recovery strategy for an Azure SQL Managed Instance that hosts a business-critical database. The recovery strategy must provide a readable secondary in a different Azure region and must support manual failover for planned maintenance. Which two features should you implement? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Configure an auto-failover group for the managed instance.. To achieve a readable secondary in a different region with support for manual failover for Azure SQL Managed Instance, you should use an auto-failover group. The failover group creates a readable secondary and includes a read-only listener endpoint that allows read-intent connections to the secondary. Zone redundancy is local high availability, transactional replication is not a native failover solution, and geo-restore is for recovery, not a readable secondary.

Answer

Implement geo-restore from geo-redundant backups.

Answer

Enable zone redundancy for the managed instance.

Answer

Set up transactional replication to a separate managed instance in another region.

Question 7

You are configuring an auto-failover group for an Azure SQL Database. You need to ensure that the failover group can be used to redirect application connections automatically during a regional outage. Which two actions should you perform? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Configure the secondary server in a different Azure region.. To ensure an auto-failover group can redirect connections during a regional outage, the secondary server must be in a different region, and the failover policy must be set to Automatic. These two actions enable Azure to automatically fail over and redirect connections without manual intervention. Other options like virtual network rules or enabling geo-replication separately are not required and may not contribute to automatic redirection.

Answer

Configure the connection string to use the failover group listener endpoint.

Answer

Create a virtual network rule for the secondary server.

Answer

Enable geo-replication on the primary database.

Question 8

You are configuring a distributed availability group for disaster recovery between two SQL Server 2019 on Azure Virtual Machines availability groups in different Azure regions. You need to ensure that the distributed availability group can be created and that the secondary availability group can receive transactions. Which two actions should you perform? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Ensure that the databases in both availability groups are in the AVAILABILITY_GROUP synchronization state.. To create a distributed availability group, the underlying availability groups must have their databases in the AVAILABILITY_GROUP synchronization state, and the Always On Availability Groups feature must be enabled on all participating instances. These two conditions are mandatory prerequisites. The other options are either incorrect or not required for the distributed availability group to function.

Answer

Configure the secondary availability group to use asynchronous commit mode for all replicas.

Answer

Create a login on the secondary availability group's instances that matches the primary's SQL Server service account.

Answer

Configure the two availability groups to use the same listener name and port.

Question 9

You administer an Azure SQL Database in the Business Critical service tier. The database is business-critical, and the CIO requires that a regional outage can be recovered with a maximum data loss of 5 minutes and a maximum downtime of 1 hour. You need to configure a disaster recovery solution that meets these requirements with minimal administrative effort. What should you implement?

Accepted Answer

Configure a failover group with automatic failover to a paired region.. A failover group is the Azure SQL Database feature designed for regional DR with automatic failover and configurable grace period. It provides a stable listener endpoint that the application can use without connection string changes. For Business Critical, replication uses local SSD and the RPO is typically under 5 minutes, while RTO is typically under 1 hour, meeting the stated objectives with minimal ongoing administration.

Answer

Use active geo-replication and manually initiate a forced failover when the primary region fails.

Answer

Create a read-scale out replica in the same region and redirect the application during an outage.

Answer

Enable geo-redundant backup storage and restore to a new database during an outage.

Question 10

You administer an Azure SQL Database named SalesDB in the East US region. The business requires that, during a regional outage, SalesDB remains readable with a recovery point objective (RPO) of less than 5 seconds and a recovery time objective (RTO) of less than 30 seconds. You need to configure a secondary region that meets these requirements while minimizing cost. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Configure a failover group with a geo-secondary replica in West US and set the failover policy to automatic.. The requirement is for a secondary region that is readable and can be failed over to automatically within 30 seconds. A failover group with automatic failover policy provides both automatic failover and a readable secondary. The other options either do not provide cross-region failover, require manual intervention, or do not meet the RTO. Therefore, the failover group with automatic failover is the correct choice.

Answer

Configure an auto-failover group with a geo-secondary replica in West US.

Answer

Configure active geo-replication with a readable secondary in West US.

Answer

Enable zone-redundant configuration for the database.

Question 11

You are deploying a SQL Server 2019 Always On availability group on Azure Virtual Machines. The availability group must automatically fail over without data loss. You have configured a Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC) with three nodes. Which quorum configuration should you implement to ensure the cluster remains online if one node fails?

Accepted Answer

Node majority with a cloud witness.. For an Always On availability group on Azure VMs, a cloud witness is the recommended quorum witness because it uses Azure Blob Storage, providing a vote without requiring a third site or shared storage. With three nodes, a cloud witness ensures that the cluster maintains quorum if one node fails, and it is cost-effective and easy to manage.

Answer

No majority: disk witness only.

Answer

Node majority with a file share witness on a file server in the same region.

Answer

Node and file share majority with a file share witness in a third availability zone.

Question 12

A company uses Azure SQL Database and wants to ensure that their database remains available if the Azure region hosting the primary server experiences an outage. They have configured a geo-secondary in a paired region. They need to minimize data loss during a failover. Which configuration should they choose for the geo-replication link?

Accepted Answer

Configure the geo-secondary with the same service tier and compute size as the primary.. In Azure SQL Database geo-replication, replication is always asynchronous, so some data loss is possible. To minimize data loss, you should ensure the secondary has sufficient resources to keep up with the primary. Matching the service tier and compute size reduces replication lag, thereby minimizing the recovery point objective (RPO). Other options either do not affect data loss or are not applicable to active geo-replication.

Answer

Set the geo-secondary to be readable and use asynchronous replication.

Answer

Use a higher backup storage redundancy option for the primary database.

Answer

Enable active geo-replication and set the failover policy to automatic.

Question 13

You manage a SQL Server 2019 on Azure Virtual Machine named SQL1 in the East US region. The company requires a disaster recovery solution that provides a readable secondary in the West US region and supports manual failover. You need to minimize cost and administrative overhead. What should you implement?

Accepted Answer

An Always On availability group with a secondary replica on a SQL Server VM in West US.. An Always On availability group is the appropriate solution for SQL Server on Azure VMs. It supports a readable secondary in another region and manual failover. Failover groups are not available for SQL Server on VMs, log shipping does not provide a readable secondary, and Azure Site Recovery replicates VMs rather than providing a readable database secondary.

Answer

Azure Site Recovery replication of SQL1 to West US.

Answer

Log shipping from SQL1 to a SQL Server VM in West US.

Answer

A failover group with the West US server as the secondary.

Question 14

You are configuring a disaster recovery solution for an Azure SQL Managed Instance named MI1 in the East US region. You need to ensure that a secondary instance in the West US region can be used for read-only reporting queries during normal operations. You create a failover group and add MI1. What should you do next to allow read-only connections to the secondary instance?

Accepted Answer

Configure the secondary instance to be readable by setting the read-only listener endpoint.. To allow read-only connections to the secondary instance in a failover group, you must configure the secondary as readable by enabling the read-only listener endpoint. This provides a connection point for read-only workloads. Read-only routing is specific to SQL Server Always On, and geo-replication is not available for Managed Instance. The secondary remains read-only until failover.

Answer

Set the secondary instance to read-write mode.

Answer

Create a geo-replica of MI1 in the West US region.

Answer

Enable read-only routing on the primary instance.

Question 15

You are the database administrator for a company that runs a business-critical application on Azure SQL Database in the East US region. The database is Business Critical tier with zone redundancy enabled. The company requires that the application continues to operate with read-write access even if an entire Azure availability zone fails. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Enable zone redundancy on the database, which automatically provides a secondary replica in a different zone.. For Azure SQL Database Business Critical or Premium tiers, enabling zone redundancy creates a secondary replica in a different availability zone. This provides automatic failover if a zone becomes unavailable, ensuring continuous read-write access. Cross-region solutions like auto-failover groups or geo-secondaries are designed for regional disasters and do not address zone-level high availability. Migrating to Managed Instance is unnecessary because the native feature already meets the requirement.

Answer

Configure an auto-failover group with a secondary server in the West US region.

Answer

Create a read-only geo-secondary in a different region and configure the application to use it during a zone failure.

Answer

Deploy the database to an Azure SQL Managed Instance with zone redundancy and configure a failover group.