DP-300 Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment — 20 Questions

Question 1

Your company runs a mission-critical application on Azure SQL Database in the East US region. You need to ensure automatic failover with zero data loss in case of a regional outage. Which deployment option should you use?

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

Accepted Answer

Deploy a Business Critical tier database and configure an auto-failover group with a readable secondary in a paired region.. To achieve automatic failover with zero data loss during a regional outage, you need a solution that supports synchronous replication for a secondary replica in another region. Azure SQL Database Business Critical tier (or Premium tier) supports auto-failover groups with a readable secondary in a paired region, where the secondary is kept in sync synchronously, ensuring no data loss (RPO=0). Option A correctly describes this configuration. General Purpose tier (Option B) uses asynchronous geo-replication, which has potential data loss. Hyperscale tier (Option C) supports zone redundancy but not synchronous replication across regions for auto-failover groups. Serverless tier (Option D) is not suitable for mission-critical workloads and does not provide the required availability guarantees.

Answer

Deploy a General Purpose tier database with geo-replication.

Answer

Deploy a Hyperscale tier database with zone redundancy.

Answer

Deploy a Serverless tier database with active geo-replication.

Question 2

You have an Azure SQL Database in the Business Critical tier with a failover group to a secondary region. The primary region experiences a full outage. What is the expected recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) if you initiate a manual failover?

Accepted Answer

RTO of 30 seconds, RPO of 0.. In Azure SQL Database Business Critical tier with a failover group, synchronous replication ensures zero data loss during a failover, resulting in an RPO of 0. The RTO for a manual failover is typically around 30 seconds. Option A is incorrect because the RTO is 5 minutes, which is too high for Business Critical. Option B is incorrect because the RPO is 5 seconds, not zero. Option C is incorrect because both RTO (1 hour) and RPO (5 minutes) are much higher than what Business Critical offers.

Answer

RTO of 5 minutes, RPO of 1 second.

Answer

RTO of 30 seconds, RPO of 5 seconds.

Answer

RTO of 1 hour, RPO of 5 minutes.

Question 3

Your company uses Azure SQL Database Hyperscale tier for a large data warehouse. You need to implement disaster recovery with the ability to perform point-in-time restore in the secondary region. What is the best approach?

Accepted Answer

Configure geo-replication to a secondary Hyperscale database in the secondary region.. Azure SQL Database Hyperscale tier supports geo-replication (currently in preview), which creates a readable secondary database in a different region. This secondary database also supports point-in-time restore within the secondary region, meeting the requirement for disaster recovery with point-in-time restore capability. Option B is incorrect because auto-failover groups are not supported for Hyperscale databases. Option C is incorrect because geo-restore of automated backups has a higher recovery point objective (RPO) compared to geo-replication. Option D is incorrect as failover groups are not supported for Hyperscale.

Answer

Configure auto-failover groups between regions.

Answer

Use geo-restore of automated backups.

Answer

Create a failover group with manual failover.

Question 4

You are designing a high availability solution for an Azure SQL Database used by a critical application. The application requires no more than 5 seconds of data loss and automatic failover within 1 minute. Which service tier and configuration should you choose?

Accepted Answer

Business Critical tier with zone redundancy.. Business Critical tier with zone redundancy is the correct choice because Business Critical uses locally attached SSD storage with the lowest latency and supports zone-redundant configuration, providing automatic failover within the same region typically in under 30 seconds — well within the 1-minute requirement. It also offers the lowest data loss window among the standard tiers, meeting the 5-second RPO requirement without needing cross-region replication.

Answer

Hyperscale tier with geo-replication and auto-failover group.

Answer

Hyperscale tier with zone redundancy.

Answer

General Purpose tier with active geo-replication.

Question 5

You have a SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machine running a critical OLTP workload. You need to achieve high availability with automatic failover and no shared storage. The solution must use Azure features and avoid complex clustering configurations. What should you implement?

Accepted Answer

Configure an Always On Availability Group with automatic failover.. Always On Availability Groups provide high availability and automatic failover without requiring shared storage, and they leverage Azure features like internal load balancer. Option B (log shipping) offers disaster recovery but not automatic failover. Option C (database mirroring) is deprecated and not recommended for new implementations. Option D (Failover Cluster Instance) requires shared storage, which is not desired.

Answer

Set up log shipping to a secondary VM.

Answer

Use database mirroring with automatic failover.

Answer

Deploy a Windows Server Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) using Azure Shared Disks.

Question 6

You need to ensure that an Azure SQL Managed Instance remains available in the event of a single availability zone failure in a region that supports availability zones. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

Deploy the instance in Business Critical tier with zone-redundant configuration.. For zone redundancy in Azure SQL Managed Instance, the Business Critical tier is required. Option D is correct because it specifies deploying in Business Critical tier with zone-redundant configuration, which provides resilience within a single region across availability zones. Option A is incorrect because a failover group to another region addresses regional disasters, not zonal failures. Option B is incorrect because the General Purpose tier does not support zone redundancy. Option C is incorrect because Hyperscale is a service tier for Azure SQL Database, not for Managed Instance.

Answer

Configure a failover group to another region.

Answer

Deploy the instance in General Purpose tier with zone redundancy.

Answer

Use a Hyperscale tier instance with zone redundancy.

Question 7

Your company uses Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication for disaster recovery. During a drill, you need to verify that the secondary database is ready for failover and that data synchronization is current. Which query should you run on the secondary database?

Accepted Answer

SELECT * FROM sys.dm_geo_replication_link_status;. Sys.dm_geo_replication_link_status provides replication lag and the last replicated transaction for geo-replicated databases. Option A is wrong because sys.dm_continuous_copy_status is deprecated and no longer used for geo-replication monitoring. Option C is wrong because sys.dm_database_copies is for copy-only operations, not ongoing replication. Option D is wrong because sys.dm_replication_status is for transactional replication, not geo-replication.

Answer

SELECT * FROM sys.dm_continuous_copy_status;

Answer

SELECT * FROM sys.dm_database_copies;

Answer

SELECT * FROM sys.dm_replication_status;

Question 8

Which TWO actions should you take to minimize downtime during a planned failover of an Azure SQL Database failover group? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Ensure the failover group is configured for manual failover.. Option C is correct because configuring the failover group for manual failover gives you control over when the switch occurs, allowing you to schedule the planned failover during a maintenance window and avoid unexpected automatic failovers that could cause unplanned downtime. Option E is correct because a planned failover (invoked via the Azure portal, CLI, or PowerShell) performs a graceful switchover that synchronizes the secondary with the primary before role reversal, ensuring no data loss and minimizing the brief connection interruption. Options A, B, and D are not appropriate: scaling up the primary does not reduce failover downtime and may even prolong it, terminating active connections is disruptive rather than minimizing downtime, and disabling automatic failover alone does not perform the planned failover or reduce its impact.

Answer

Scale up the primary database to a higher service objective.

Answer

Terminate all active connections to the primary database.

Answer

Disable automatic failover on the failover group.

Question 9

You are deploying an Azure SQL Database with the above ARM template snippet. How many readable replicas will be available for read-only queries?

Accepted Answer

2. (2). The highAvailabilityReplicaCount property in the ARM template is set to 2, which creates two readable replicas in addition to the primary. With read scale-out enabled, both replicas are available for read-only queries. Option A (3) is incorrect because it counts the primary as a readable replica, but the primary is not used for read-only queries in read scale-out. Option C (1) is incorrect because it underestimates the number of replicas. Option D (4) is incorrect because the value in the template is 2, not 4.

Answer

3

Answer

1

Answer

4

Question 10

You are examining the configuration of an Azure SQL Database in the Business Critical tier. The exhibit shows the database properties. What is the maximum number of readable replicas available for read-only queries?

Accepted Answer

3. In the Business Critical service tier of Azure SQL Database, the primary replica is always available for read-write operations, and three additional secondary replicas are automatically provisioned to provide high availability and offload read-only workloads. These three secondary replicas are readable by default, allowing read-only queries to be directed to them. Therefore, the maximum number of readable replicas available for read-only queries is 3.

Answer

1

Answer

4

Answer

5

Question 11

Your company has an Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication to a secondary region. During a regional outage, the secondary database becomes the primary. After the outage is resolved, you need to bring the original primary back online with minimal data loss and without creating a new secondary. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Re-establish geo-replication from the new primary to the original primary.. After a forced failover, the original primary becomes a secondary that is no longer part of the geo-replication topology. To bring it back online as the primary without creating a new secondary, you re-establish geo-replication from the new primary (the former secondary) to the original primary, making the original primary the new secondary. This restores the original topology with minimal data loss because geo-replication seeds from the current primary.

Answer

Automatically re-establish geo-replication by waiting for the outage resolution.

Answer

Restore the original primary from a backup and then re-establish geo-replication.

Answer

Delete the original primary database and create a new secondary from the new primary.

Question 12

You have an Azure SQL Managed Instance configured with a failover group across two regions. The primary region experiences a complete outage. You perform a manual failover to the secondary region. After the primary region is restored, you need to bring the original primary back into the failover group. What is the correct order of actions?

Accepted Answer

Remove the original primary from the failover group and then add it back as a secondary.. After a manual failover in an Azure SQL Managed Instance failover group, the original primary becomes a secondary. To restore it to the failover group, you must first remove the original primary from the group if it is still listed, then add it back as a secondary. This allows the original primary to rejoin as a readable secondary and resync data. Option B is incorrect because a planned failover can only be initiated when the primary is healthy, which it may not be after an outage. Option C is incorrect because creating a new instance is unnecessary and wasteful. Option D is incorrect because a forced failover is not appropriate for restoring a previously failed instance; forced failover is used for urgent failover scenarios and may cause data loss.

Answer

Perform a planned failover back to the original primary region.

Answer

Create a new SQL Managed Instance in the original region and add it to the failover group.

Answer

Perform a forced failover to the original primary region.

Question 13

Your company uses Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication. You need to ensure that in the event of a regional disaster, the failover to the secondary region occurs automatically with minimal downtime. The secondary region must be in a different Azure geography for compliance. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

Create a failover group with automatic failover policy.. A failover group with an automatic failover policy is the correct configuration because it bundles the databases, the read-write listener, and the read-only listener into a single unit and supports automatic failover to a secondary server in a different region. Automatic failover is only available when the secondary is in a different Azure region, which also satisfies the compliance requirement. Active geo-replication alone does not provide automatic failover — it requires manual promotion.

Answer

Create an auto-failover group using Azure CLI and set cross-geography replication.

Answer

Configure active geo-replication and set auto-failover policy.

Answer

Configure an always failover group with Microsoft Entra ID authentication.

Question 14

You are designing a disaster recovery plan for an Azure SQL Database that stores critical financial data. The RPO must be 5 seconds, and the RTO must be 30 seconds. Which solution should you recommend?

Accepted Answer

Failover groups with automatic failover policy.. Failover groups with an automatic failover policy provide RPO of ~5 seconds and RTO of ~30 seconds because they replicate continuously to a secondary region and automatically redirect the connection endpoint when the primary fails. The failover group listener endpoint means applications don't need connection string changes, and automatic failover can complete in under 30 seconds. This is the only option that meets both the aggressive RPO and RTO targets.

Answer

Zone-redundant configuration within the primary region.

Answer

Active geo-replication with manual failover.

Answer

Automated backups with geo-restore.

Question 15

Your company has an Azure SQL Database configured with active geo-replication to a secondary region. You need to perform a planned failover for disaster recovery testing with zero data loss. The primary database is under heavy write load. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Set the primary database to read-only, perform a planned failover, then switch the new primary to read-write.. For a planned failover with zero data loss on an Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication, the primary must be quiesced (set to read-only) so all pending transactions are fully replicated to the secondary before the role switch. This ensures the secondary is fully synchronized, allowing the planned failover to complete without data loss. After failover, the new primary (formerly the secondary) is switched to read-write to resume normal operations.

Answer

Switch the secondary to read-write mode and then failover.

Answer

Take a full backup of the primary, restore it to the secondary, and then failover.

Answer

Scale up the primary database to the highest performance tier to handle writes during failover.

Question 16

You have Azure SQL Database elastic pools in the primary region. You need to configure disaster recovery using a failover group. The secondary pool must be in a different region. Which PowerShell cmdlet should you use to create the secondary pool?

Accepted Answer

New-AzSqlDatabaseSecondary. The correct cmdlet is New-AzSqlDatabaseSecondary (Option C). When the primary database is in an elastic pool, using the -SecondaryElasticPoolName parameter creates a new elastic pool on the secondary server in a different region if it does not already exist. This makes it suitable for creating the secondary pool as part of failover group setup. Option A (Set-AzSqlDatabaseSecondary) modifies an existing geo-replication relationship, not create a new one. Option B (Add-AzSqlDatabaseToFailoverGroup) adds an existing database to a failover group, but the secondary pool must already be provisioned. Option D (New-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup) creates the failover group itself, not the secondary elastic pool.

Answer

Set-AzSqlDatabaseSecondary

Answer

Add-AzSqlDatabaseToFailoverGroup

Answer

New-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup

Question 17

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, C, and E are correct. For Azure SQL Managed Instance failover groups, 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 Azure region to provide geo-redundancy. The databases must be in the same resource group. Option B is incorrect because the secondary instance can have a different service tier than the primary. Option D is incorrect because automatic failover is not required; you can use manual failover.

Answer

Both instances must have the same service tier.

Answer

Automatic failover must be enabled.

Question 18

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 A and B are correct. Active geo-replication and Failover groups are both valid disaster recovery options for Azure SQL Database that provide a secondary database in a different Azure region. Options C, D, and E are incorrect: Geo-restore (C) restores from backups and does not maintain a continuous secondary; Zone-redundant configuration (D) provides high availability within a single region, not disaster recovery; Auto-failover groups (E) is a feature that enables automatic failover for failover groups, but it is not a separate disaster recovery option—it is part of failover groups.

Answer

Geo-restore

Answer

Zone-redundant configuration

Answer

Auto-failover groups

Question 19

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.. Failover groups are the native disaster recovery feature for Azure SQL Managed Instance, providing automatic failover, a readable secondary (via read-only intent), and minimal data loss with a synchronization mode that prioritizes data durability. Option A (auto-failover group with active geo-replication) is incorrect because active geo-replication is a separate feature for single databases and elastic pools, not managed instances; failover groups themselves include the auto-failover capability. Option C (log shipping) is not a built-in managed instance feature, does not provide automatic failover, and the secondary is not readable during normal operation. Option D (active geo-replication) is for single databases and elastic pools, not managed instances, and does not provide automatic failover.

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 20

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. The Set-AzSqlDatabaseSecondary cmdlet with the -Failover parameter is the documented Azure PowerShell command to manually initiate a failover of an Azure SQL Database from the primary to the secondary in an active geo-replication configuration. It performs a planned failover that preserves data by ensuring the secondary is fully synchronized before promotion, minimizing data loss.

Answer

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

Answer

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

Answer

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