DP-300 Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment Practice Test 12 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Your company wants to ensure business continuity for an Azure SQL Database that is used by a critical application. The database must remain available in the event of a single availability zone failure within a region. Which configuration should you use?

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

Accepted Answer

Configure zone-redundant availability for the database. Zone-redundant availability for Azure SQL Database replicates the database across multiple availability zones within a region, providing high availability if one zone fails. This ensures the database remains available during a single zone outage, meeting the business continuity requirement.

Answer

Use active geo-replication to a different region

Answer

Deploy the database with locally redundant storage

Answer

Configure read scale-out with a secondary replica

Question 2

Which TWO are benefits of using a failover group for Azure SQL Database? (Select two.)

Accepted Answer

Allows the secondary database to be readable for reporting. Option A is correct because a failover group allows you to configure the secondary database as readable, enabling read-only workloads such as reporting to be offloaded to the secondary replica. Option C is correct because a failover group provides a read/write listener endpoint (e.g., <failover-group>.database.windows.net) that automatically redirects connections to the current primary after a failover, giving applications a stable connection string. Option B is not a benefit specific to failover groups; TDE is a database-level encryption feature that can be enabled independently and is not provided or extended across regions by a failover group. Option D is incorrect because failover groups do not automatically load-balance read queries between primary and secondary; read-only routing must be configured and is not automatic balancing. Option E is incorrect because Azure SQL Database failover groups use asynchronous replication, not synchronous replication, between the primary and secondary servers.

Answer

Enables transparent data encryption (TDE) across regions

Answer

Automatically balances read queries between primary and secondary

Answer

Supports synchronous replication between primary and secondary

Question 3

Which THREE are valid methods to implement disaster recovery for Azure SQL Database? (Select three.)

Accepted Answer

Failover groups. Options A, C, and E are correct. Failover groups and active geo-replication are built-in disaster recovery features for Azure SQL Database that allow failover to a secondary region. Geo-restore (point-in-time restore to a different region) is also a valid DR method by restoring from geo-replicated backups. Option B (Always On availability groups) is a feature for SQL Server on VMs or on-premises, not for Azure SQL Database. Option D (long-term backup retention) is a backup retention capability, not a disaster recovery method.

Answer

Always On availability groups

Answer

Long-term backup retention

Question 4

You have an Azure SQL Database that is part of a failover group with automatic failover. The primary region experiences a complete outage. The failover group automatically fails over to the secondary region. After the primary region is restored, you need to ensure the database is operational in the primary region with minimal data loss. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Initiate a manual failover of the failover group back to the primary region.. Azure SQL failover groups support automatic failover to the secondary region, but failback is not automatic. After the primary region is restored, you must manually initiate a failover to return the primary database to the original primary region. This ensures the database is operational in the primary region with minimal data loss, as the failover group maintains replication.

Answer

Wait for automatic failback to occur.

Answer

Restore the database from a geo-redundant backup.

Answer

Delete the failover group and recreate it with the original primary as the new primary.

Question 5

You have an Azure SQL Managed Instance configured with an auto-failover group between two regions. You need to ensure that client applications can automatically connect to the secondary instance after a failover without changing connection strings. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

Use the failover group listener endpoint in the connection string.. An auto-failover group provides a read/write listener endpoint (and a read-only listener) with a DNS name that always points to the current primary. Applications connect to the listener FQDN, so after failover the DNS resolves to the new primary without any connection string change.

Answer

Set up a load balancer with health probes.

Answer

Deploy an Application Gateway with backend pools for each region.

Answer

Configure a Traffic Manager profile with endpoint monitoring.

Question 6

Your company has an Azure SQL Database that uses active geo-replication to a secondary region. The primary database is hit by a logical corruption error. You need to restore the database to a point before the corruption occurred with minimal data loss. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Restore the primary database to a point in time before the corruption using automated backups.. Logical corruption requires point-in-time restore from automated backups to a time before the corruption occurred. Active geo-replication replicates the corruption to the secondary, so it cannot be used to recover. Restoring the primary database to a point in time is the correct approach to minimize data loss.

Answer

Fail over to the secondary region and then fail back.

Answer

Use the geo-replicated secondary to recover the data.

Answer

Seeding the secondary from a backup of the primary.

Question 7

Your company has an Azure SQL Database that uses a failover group with a secondary in a different region. You need to ensure that read-only queries are directed to the secondary database to offload the primary. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

Add ApplicationIntent=ReadOnly to the connection string and use the failover group listener.. To direct read-only queries to the secondary database in a failover group, you must use the failover group listener and add 'ApplicationIntent=ReadOnly' to the connection string. The listener routes read-write connections to the primary and read-only connections to the secondary, based on the ApplicationIntent parameter. This is the built-in read-scale-out mechanism for failover groups.

Answer

Use a Traffic Manager profile to route read traffic.

Answer

Enable read-scale for the database.

Answer

Configure a separate connection string pointing to the secondary server.

Question 8

You are troubleshooting a failover group for Azure SQL Database. The automatic failover is not triggering as expected during a regional outage. You verify that the grace period for data loss is set to 3600 seconds. The outage lasts 30 minutes. What is the most likely reason the automatic failover did not occur?

Accepted Answer

The outage duration is less than the grace period for data loss.. The grace period for data loss (also called the 'grace period' or 'data loss grace period') is the maximum time the failover group waits before forcing a failover when the primary region is unavailable. If the outage duration is shorter than this grace period, Azure SQL Database will not trigger automatic failover because it still hopes to recover the primary without data loss. Here, the grace period is 3600 seconds (60 minutes) and the outage lasted only 30 minutes, so the condition for automatic failover was not met. Thus, the most likely reason is that the outage duration is less than the grace period.

Answer

The failover policy is set to manual.

Answer

The grace period for data loss is too short.

Answer

The secondary region is also experiencing an outage.

Question 9

You have an Azure SQL Database configured with active geo-replication to a secondary region. The primary region experiences a full outage. You need to fail over with minimal data loss. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Initiate an unplanned failover from the primary to the secondary.. Initiating an unplanned failover from the primary to the secondary is the correct action because the primary region is experiencing a full outage, and unplanned failover is designed for such disaster scenarios. It promotes the secondary database to become the new primary with minimal data loss, typically within the recovery point objective (RPO).

Answer

Delete the secondary database and create a new one in the primary region.

Answer

Initiate a planned failover from the primary to the secondary.

Answer

Create a new secondary database in the same region as the primary.

Question 10

You have a SQL Server on Azure VM running a mission-critical database. The VM is configured with Azure Site Recovery (ASR) for disaster recovery. During a disaster recovery drill, you notice that the recovered database is not consistent. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

Application-consistent snapshots are not enabled in the ASR replication policy.. Azure Site Recovery replicates VM disks, and by default it takes crash-consistent snapshots, which capture the disk state as if the power were cut — the database may have in-flight transactions and be inconsistent on recovery. Enabling application-consistent snapshots in the replication policy triggers VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service) to quiesce the database and flush transactions before snapshotting, ensuring a consistent recovery point.

Answer

The secondary region is not in the same geo as the primary.

Answer

The backup retention period is too short.

Answer

The database is not part of an Always On availability group.

Question 11

Your company has an Azure SQL Database with a failover group configured to a secondary region. The primary region experiences a temporary network issue. The failover group is set to automatic failover with a grace period of 1 hour. What will happen?

Accepted Answer

Automatic failover will start after 1 hour if the primary is still unreachable.. In an Azure SQL failover group with automatic failover and a grace period of 1 hour, the failover is not immediate. Azure waits for the grace period to elapse while the primary remains unreachable before initiating automatic failover to the secondary region. This prevents unnecessary failovers during brief network blips.

Answer

Automatic failover will happen immediately.

Answer

You must manually initiate failover.

Answer

The secondary database will be deleted and re-created.

Question 12

Which THREE components are required to configure an auto-failover group for Azure SQL Database? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

A failover group name. A failover group is a named resource, so option B (a failover group name) is required to create and reference it. Option C (a secondary logical server in a different region) is required because the failover group replicates databases to a partner server, and placing it in a different Azure region provides the geo-redundancy that failover groups are designed for. Option D (the primary logical server) is required because the failover group is defined between a primary and secondary server, with the primary hosting the read-write databases. Option A is not required because failover groups automatically manage the geo-replication relationship; you do not manually configure active geo-replication as a prerequisite. Option E is not applicable because an availability group listener is an Always On availability group concept for SQL Server, not an Azure SQL Database auto-failover group component.

Answer

Active geo-replication

Answer

An availability group listener

Question 13

You have an Azure SQL Database that uses the General Purpose service tier. The database is critical and you need to ensure that it remains available during a planned patching event that updates the underlying hardware. What does Azure SQL Database provide to maintain availability during such events?

Accepted Answer

Automated failover to a built-in standby replica with minimal downtime.. Azure SQL Database provides automated failover to a built-in standby replica with minimal downtime during planned patching events. This is part of the built-in high availability architecture, where the database runs on a primary replica and maintains a secondary replica. During patching, a failover occurs to the secondary, ensuring continuity.

Answer

The database is taken offline during patching and restored afterward.

Answer

You must manually fail over to a secondary database to avoid downtime.

Answer

Zone-redundant replicas that ensure zero downtime.

Question 14

Refer to the exhibit. You are reviewing an ARM template for deploying an Azure SQL Database. The template specifies a point-in-time restore from a source database. The source database is configured with geo-redundant backup storage. You need to ensure that the restored database can be used for disaster recovery in a different region. What is missing from the template to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Set 'createMode' to 'GeoRestore' and specify a target server in the desired region.. To restore a geo-redundant backup to a different region, the ARM template must use createMode 'GeoRestore' and point to a target logical server in the desired region. A standard PointInTimeRestore restores to the same region and server, so it cannot satisfy the cross-region DR requirement. GeoRestore is the specific createMode that instructs Azure SQL to pull the geo-replicated backup and materialize the database on the specified target server in the alternate region.

Answer

Add a 'location' property to the database resource.

Answer

Set 'zoneRedundant' to true.

Answer

Change 'requestedBackupStorageRedundancy' to 'GeoZone'.

Question 15

You have an Azure SQL Managed Instance configured with a failover group to a secondary region. During a regional outage, the failover group automatically fails over to the secondary. After the primary region is restored, you need to bring the primary back online and re-establish the failover relationship. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Initiate a planned failover from the current primary to the original primary.. After an automatic failover, the original primary becomes the secondary. To restore the original configuration, you perform a planned failover from the current primary (the former secondary) back to the original primary. This re-establishes the original roles and the failover group remains intact. A planned failover ensures no data loss by synchronizing the databases before switching roles.

Answer

Delete the failover group and recreate it with the original primary as the primary.

Answer

Add the original primary as a new secondary to the current primary.

Answer

Remove the original primary from the failover group and re-add it.