DP-300 Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment Practice Test 5 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Your company uses Azure SQL Database Hyperscale tier for a large OLTP workload. You need to implement a disaster recovery solution that provides a readable secondary in a different Azure region with an RPO of less than 5 seconds and automatic failover. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

Create a named replica in the target region and configure application failover logic.. Option D is correct because Hyperscale supports named replicas that can be created in a different region and can be used for failover. Option A is wrong because Hyperscale does not support auto-failover groups. Option B is wrong because Hyperscale does not support active geo-replication. Option C is wrong because geo-restore does not provide a readable secondary.

Answer

Create an auto-failover group with a secondary in the paired region.

Answer

Enable geo-redundant backup storage and use geo-restore.

Answer

Configure active geo-replication to a secondary server in another region.

Question 2

You have a SQL Server on Azure VM that hosts a mission-critical database. The VM is in a single availability zone. You need to achieve a 99.99% SLA for the SQL Server instance. Which two actions should you perform? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Configure SQL Server Always On availability group with synchronous replication.. Option A and C are correct. Deploying two VMs in an availability set (or across zones) and configuring an Always On availability group provides high availability and meets the SLA. Option B is wrong because a single VM with premium disks does not achieve 99.99%. Option D is wrong because FCI with single VM does not provide high availability. Option E is wrong because backup redundancy does not affect availability.

Answer

Enable geo-redundant backup storage.

Answer

Configure a failover cluster instance using Azure shared disks.

Answer

Use a single VM with premium SSD disks.

Question 3

You are migrating an on-premises SQL Server database to Azure SQL Managed Instance. The database is 500 GB and requires a disaster recovery solution with an RPO of 15 seconds and automatic failover to a secondary region. Which configuration meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Create an auto-failover group with a secondary instance in a paired region using synchronous replication.. Option B is correct because auto-failover groups for Managed Instance provide automatic failover and can achieve low RPO with synchronous replication. Option A is wrong because geo-redundant backup does not provide automatic failover. Option C is wrong because log shipping is not supported. Option D is wrong because active geo-replication is not supported for Managed Instance.

Answer

Enable geo-redundant backup storage and configure geo-restore.

Answer

Configure active geo-replication to a secondary instance in another region.

Answer

Set up log shipping to a secondary instance in another region.

Question 4

Your company has an Azure SQL Database that uses the Business Critical service tier with three replicas. You need to ensure that during a regional outage, the database can be failed over to a secondary region with minimal data loss. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

Create an auto-failover group with a secondary server in a different region.. Option C is correct because auto-failover groups allow failover to a secondary region with minimal data loss when using synchronous replication. Option A is wrong because read scale-out does not provide DR. Option B is wrong because zone redundancy provides availability within a region, not cross-region. Option D is wrong because backup redundancy does not provide failover.

Answer

Configure zone-redundant replicas in the same region.

Answer

Enable read scale-out on the database.

Answer

Use geo-redundant backup storage and perform geo-restore.

Question 5

You have a SQL Server on Azure VM that is part of a failover cluster instance (FCI). The cluster nodes are in an availability set. You need to ensure that the database can tolerate a complete Azure region failure. What should you add to the current architecture?

Accepted Answer

Deploy a second FCI in a different Azure region and configure SQL Server log shipping or availability group between the FCIs.. Option A is correct because adding a second FCI in another region and configuring asynchronous replication between them provides cross-region DR. Option B is wrong because adding more nodes in the same region does not protect against region failure. Option C is wrong because geo-redundant backup does not provide continuous replication. Option D is wrong because active geo-replication is not supported for SQL Server on Azure VM.

Answer

Add another node to the existing FCI in a different availability zone.

Answer

Configure geo-redundant backup storage for the SQL Server VMs.

Answer

Create an Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication and migrate the database.

Question 6

Your company has an Azure SQL Database in the East US region. You need to configure a disaster recovery solution that provides a readable secondary in the West US region with an RPO of 5 seconds. The solution must support automatic failover from the application. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

Create an auto-failover group with a secondary server in West US using synchronous replication.. Option A is correct because auto-failover groups with synchronous replication can achieve an RPO of 5 seconds and provide automatic failover. Option B is wrong because active geo-replication does not support automatic failover. Option C is wrong because geo-restore does not provide a readable secondary. Option D is wrong because zone redundancy does not provide cross-region DR.

Answer

Enable zone-redundant replicas in the same region.

Answer

Enable geo-redundant backup storage and perform geo-restore.

Answer

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

Question 7

You manage a critical database in Azure SQL Database that must recover within 5 minutes in case of a regional outage. You configure geo-replication. Which SKU guarantees the fastest failover time with the least data loss?

Accepted Answer

Business Critical (BC). Option C is correct because Azure SQL Database Business Critical tier uses premium SSDs and in-memory technologies, providing the lowest RPO and fastest failover (typically <30 seconds). Hyperscale (A) has longer failover and higher RPO. General Purpose (B) has higher RPO. Serverless (D) is not suitable for geo-replication.

Answer

General Purpose (GP)

Answer

Hyperscale (HS)

Answer

Serverless

Question 8

Your Azure SQL Database is configured with active geo-replication to a secondary region. The primary region experiences a complete outage. You initiate a manual failover to the secondary. Users report that some client applications are failing to connect. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

Client applications are using the old connection string pointing to the primary server.. Option B is correct because after failover, the connection string must point to the new primary server. Client applications often cache the old endpoint. Option A is incorrect because geo-replication does not require VPN. Option C is incorrect because the secondary database is fully provisioned. Option D is incorrect because failover does not change the server name automatically in client configurations.

Answer

The secondary server is behind a VPN that clients cannot access.

Answer

The secondary database is not fully provisioned yet.

Answer

The server name changed after failover and DNS is not updated.

Question 9

You need to implement a disaster recovery solution for a SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machine using SQL Server Always On Availability Groups. The secondary replica must be in a different Azure region. What is the minimum number of VMs required to achieve automatic failover?

Accepted Answer

2. Option C is correct because an Always On Availability Group requires at least 2 replicas (primary and secondary) for automatic failover. A witness is optional. Option A (1 VM) provides no high availability. Option B (2 VMs) is the minimum for automatic failover. Option D (4 VMs) is unnecessary.

Answer

1

Answer

3

Answer

4

Question 10

Your company has a compliance requirement to keep database backups for 10 years. You are using Azure SQL Database. Which backup retention feature should you use?

Accepted Answer

Long-term retention (LTR) policy. Option D is correct because long-term retention (LTR) policy can retain full backups for up to 10 years. Point-in-time restore (A) is limited to 35 days. Geo-redundant storage (B) is about storage redundancy, not retention period. Automated backups (C) have a maximum retention of 35 days.

Answer

Geo-redundant storage (GRS)

Answer

Automated backups

Answer

Point-in-time restore (PITR)

Question 11

You have an Azure SQL Managed Instance configured with failover groups to a secondary region. During a disaster, you perform a planned failover to the secondary region. After the primary region recovers, you want to fail back. What should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Perform a planned failover from the current primary to the original primary.. Option A is correct because after a planned failover, the secondary region becomes the primary. To fail back, you need to re-establish replication by performing another failover from the new primary back to the original region. Option B is incorrect because you cannot add a new secondary if the original is unavailable. Option C is incorrect because you need to fail over again, not just start replication. Option D is incorrect because you cannot directly set the new primary as secondary.

Answer

Add a new secondary replica in the original region.

Answer

Start geo-replication from the current primary to the original region.

Answer

Configure the original primary as a secondary replica.

Question 12

You are designing a disaster recovery plan for a SQL Server 2022 on Azure VM. The solution must provide automatic failover within seconds and zero data loss. Which SQL Server feature should you use?

Accepted Answer

Failover cluster instance (FCI) with shared storage. Option A is correct because SQL Server failover cluster instance (FCI) with shared storage provides automatic failover and zero data loss at the cost of shared storage. Option B (AG with synchronous commit) has automatic failover but may have data loss in some scenarios. Option C (log shipping) has manual failover and potential data loss. Option D (backup/restore) is not a high availability solution.

Answer

Backup and restore to another region

Answer

Always On Availability Group with synchronous commit

Answer

Log shipping

Question 13

You have an Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication. You need to monitor the replication lag to ensure the RPO is met. Which metric should you monitor?

Accepted Answer

Replication lag. Option B is correct because 'Replication lag' metric directly measures the delay in seconds between primary and secondary. Option A (Data IO percentage) is a performance metric. Option C (DTU consumption) is related to resource usage. Option D (Deadlocks) is unrelated.

Answer

DTU consumption

Answer

Data IO percentage

Answer

Deadlocks

Question 14

You are using Azure SQL Managed Instance with auto-failover groups. The primary region is East US, secondary is West US. The primary region experiences a full outage. How does the failover group behave?

Accepted Answer

The failover group automatically fails over to West US and the read-write endpoint now points to West US.. Option D is correct because auto-failover groups automatically fail over to the secondary region with automatic read-write endpoint switch. Option A is incorrect because failover is automatic if the grace period is exceeded. Option B is incorrect because automatic failover does not require manual initiation. Option C is incorrect because read-only listeners are also updated automatically.

Answer

You must manually initiate failover via the portal.

Answer

The read-only listener continues to point to West US.

Answer

The failover group remains in primary region and does not fail over.

Question 15

You need to configure a backup policy for Azure SQL Database that allows restoring to any point within the last 7 days. What is the minimum point-in-time restore retention period you should set?

Accepted Answer

7 days. Option C is correct because point-in-time restore retention can be set from 1 to 35 days. To restore to any point within 7 days, you need at least 7 days retention. Option A (1 day) is insufficient. Option B (3 days) is also insufficient. Option D (14 days) is more than needed.

Answer

1 day

Answer

14 days

Answer

3 days