DP-300 Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment Practice Test 6 — 15 Questions

Question 1

You manage a critical SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machine running SQL Server 2019. The VM is in a single availability set. You need to ensure automatic failover in case of a zone-level failure. What should you implement?

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

Accepted Answer

Deploy the VM in an availability zone and configure an Always On availability group with a secondary replica in another zone.. To survive a zone-level failure, the SQL Server VM must be placed in an availability zone and paired with a secondary replica in a different zone via an Always On availability group. Availability zones are physically separate datacenters within a region, so a zone failure only affects one zone; the AG provides automatic failover to the replica in the surviving zone. This is the only option that provides automatic failover across zones.

Answer

Place the VM in an availability set.

Answer

Enable geo-replication to another Azure region.

Answer

Configure automated backups with long-term retention.

Question 2

Your company uses Azure SQL Database in a General Purpose service tier. You need to minimize downtime during a planned patching event. Which feature should you enable?

Accepted Answer

Zone-redundant configuration. Zone-redundant configuration for Azure SQL Database provides high availability by replicating across zones, minimizing downtime during planned patching events. Option A is incorrect because auto-failover groups are primarily for disaster recovery across regions. Option B is incorrect because read scale-out only offloads read workloads to a readable secondary replica, which does not reduce downtime during patching of the primary. Option C is incorrect because active geo-replication is for disaster recovery, not for reducing downtime during patching within a region.

Answer

Auto-failover group

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Read scale-out

Answer

Active geo-replication

Question 3

You have a SQL Server 2022 on Azure VM configured with a Basic availability group for a line-of-business application. The application requires automatic failover without manual intervention. What additional component is needed?

Accepted Answer

Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC). A Basic availability group in SQL Server 2022 requires a Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC) to provide the cluster quorum and health monitoring necessary for automatic failover. Without WSFC, the availability group cannot perform automatic failover because there is no cluster resource to detect failures and initiate the failover process. WSFC is the foundational clustering technology that SQL Server Always On availability groups rely on, even for Basic availability groups.

Answer

Azure Load Balancer

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Virtual network gateway

Answer

Availability group listener

Question 4

You need to design a disaster recovery plan for an Azure SQL Managed Instance. The recovery time objective (RTO) is 1 hour, and the recovery point objective (RPO) is 15 minutes. What is the most cost-effective solution?

Accepted Answer

Create an auto-failover group with a secondary instance in a paired region.. Auto-failover groups for Azure SQL Managed Instance provide a listener endpoint, automatic failover, and asynchronous replication to a secondary instance in a paired region, meeting the 1-hour RTO and 15-minute RPO. Because failover is automatic and the secondary can be a readable replica, operational overhead and cost are lower than active geo-replication, which requires manual failover configuration and does not provide a listener.

Answer

Configure active geo-replication between instances in different regions.

Answer

Set up log shipping to a secondary instance.

Answer

Use point-in-time restore to a secondary region.

Question 5

You need to ensure high availability for an Azure SQL Database in the Business Critical service tier. Which feature provides the fastest failover within the same region?

Accepted Answer

Built-in Always On availability groups. In the Business Critical service tier, Azure SQL Database is built on Always On availability groups with a local replica in the same region, delivering the fastest failover (typically under 30 seconds) because the primary and secondary replicas are co-located. This built-in HA is automatic and included with the tier, requiring no additional configuration. Zone-redundant configuration spreads replicas across availability zones, which adds cross-zone latency and is not the fastest same-region failover.

Answer

Zone-redundant configuration

Answer

Read scale-out

Answer

Active geo-replication

Question 6

You have a SQL Server on Azure VM running SQL Server 2022 with a Distributed availability group (DAG) for disaster recovery across two Azure regions. You need to ensure that the secondary replica can become the primary without data loss if the primary region fails. What setting must be configured?

Accepted Answer

Synchronous commit mode on the distributed AG. To ensure no data loss during a failover in a distributed availability group (AG), you must configure synchronous commit mode on the distributed AG. In this mode, a transaction is committed only after it has been hardened on both the primary replica and the primary forwarder (the primary of the local AG). This guarantees that all committed data is available on the secondary side. Option A is incorrect because backup preference does not affect data loss. Option B is incorrect because asynchronous commit can allow data loss if the primary fails before the data is replicated. Option D is incorrect because automatic seeding is only used for initial data synchronization, not for ongoing data protection.

Answer

Backup preference set to secondary

Answer

Asynchronous commit mode on the distributed AG

Answer

Automatic seeding enabled

Question 7

Which TWO actions should you take to achieve high availability for an Azure SQL Managed Instance with a 99.99% SLA? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Use Business Critical service tier.. Option B is correct because the Business Critical service tier in Azure SQL Managed Instance provides a built-in, locally redundant high-availability architecture using multiple replicas and an Always On availability group, which is required to reach the 99.99% SLA. Option C is correct because deploying the instance as zone-redundant spreads the primary and secondary replicas across multiple availability zones, protecting against datacenter-level failures and enabling the 99.99% availability SLA. Option A is not correct because automated backups with long-term retention address data durability and recovery, not runtime high availability. Option D is not correct because geo-replication/failover groups provide disaster recovery across regions, not the local high-availability SLA target. Option E is not correct because the General Purpose tier uses remote storage and does not provide the same built-in HA SLA as Business Critical.

Answer

Enable automated backups with long-term retention.

Answer

Configure geo-replication to a secondary region.

Answer

Use General Purpose service tier.

Question 8

Which TWO statements about Azure SQL Database zone-redundant configuration are true? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

It can be enabled during database creation or by updating an existing database.. Options B and D are correct. Zone-redundant configuration can be enabled during database creation or by updating an existing database (B), and it provides resilience within a single Azure region across multiple availability zones (D). Option A is incorrect because zone-redundant configuration does not require a failover group; failover groups are used for geo-replication, not for zone redundancy. Option C is incorrect because zone-redundant configuration is available in both the General Purpose and Business Critical service tiers. Option E is incorrect because the cost impact varies by tier: General Purpose tier does not incur additional cost for zone redundancy, while Business Critical does; thus, the blanket statement that it always incurs additional cost is false.

Answer

It requires a failover group to be configured.

Answer

It is only available in the Business Critical service tier.

Answer

It incurs additional cost compared to non-zone-redundant configurations.

Question 9

You manage a mission-critical Azure SQL Database in the East US region. The database uses the Business Critical service tier with zone-redundant high availability enabled. You need to ensure that if an entire Azure region fails, the database can be failed over to a secondary region with minimal data loss. What should you implement?

Accepted Answer

Enable active geo-replication to a secondary server in a paired region.. Active geo-replication allows you to create up to four readable secondaries in different Azure regions, and it supports manual failover to any of those secondaries. For a mission-critical database with zone-redundant HA already enabled, active geo-replication provides cross-region disaster recovery with minimal data loss (typically <5 seconds of data loss, as it uses asynchronous replication). The question specifies 'minimal data loss' and 'failed over to a secondary region', which active geo-replication directly addresses. Auto-failover groups also provide cross-region failover, but they are built on top of active geo-replication and add automatic failover policies; however, the question does not require automatic failover, and active geo-replication is the foundational feature that enables manual failover with minimal data loss.

Answer

Enable auto-failover groups with read-write failover policy.

Answer

Configure a failover group with the secondary in a different Azure region.

Answer

Deploy zone-redundant configuration in East US 2.

Question 10

You are designing a disaster recovery plan for an Azure SQL Managed Instance that hosts a critical OLTP workload. The primary instance is deployed in West Europe. You need to ensure that failover to a secondary region occurs automatically when the primary becomes unavailable due to a regional outage, and that the secondary database is readable during normal operations. You also want to minimize storage costs. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

Create a failover group between the primary and a secondary managed instance in a paired region.. Failover groups for Azure SQL Managed Instance provide automatic failover to a secondary instance in a paired region, and the secondary is readable for read-only workloads, meeting the requirements. Option B is incorrect because 'auto-failover groups' is a term used for Azure SQL Database, not SQL Managed Instance; SQL MI uses failover groups, which also provide automatic failover. Option A is incorrect because geo-zone-redundant storage is a storage redundancy option, not a disaster recovery configuration for SQL MI. Option C is incorrect because active geo-replication is available for Azure SQL Database, not for SQL Managed Instance.

Answer

Deploy a secondary instance using a Bicep template with geo-zone-redundant storage.

Answer

Implement auto-failover groups with a readable secondary in another region.

Answer

Configure active geo-replication between two managed instances.

Question 11

Your company uses Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication configured between two regions. The primary database in East US experiences a critical failure, and you initiate a manual failover to the secondary in West US. After the failover, you need to re-establish geo-replication to a new secondary database in a third region (Central US) to restore the DR capability. What is the correct sequence of actions?

Accepted Answer

Remove the geo-replication link to the old primary, then add a new secondary in Central US.. After a manual failover, the old primary becomes a geo-secondary and the geo-replication link between the two databases still exists in a reversed direction. To restore DR to a third region, you must first remove the existing geo-replication link (which now points from the new primary back to the old primary), then add a new geo-secondary in Central US. Azure SQL Database allows only one geo-secondary per primary per region, and the old link must be severed before a new secondary can be created.

Answer

Delete the old primary and create a new geo-secondary in Central US.

Answer

Add a new secondary in Central US on the current primary.

Answer

Perform a planned failover to the old primary, then configure geo-replication to Central US.

Question 12

You are planning a disaster recovery strategy for an Azure SQL Database that supports a critical application. The database is 500 GB in size and you need to recover it within 1 hour (RTO) with a maximum data loss of 5 minutes (RPO). Which Azure SQL Database feature should you use?

Accepted Answer

Active geo-replication to a secondary server in a paired region.. Active geo-replication is the only option that meets both the 1-hour RTO and 5-minute RPO for a 500 GB database. It asynchronously replicates committed transactions to up to four readable secondaries in different regions, with typical replication lag under 5 seconds. Failover can be initiated manually or via auto-failover groups, and the secondary is always online and ready, so recovery time is measured in seconds to minutes—not hours. PITR and LTR rely on backup restore operations that take far longer than 1 hour for a 500 GB database.

Answer

Long-term retention (LTR) backups.

Answer

Point-in-time restore (PITR) with geo-redundant backup storage.

Answer

Auto-failover group with a secondary in a different region.

Question 13

Refer to the exhibit. You are reviewing the configuration of an Azure SQL Database hyperscale service tier. The database 'SalesDB' has read scale enabled with 2 read replicas. You need to ensure that if the primary region fails, the database can be failed over to a secondary region with minimal data loss and that the read replicas in the secondary region are also available. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

Create a named replica in a secondary region and configure it as a geo-secondary.. For Azure SQL Database Hyperscale, named replicas can be created in a secondary region. These replicas provide both read scale-out and can be promoted to primary during a regional failover, ensuring minimal data loss. Option A is incorrect because zone redundancy provides high availability within a single region, not disaster recovery across regions. Option C is incorrect because active geo-replication is not supported for Hyperscale; named replicas serve the geo-replication purpose. Option D is incorrect because failover groups are not supported for Hyperscale; named replicas are the mechanism for cross-region failover and read scaling.

Answer

Configure zone redundancy on the Hyperscale database.

Answer

Enable active geo-replication to a secondary server in a different region.

Answer

Create a failover group with a secondary Hyperscale database in another region.

Question 14

You have an Azure SQL Database that uses the Business Critical service tier with zone redundancy enabled. The database is deployed in a single region. You want to ensure that if a zone fails, the database remains available with minimal downtime. How does zone redundancy achieve this?

Accepted Answer

It maintains multiple synchronous replicas in different availability zones within the region.. In Azure SQL Database Business Critical with zone redundancy, the primary compute and storage are synchronously replicated across multiple availability zones within the same region. If the zone hosting the primary fails, the platform automatically fails over to a replica in another zone with no data loss and minimal downtime, because the replicas are kept in sync via synchronous commit.

Answer

It creates read-only replicas in other zones that can be promoted to primary.

Answer

It replicates data to a secondary region for failover.

Answer

It uses asynchronous replication to a standby replica in another zone.

Question 15

You are designing high availability for a critical Azure SQL Database. The database is 1 TB in size and requires an RPO of 0 (zero data loss) and an RTO of less than 30 seconds. Which TWO configurations can meet these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Business Critical service tier with zone redundancy enabled.. Option A is correct because the Business Critical service tier uses locally attached SSD storage and an Always On availability group architecture with multiple replicas, and when zone redundancy is enabled it spreads those replicas across availability zones, giving automatic failover with RPO 0 and RTO typically under 30 seconds. Option C is correct because the Hyperscale service tier also supports zone redundancy, and its architecture with a primary compute replica plus page servers and log service provides RPO 0 and fast failover within the 30-second RTO target. Option B is not correct because an auto-failover group with a secondary in the same region does not by itself guarantee RPO 0 or sub-30-second RTO, and same-region secondaries are not the zone-redundant HA mechanism described here. Option D is not correct because General Purpose uses remote premium storage with a single primary replica and does not provide the same low-latency, zero-data-loss failover within 30 seconds even with zone redundancy. Option E is not correct because active geo-replication is asynchronous, so it cannot guarantee RPO 0, and its failover time typically exceeds the 30-second RTO requirement.

Answer

Auto-failover group with a secondary in the same region.

Answer

General Purpose service tier with zone redundancy enabled.

Answer

Active geo-replication to a secondary in a different region.