DP-300 Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment Practice Test 7 — 15 Questions

Question 1

You manage an Azure SQL Database that uses active geo-replication with a secondary in a paired region. During a planned maintenance, you need to fail over to the secondary with zero data loss. What should you do?

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

Accepted Answer

Execute a planned failover (graceful failover) using Transact-SQL or PowerShell. A planned failover (graceful failover) synchronizes all transactions between the primary and secondary before switching, ensuring zero data loss. Option A uses a standard failover that may allow data loss if the secondary is not fully synchronized. Option B causes data loss by taking the primary offline abruptly. Option D explicitly allows data loss, which is not acceptable for this requirement.

Answer

Use Azure portal to 'Failover' without specifying data loss tolerance

Answer

Take the primary offline, then promote the secondary

Answer

Execute a forced failover allowing data loss

Question 2

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?

Accepted Answer

Configure zone-redundant availability for the database. Azure SQL Database zone-redundant availability replicates the database across multiple availability zones within the same region, providing high availability in the event of a single zone failure. Option B (active geo-replication) replicates to a different region, which protects against regional outages but not specifically a zone failure. Option C (locally redundant storage) stores data within a single data center, offering no zone-level protection. Option D (read scale-out) provides read-only replicas but does not ensure write availability during a zone failure.

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 3

You have an Azure SQL Database configured with a failover group that includes a secondary in another region. The primary region experiences a complete outage. You initiate a forced failover. After the outage is resolved, you want to bring the original primary back as a secondary without data loss. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Remove the original primary from the failover group, drop the database, and recreate it as a new secondary. After a forced failover, the original primary is in a failed state. To bring it back as a secondary without data loss, you must remove it from the failover group, drop the original database, and then add a new secondary database (which will be seeded from the current primary). This is the only method that ensures no data loss. Option A is incorrect because there is no 'az sql db failover-group re-sync' command. Option B is incorrect because active geo-replication is not required; failover groups automatically handle replication. Option C is incorrect because restoring from backup would not reflect changes made after the failover, resulting in data loss.

Answer

Use the 'az sql db failover-group re-sync' command to re-synchronize

Answer

Configure replication from the new primary to the old primary using active geo-replication

Answer

Restore the original primary from backup and re-add it to the failover group

Question 4

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. Failover groups in Azure SQL Database provide a single read/write listener endpoint for the primary database (option C) and allow the secondary database to be readable for reporting purposes (option A). Option B is incorrect because Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) is not a feature of failover groups; TDE can be configured independently. Option D is incorrect because failover groups do not automatically balance read queries; for read scaling, you would use a read-scale replica. Option E is incorrect because failover groups use asynchronous replication, not synchronous.

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 5

Which THREE are requirements for configuring a failover group for Azure SQL Managed Instance? (Select three.)

Accepted Answer

Both managed instances must have the same service tier. Options A, B, and E are correct. Both managed instances must have the same service tier (A). The secondary instance must have no user databases (B). Both instances must be in the same hardware generation (e.g., Gen5) (E). Option C is incorrect because the instances can be in different subnets within the same virtual network. Option D is incorrect because having a user database on the primary is not a requirement for configuring a failover group.

Answer

Both instances must be in the same virtual network subnet

Answer

The primary instance must have at least one user database

Question 6

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 7

After running the above Azure CLI command, you notice that the secondary database is not readable. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The '--secondary-type' parameter is set to 'Geo' instead of 'Readable'. The '--secondary-type' parameter controls the secondary's readability. Setting it to 'Geo' creates a geo-replicated secondary that is not readable. To enable readable secondaries, you must specify '--secondary-type Readable' (or 'Named'). Option A is incorrect because Azure SQL Database geo-replication does support readable secondaries when configured correctly. Option B is incorrect: while a low DTU might affect performance, it does not prevent readability; the secondary can still be read even with 2 DTUs. Option D is incorrect because Gen5 hardware generation supports readable secondaries.

Answer

Geo-replication does not support readable secondaries by default

Answer

The secondary database capacity is set to 2 DTUs, which is too low

Answer

The hardware generation is Gen5, which does not support readable secondaries

Question 8

Your company has a policy that requires all Azure SQL Databases to be recoverable to a point in time within the last 5 minutes in the event of a user error. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

Configure point-in-time restore (PITR) with a retention period of at least 5 minutes. Point-in-time restore (PITR) allows restoring a database to any point within the retention period. By configuring a retention period that covers at least the last 5 minutes, you can recover from user errors within 5 minutes. The default retention is 7 days, but you can configure it up to 35 days, so 5 minutes is easily achievable. Option B (zone-redundant configuration) provides high availability within a region but not point-in-time recovery. Option C (active geo-replication) is for disaster recovery to another region. Option D (long-term backup retention) is for backups beyond the PITR retention period, not for short-term recovery.

Answer

Enable zone-redundant configuration

Answer

Set up active geo-replication to a secondary region

Answer

Enable long-term backup retention (LTR)

Question 9

You run the above Kusto query and see that a database named 'OrdersDB' has high wait times for 'FAILOVER_GROUP_WAIT' every hour. What does this indicate?

Accepted Answer

Replication lag between primary and secondary is high. High wait times for 'FAILOVER_GROUP_WAIT' indicate significant replication lag between the primary and secondary databases, as this wait type measures the time the primary spends waiting for the secondary to apply changes. Option A is incorrect because the query does not measure connection requests. Option B is incorrect because write transactions may still occur; the wait is about replication, not transaction absence. Option C is incorrect because frequent automatic failovers are not indicated by this wait stat; it measures replication lag, not failover frequency.

Answer

The secondary database is experiencing high connection requests

Answer

The primary database is not receiving any write transactions

Answer

The failover group is experiencing frequent automatic failovers

Question 10

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.. After automatic failover occurs, the database is now hosted in the secondary region. When the primary region is restored, you must initiate a manual failover to make the primary region the new primary again. This ensures minimal data loss because the failover group synchronizes data during the manual failover. Option B is incorrect because Azure SQL Database does not support automatic failback; you must manually fail over. Option C is incorrect because restoring from geo-redundant backup would result in data loss and is not necessary. Option D is incorrect because deleting and recreating the failover group could cause data loss and is not the recommended procedure.

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 11

You are designing a disaster recovery solution for a mission-critical Azure SQL Database that requires a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 5 seconds and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 30 seconds. Which configuration should you recommend?

Accepted Answer

Failover group with automatic failover and data loss threshold of 5 seconds.. Failover groups with automatic failover policy can achieve an RPO of 5 seconds (when the data loss threshold is set to 5 seconds) and an RTO of approximately 30 seconds. Active geo-replication (Option B) requires manual failover, which cannot meet the 30-second RTO. Geo-restore (Option C) has an RPO of 1 hour and RTO of 12 hours. Zone-redundant databases (Option D) only protect against within-region failures, not region-level disasters.

Answer

Active geo-replication with manual failover.

Answer

Geo-restore of automated backups.

Answer

Zone-redundant database in the primary region.

Question 12

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.. The failover group listener provides a read-write listener endpoint that automatically points to the current primary. Option B is wrong because a Traffic Manager profile would require manual intervention. Option C is wrong because an Application Gateway does not provide automatic failover redirection. Option D is wrong because a load balancer does not handle failover group redirection.

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 13

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.. Geo-replication replicates changes that may include the corruption; you cannot revert to a point before corruption without a backup. Option A is wrong because failover would bring the corrupted data to the secondary. Option B is wrong because geo-replication replicates the corruption. Option C is wrong because point-in-time restore to a time before corruption is the correct approach.

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 14

You are designing a high availability solution for an Azure SQL Database that supports an online transaction processing (OLTP) workload. The database must be available with an SLA of 99.995% and must withstand a regional outage. Which configuration should you choose?

Accepted Answer

Business Critical tier with zone-redundancy and a failover group with geo-replication.. The Business Critical tier with zone redundancy provides a 99.995% SLA within a region. However, to withstand a regional outage, you need geo-replication. A failover group with active geo-replication ensures that if the primary region fails, you can fail over to a secondary region. Option A (Business Critical zone-redundancy only) protects against zone failures within a region but not a full regional outage. Option B (General Purpose with active geo-replication) has a lower SLA (99.99%) and does not meet the 99.995% requirement. Option C (Hyperscale with geo-replication) also has a lower SLA (99.95%) than required.

Answer

Business Critical tier with zone-redundancy only.

Answer

General Purpose tier with active geo-replication to a secondary region.

Answer

Hyperscale tier with geo-replication.

Question 15

You have an Azure SQL Managed Instance that is the primary in a failover group. You need to perform a manual failover for planned maintenance with zero data loss. Which PowerShell cmdlet should you use?

Accepted Answer

Switch-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup -AllowDataLoss:$false. Switch-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup with -AllowDataLoss:$false performs a manual failover with zero data loss for planned maintenance. Option A is wrong because Set-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup modifies configuration, not failover. Option C is wrong because Start-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup does not exist. Option D is wrong because Invoke-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup does not exist.

Answer

Set-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup

Answer

Start-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup

Answer

Invoke-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup