AZ-305 Design business continuity solutions Practice Question
A company backs up their Azure VMs using Azure Backup. They need to meet compliance that requires backups to be stored in a separate geographic region. Additionally, they want to be able to restore the entire VM to that secondary region in case of a regional disaster. What should they configure?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse Azure Site Recovery (continuous replication for DR) with Azure Backup (snapshot-based backup with cross-region restore), leading them to select Option C, which does not meet the backup compliance requirement for stored backups in a separate region.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use a Recovery Services vault with Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS) and enable cross-region restore
Azure Backup with a Recovery Services vault using Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS) replicates backup data to a paired secondary region, meeting the compliance requirement for geographic separation. Enabling cross-region restore allows the entire VM to be restored in that secondary region during a regional disaster, as the backup data is already available there.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use a Recovery Services vault with Locally Redundant Storage (LRS) and enable cross-region restore
Why it's wrong here
Locally redundant storage (LRS) keeps three synchronous copies of data within a single Azure region, but it never replicates to any secondary region. Azure Backup's cross-region restore feature specifically relies on the vault having a geo-redundant copy so that recovery can be performed from the paired region. Therefore, an LRS-based vault cannot support cross-region restore, even if the option is selected, because the secondary region simply contains no data source.
- ✓
Use a Recovery Services vault with Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS) and enable cross-region restore
Why this is correct
A Recovery Services vault configured with geo-redundant storage (GRS) asynchronously replicates the backup data to the Azure paired secondary region, creating the exact copy needed for secondary-region recovery. By then enabling cross-region restore on the vault, Azure Backup exposes the replicated recovery points as native restore items in the secondary region, satisfying both the backup compliance requirement and the need to restore VMs in a different region. This is the only option that provides a fully managed, policy-driven backup while also enabling restore to the secondary region.
- ✗
Use Azure Site Recovery to replicate the entire VM to the secondary region
Why it's wrong here
Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is a disaster-recovery solution designed for continuous replication and rapid failover of running workloads, not for scheduled, point-in-time backups with long-term retention. ASR does not produce the same compliance-friendly backup artifacts as Azure Backup, and it lacks the retention policies and restore points needed to meet the stated backup requirement. While ASR can get workloads running in a secondary region, it does not deliver the backup and compliance functionality the company is specifically required to have.
- ✗
Manually copy backup snapshots to a storage account in the secondary region
Why it's wrong here
Manually copying backup snapshots to a secondary storage account is an unsupported, script-based process that bypasses Azure Backup's lifecycle, so the secondary copy has no native restore item, backup policy, retention schedule, or audit integration. The copied data can become stale, incomplete, or corrupted with no metadata to identify valid recovery points, and the process carries significant operational overhead and error risk. This approach fails both the automation requirement and the compliance requirement, and it does not leverage the built-in, managed replication provided by GRS.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Azure Container Storage
Key term
Data Replication Strategy
A data replication strategy is a plan for copying and synchronizing data across multiple locations to ensure availability, durability, and performance.
Key term
Azure Backup Design
Azure Backup Design is the process of planning and configuring a reliable, cost-effective, and secure backup and recovery solution for workloads hosted in Microsoft Azure.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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