- A
Deploy AKS clusters in two regions and use Azure Traffic Manager to route traffic.
Traffic Manager provides DNS-based global load balancing. With AKS clusters in two regions, Traffic Manager can direct users to the healthy region, achieving the required RTO. The database DR is handled separately by active geo-replication.
- B
Deploy a single AKS cluster with pods spread across availability zones within the region.
Why wrong: Availability zones protect against datacenter failure within a region, not against a full region outage. This does not meet the requirement for regional failover.
- C
Use Azure Site Recovery to replicate the AKS cluster to another region.
Why wrong: Azure Site Recovery is designed for IaaS workloads (VMs), not for managed Kubernetes services like AKS. It cannot replicate the AKS control plane or worker nodes effectively.
- D
Back up the AKS cluster configuration and container images to a geo-redundant storage account.
Why wrong: Backup is appropriate for data retention but will not meet the 15-minute RTO for failover. Restoring from backup in a new region would take significantly longer.
Quick Answer
The answer is to deploy AKS clusters in two regions and use Azure Traffic Manager to route traffic. This is correct because the stateless application can be quickly scaled or redeployed in the secondary cluster, while Azure SQL Database active geo-replication handles the database disaster recovery with a 5-second RPO by continuously replicating transactions, and Traffic Manager’s DNS-based routing enables failover within the 15-minute RTO. On the AZ-305 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of pairing stateless compute failover with stateful data replication—a common trap is assuming a single multi-region AKS cluster suffices, but active geo-replication requires a separate secondary SQL endpoint. Remember the key pairing: stateless AKS needs Traffic Manager for traffic steering, while stateful SQL relies on active geo-replication for data continuity. A useful memory tip is “AKS routes, SQL replicates” to distinguish the failover responsibilities.
AZ-305 Design business continuity solutions Practice Question
This AZ-305 practice question tests your understanding of design business continuity solutions. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company runs a critical application on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) in a single region. The application is stateless and uses an Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication for database DR. They need to ensure the AKS cluster can failover to a secondary region with an RTO of 15 minutes and an RPO of 5 seconds for the database. What should they recommend for the AKS cluster?
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
Deploy AKS clusters in two regions and use Azure Traffic Manager to route traffic.
Option A is correct because deploying AKS clusters in two regions with Azure Traffic Manager enables active-passive or active-active failover. Traffic Manager uses DNS-based routing to direct traffic to the secondary region when the primary fails, meeting the RTO of 15 minutes. The stateless application can be redeployed or scaled in the secondary cluster, while the Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication ensures an RPO of 5 seconds by continuously replicating transactions.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Deploy AKS clusters in two regions and use Azure Traffic Manager to route traffic.
Why this is correct
Traffic Manager provides DNS-based global load balancing. With AKS clusters in two regions, Traffic Manager can direct users to the healthy region, achieving the required RTO. The database DR is handled separately by active geo-replication.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Deploy a single AKS cluster with pods spread across availability zones within the region.
Why it's wrong here
Availability zones protect against datacenter failure within a region, not against a full region outage. This does not meet the requirement for regional failover.
- ✗
Use Azure Site Recovery to replicate the AKS cluster to another region.
Why it's wrong here
Azure Site Recovery is designed for IaaS workloads (VMs), not for managed Kubernetes services like AKS. It cannot replicate the AKS control plane or worker nodes effectively.
- ✗
Back up the AKS cluster configuration and container images to a geo-redundant storage account.
Why it's wrong here
Backup is appropriate for data retention but will not meet the 15-minute RTO for failover. Restoring from backup in a new region would take significantly longer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Azure Site Recovery as a solution for AKS DR, but Site Recovery only supports IaaS VMs, not managed Kubernetes services, making multi-region AKS clusters with Traffic Manager the correct approach.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure Traffic Manager uses DNS-based traffic routing with health probes to detect primary region failure and update DNS records, typically within 30 seconds to a few minutes depending on TTL settings. For the database, active geo-replication in Azure SQL Database uses asynchronous replication with a typical RPO of 5 seconds, but in high-load scenarios, replication lag can increase; using the 'Auto-failover groups' feature can automate failover and reduce RTO. The AKS cluster in the secondary region should be pre-provisioned with the same node pool configuration and container images stored in a geo-replicated Azure Container Registry to ensure rapid scaling.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this AZ-305 question test?
Design business continuity solutions — This question tests Design business continuity solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Deploy AKS clusters in two regions and use Azure Traffic Manager to route traffic. — Option A is correct because deploying AKS clusters in two regions with Azure Traffic Manager enables active-passive or active-active failover. Traffic Manager uses DNS-based routing to direct traffic to the secondary region when the primary fails, meeting the RTO of 15 minutes. The stateless application can be redeployed or scaled in the secondary cluster, while the Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication ensures an RPO of 5 seconds by continuously replicating transactions.
What should I do if I get this AZ-305 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This AZ-305 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the AZ-305 exam.
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