A company runs a critical application on Azure VMs in the West US region. They want to protect against a regional disaster by replicating VMs to East US using Azure Site Recovery. They have both managed and unmanaged disks. They need to ensure that after failover, the recovery VMs are automatically placed in a specific availability set to support the application's multi-tier architecture. Additionally, they want to minimize downtime during planned failover. Which configuration should they use?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
Best answer
Configure a recovery plan that includes the VMs and specifies the target availability set and failover order
A recovery plan allows you to group VMs into logical groups, specify the order of failover, and set target settings like availability sets. It also supports automation to minimize downtime during planned failover.
Distractor review
Set the target availability set in each VM's replication settings individually without a recovery plan
While you can configure target availability set per VM in replication settings, this does not provide the orchestration needed to ensure correct boot order or minimize downtime during planned failover. A recovery plan is more effective.
Distractor review
Use Azure Traffic Manager to route traffic to the secondary region after manual failover
Azure Traffic Manager manages traffic distribution, not VM replication or failover configuration. It does not control target availability sets or failover sequencing.
Distractor review
Enable consistency groups across the VMs using a replication policy
Consistency groups (multi-VM consistency) ensure crash-consistent or app-consistent recovery points across VMs, but they do not control target availability sets or failover order.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
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.
- Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
- Underline the problem statement mentally.
- 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.
Related practice questions
Related AZ-305 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
SAA-C03 VPC practice questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC.
SAA-C03 S3 lifecycle policy questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 S3 lifecycle policy questions.
SAA-C03 RDS Multi-AZ questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 RDS Multi-AZ questions.
SAA-C03 IAM policy practice questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 IAM policy.
SAA-C03 Route 53 failover questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 Route 53 failover questions.
SAA-C03 CloudFront practice questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 CloudFront.
SAA-C03 NAT gateway questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 NAT gateway questions.
SAA-C03 VPC endpoint questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC endpoint questions.
SAA-C03 Auto Scaling practice questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 Auto Scaling.
SAA-C03 disaster recovery questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 disaster recovery questions.
SAA-C03 high availability questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 high availability questions.
SAA-C03 cost optimization questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 cost optimization questions.
More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A company is designing hub-and-spoke networking. Spoke VNets must use a central Azure Firewall for outbound internet traffic. Which two configurations are required?
Question 2
A company is designing private access to a PaaS database from workloads in a VNet. The database should not be reachable over its public endpoint. What should be recommended?
Question 3
A data platform must support analytical queries over petabytes of files in a data lake, while preserving hierarchical namespaces and fine-grained ACLs. Which storage service should you design around?
Question 4
A database workload has an RPO of 15 minutes and an RTO of 4 hours. Cost is more important than near-zero data loss. Which design is usually more appropriate than synchronous multi-region replication?
Question 5
A hub-and-spoke Azure network must centralize outbound inspection and still allow spokes to resolve private endpoint DNS names. Which two components are commonly required? (Choose 2.)
Question 6
A multinational company uses Microsoft Entra ID and several Azure subscriptions. Security administrators need to review privileged role assignments every month and require justification for continued access. Which design should be recommended?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this AZ-305 question test?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Configure a recovery plan that includes the VMs and specifies the target availability set and failover order — In Azure Site Recovery, you can specify failover settings including replication policy, recovery plan, and target settings. To place VMs in a specific availability set after failover, you need to configure the target availability set in the replication settings for the VM or in the recovery plan. Additionally, to minimize downtime during planned failover, you should use a planned failover (which stages the failover and orchestrates shutdown) and ensure the recovery plan sequences VM startup. The question asks for a single configuration choice. The best answer is to create a recovery plan that includes the VMs and specifies the target availability set and failover order. Recovery plans allow you to group VMs, set failover order, and customize actions. They also support running scripts before/after failover.
What should I do if I get this AZ-305 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
Discussion
Sign in to join the discussion.