How to Configure Azure Backup with Grandfather-Father-Son Retention and Geo-Redundant Storage
A company runs a critical application on Azure VMs. They need a backup strategy that meets the following requirements: - Daily backups retained for 35 days - Weekly backups retained for 12 weeks - Monthly backups retained for 36 months - Yearly backups retained for 10 years - Backups must be stored in a geo-redundant storage account Which THREE items must be configured? (Choose three.)
Quick Answer
The answer is a Recovery Services vault in the same region as the VMs, a grandfather-father-son (GFS) backup policy, and geo-redundant storage (GRS). This combination is correct because the GFS policy allows you to define distinct retention rules for daily (35 days), weekly (12 weeks), monthly (36 months), and yearly (10 years) backups, while the Recovery Services vault must reside in the same Azure region as the protected VMs to ensure proper backup registration and failover. Geo-redundant storage is then configured at the vault level to replicate backup data to a paired region, meeting the durability requirement. On the AZ-305 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of Azure Backup’s retention architecture and the critical distinction that the vault location must match the source VM region—not the paired region, which is a common trap. A useful memory tip: “Same region for the vault, GFS for the schedule, GRS for the safety net.”
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse the need for a Recovery Services vault in the paired region (Option D) with geo-redundant storage, but Azure Backup achieves geo-redundancy by configuring GRS on the vault's storage, not by deploying a second vault.
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
✓
A backup policy with GFS retention
The Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) retention policy in Azure Backup allows you to define multiple retention points for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly backups, exactly matching the requirements. The GFS policy enables you to specify retention durations for each frequency, such as 35 days for daily, 12 weeks for weekly, 36 months for monthly, and 10 years for yearly, which a simple daily policy cannot achieve.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
A simple daily backup policy
Why it's wrong here
Does not support weekly, monthly, yearly retention.
- ✓
A backup policy with GFS retention
Why this is correct
GFS policy can retain daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.
- ✓
Geo-redundant storage (GRS) for the vault
Why this is correct
GRS provides geo-redundancy for backups.
- ✗
A Recovery Services vault in the paired region
Why it's wrong here
Vault must be in the same region as the VMs.
- ✓
A Recovery Services vault in the same region as the VMs
Why this is correct
Vault must be in the same region as the source.
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on AZ-305
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Variation 1. A company runs a critical application on Azure VMs. They want to back up the VMs using Azure Backup. The retention requirements are: daily backups for 35 days, weekly backups for 52 weeks, and yearly backups for 10 years. Which backup policy should they create?
medium- ✓ A.Create a custom backup policy with a daily backup schedule and retention rules for daily (35), weekly (52), and yearly (10 years)
- B.Use the default backup policy provided by Azure Backup
- C.Use Azure Site Recovery (ASR) to replicate the VMs and meet the retention
- D.Use Azure Backup for VMs with instant recovery enabled
Why A: Azure Backup allows you to create a custom backup policy that defines a daily backup schedule and separate retention rules for daily, weekly, and yearly retention points. This directly meets the requirement of 35 days daily, 52 weeks weekly, and 10 years yearly retention, as Azure Backup supports granular retention policies with multiple tiers (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) within a single policy.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.