AZ-305 Design business continuity solutions Practice Question
A company runs a critical SQL Server database on an Azure virtual machine. They need a high-availability solution within a single region that provides automatic failover, zero data loss (synchronous replication), and support read-only routing for reporting workloads. Which solution should they implement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse synchronous replication (used in Always On Availability Groups) with asynchronous replication (used in geo-replication), and fail to recognize that read-only routing is a feature exclusive to Availability Groups, not Failover Cluster Instances or geo-replication solutions.
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
✓
SQL Server Always On Availability Group with synchronous replication across availability zones
SQL Server Always On Availability Group with synchronous replication across availability zones meets all requirements: it provides automatic failover, zero data loss through synchronous commit mode, and supports read-only routing by directing reporting workloads to readable secondary replicas. This solution operates within a single Azure region using availability zones for high availability.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
SQL Server Always On Availability Group with synchronous replication across availability zones
Why this is correct
An Always On Availability Group is correct because it replicates the database at the data-page level to a secondary replica using synchronous commit, so every transaction is hardened on both replicas before being acknowledged and automatic failover can occur with zero data loss. Because the secondary replica maintains a separate copy of the database, it can be configured as readable, allowing reporting and backup workloads to be offloaded from the primary. Deployed across availability zones, this protects against complete zone failure while remaining fully compatible with SQL Server on Azure VMs.
- ✗
SQL Server Always On Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) with shared disks
Why it's wrong here
A Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) is a single SQL Server instance running on clustered nodes that share one disk, so there is only ever one copy of the database; failover moves the shared storage from one node to another but does not create a readable secondary copy. Even though FCI provides automatic failover, the lack of an online secondary replica means it cannot satisfy any requirement to offload read-only workloads, and relying on Azure shared disks introduces a storage-level single point of failure.
- ✗
Azure SQL Database Managed Instance with active geo-replication
Why it's wrong here
Azure SQL Managed Instance is a Platform-as-a-Service offering, not a deployment of SQL Server on Azure VMs, so it is not a direct replacement for an existing VM-based environment. Its active geo-replication feature copies data asynchronously to a secondary in another region and requires manual failover or failover groups, and it lacks the ability to manage the underlying OS or run traditional Always On Availability Group listeners, making it architecturally unsuitable for this scenario.
- ✗
Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication
Why it's wrong here
Azure SQL Database's active geo-replication is designed for the single database and elastic pool PaaS offerings, not for SQL Server on Azure VMs. Geo-replication is asynchronous by default, so committed transactions can be lost in a regional outage, which is unacceptable for a critical database that requires synchronous zero-data-loss replication. This option also has no availability-zone-local synchronous replica concept comparable to Always On Availability Groups, and moving to it would require re-platforming rather than maintaining the existing SQL Server VM architecture.
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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.