- A
Use recovery plans with virtual machine group ordering and failover network settings to assign static IPs.
Recovery plans allow you to create groups of VMs and specify the order of failover. Failover network settings enable you to assign static IP addresses to the recovered VMs. Test failover is supported for drills.
- B
Use failover settings with retention IP and test failover.
Why wrong: While test failover is supported, failover settings alone do not allow ordering of VM failover. VM group ordering is required for multi-tier applications.
- C
Use recovery plans with custom scripts for ordering and Azure Traffic Manager for IP retention.
Why wrong: Custom scripts are an alternative for ordering but are more complex than using VM groups. Azure Traffic Manager is not needed for IP retention; failover network settings can assign static IPs.
- D
Use Azure Site Recovery with Application Consistent Snapshots and ignore IP retention.
Why wrong: Application-consistent snapshots help with RPO but do not address ordering or IP retention. Ignoring IP retention would cause DNS propagation delays, which the company wants to avoid.
AZ-305 Design business continuity solutions Practice Question
This AZ-305 practice question tests your understanding of design business continuity solutions. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 mission-critical application on Azure VMs in West US. They need a disaster recovery plan with an RPO of 5 minutes and an RTO of 30 minutes. The application consists of multiple VMs that must be recovered in a specific order: the database VM first, then the front-end VMs. They also need to ensure that after failover, the IP addresses of the VMs are retained to avoid DNS propagation delays. The company wants to test the recovery process periodically without affecting production. Which Azure Site Recovery features should they use?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue:
"first"Why it matters: Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.
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 recovery plans with virtual machine group ordering and failover network settings to assign static IPs.
Option A is correct because Azure Site Recovery recovery plans allow you to define the order of VM recovery using groups, and you can assign static IP addresses via failover network settings to retain IPs after failover. This meets the RPO of 5 minutes (via continuous replication) and RTO of 30 minutes (via orchestrated failover), while test failover can be performed without impacting production.
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.
- ✓
Use recovery plans with virtual machine group ordering and failover network settings to assign static IPs.
Why this is correct
Recovery plans allow you to create groups of VMs and specify the order of failover. Failover network settings enable you to assign static IP addresses to the recovered VMs. Test failover is supported for drills.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "first" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use failover settings with retention IP and test failover.
Why it's wrong here
While test failover is supported, failover settings alone do not allow ordering of VM failover. VM group ordering is required for multi-tier applications.
- ✗
Use recovery plans with custom scripts for ordering and Azure Traffic Manager for IP retention.
- ✗
Use Azure Site Recovery with Application Consistent Snapshots and ignore IP retention.
Why it's wrong here
Application-consistent snapshots help with RPO but do not address ordering or IP retention. Ignoring IP retention would cause DNS propagation delays, which the company wants to avoid.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Azure Traffic Manager (a DNS-based traffic routing service) with Site Recovery's built-in IP retention capabilities, or they assume that 'retention IP' is a standalone feature rather than a configuration within failover network settings.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure Site Recovery recovery plans use groups (Group 1, Group 2, etc.) to enforce startup order, and you can assign static private IP addresses to each VM in the failover network settings under 'Compute and Network' properties. During test failover, a separate isolated network is used, ensuring production is unaffected, while the actual failover retains the specified IPs. The RPO of 5 minutes is achieved by enabling replication with a frequency of 30 seconds to 5 minutes, depending on the replication policy.
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
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
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: Use recovery plans with virtual machine group ordering and failover network settings to assign static IPs. — Option A is correct because Azure Site Recovery recovery plans allow you to define the order of VM recovery using groups, and you can assign static IP addresses via failover network settings to retain IPs after failover. This meets the RPO of 5 minutes (via continuous replication) and RTO of 30 minutes (via orchestrated failover), while test failover can be performed without impacting production.
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "first". Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
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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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