- A
Create a recovery plan with custom groups and scripts for startup order, and use test failover for DR drills
Recovery Plans enforce order via scripts; test failover provides an isolated drill environment.
- B
Use Azure Backup for the VMs and restore them in order after failover
Why wrong: Azure Backup is for scheduled backups, not real-time replication and orchestrated failover. DR drills would not be non-disruptive.
- C
Use an availability set to control startup order and use disaster recovery drills in a separate VNet
Why wrong: Availability sets affect placement within a datacenter, not startup order. Drills would require separate infrastructure.
- D
Use Azure Traffic Manager to route traffic after failover and manually start VMs in order
Why wrong: Traffic Manager handles DNS load balancing, not VM startup order or DR orchestration. Manual startup would not meet automation needs.
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 multi-tier application on Azure VMs in the West US region. The application has web, application, and database tiers. They want to use Azure Site Recovery for disaster recovery to East US. They need to ensure that after failover, the web tier starts first, then the application tier, and finally the database tier after a consistency check. They also need to be able to perform non-disruptive DR drills. Which Azure Site Recovery capabilities should they use together?
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
Create a recovery plan with custom groups and scripts for startup order, and use test failover for DR drills
Azure Site Recovery (ASR) recovery plans allow you to define custom groups and scripts to control the startup order of VMs after failover. By placing the web, application, and database tiers into separate groups with pre- and post-actions (e.g., PowerShell scripts), you can ensure the web tier starts first, then the application tier, and finally the database tier after a consistency check. ASR's test failover capability performs a non-disruptive DR drill by creating isolated copies of VMs in a separate VNet without impacting the production environment.
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.
- ✓
Create a recovery plan with custom groups and scripts for startup order, and use test failover for DR drills
Why this is correct
Recovery Plans enforce order via scripts; test failover provides an isolated drill environment.
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 Azure Backup for the VMs and restore them in order after failover
Why it's wrong here
Azure Backup is for scheduled backups, not real-time replication and orchestrated failover. DR drills would not be non-disruptive.
- ✗
Use an availability set to control startup order and use disaster recovery drills in a separate VNet
Why it's wrong here
Availability sets affect placement within a datacenter, not startup order. Drills would require separate infrastructure.
- ✗
Use Azure Traffic Manager to route traffic after failover and manually start VMs in order
Why it's wrong here
Traffic Manager handles DNS load balancing, not VM startup order or DR orchestration. Manual startup would not meet automation needs.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may confuse Azure Backup's restore capabilities with ASR's orchestrated failover, or assume that availability sets or Traffic Manager can control startup sequencing, when only ASR recovery plans with custom groups and scripts provide the required ordered startup and non-disruptive DR drill functionality.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
ASR recovery plans execute groups sequentially, with each group completing its startup (or script actions) before the next group begins. You can embed custom PowerShell scripts or Azure Automation runbooks in recovery plan groups to perform tasks like running a database consistency check (e.g., DBCC CHECKDB for SQL Server) before starting the database tier. Test failover creates a full copy of the replicated VMs in an isolated network, allowing validation of the entire recovery plan without affecting production traffic or incurring downtime.
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.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
- →
Design business continuity solutions — study guide chapter
Learn the concepts, then practise the questions
- →
Design business continuity solutions practice questions
Targeted practice on this topic area only
- →
All AZ-305 questions
999 questions across all exam domains
- →
Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert AZ-305 study guide
Full concept coverage aligned to exam objectives
- →
AZ-305 practice test guide
How to use practice tests most effectively before exam day
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.
Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions practice questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions.
Design data storage solutions practice questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to Design data storage solutions.
Design business continuity solutions practice questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to Design business continuity solutions.
Design infrastructure solutions practice questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to Design infrastructure solutions.
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.
Practice this exam
Start a free AZ-305 practice session
Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.
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: Create a recovery plan with custom groups and scripts for startup order, and use test failover for DR drills — Azure Site Recovery (ASR) recovery plans allow you to define custom groups and scripts to control the startup order of VMs after failover. By placing the web, application, and database tiers into separate groups with pre- and post-actions (e.g., PowerShell scripts), you can ensure the web tier starts first, then the application tier, and finally the database tier after a consistency check. ASR's test failover capability performs a non-disruptive DR drill by creating isolated copies of VMs in a separate VNet without impacting the production environment.
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
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.