AZ-305 Design business continuity solutions Practice Question
A company runs several Azure virtual machines (VMs) that host SQL Server databases. The databases are stored on data disks attached to the VMs. The company needs to back up the databases and VMs separately. They require application-consistent backups for SQL Server to ensure transactional integrity. Additionally, they need to retain backups for up to 7 years to meet compliance requirements. The solution must minimize administrative overhead and support long-term retention of database backups. Which Azure service or feature should they use for the database backups?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse 'application-consistent snapshots' at the VM level with true SQL Server–aware database backups, overlooking that VM-level backups do not guarantee SQL Server transactional integrity or support database-level restore and long-term retention policies.
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
✓
Azure Backup for SQL Server in Azure VMs
Azure Backup for SQL Server in Azure VMs is the correct choice because it provides native, application-consistent backups specifically for SQL Server databases running on Azure VMs. It integrates directly with SQL Server VSS writer to ensure transactional integrity, supports long-term retention up to 10 years (exceeding the 7-year requirement), and minimizes administrative overhead by automating backup scheduling, retention management, and point-in-time restore. This service is purpose-built for SQL Server database backups, separate from VM-level backups.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Azure Backup for Azure VMs with application-consistent snapshots
Why it's wrong here
Azure Backup for Azure VMs with application-consistent snapshots uses VSS to capture a crash-consistent or app-consistent image of the entire VM, but it does not understand SQL Server internals. It cannot perform SQL transaction log backups, meaning point-in-time restore down to the exact moment is not possible. Restoring a single SQL database requires restoring the full VM disk or performing file-level recovery, which is inefficient for granular database requirements. Additionally, it lacks SQL-specific long-term retention management, making it unsuitable for a 7-year archival policy for individual databases.
- ✓
Azure Backup for SQL Server in Azure VMs
Why this is correct
Azure Backup for SQL Server in Azure VMs is a SQL-aware backup solution that leverages SQL Server's VDI and VSS integration to deliver true application-consistent backups for each database. It orchestrates full, differential, and transaction log backups, enabling point-in-time restore to any second within the retention window. The service supports granular database-level restore, so you can recover one database without affecting others, and offers retention up to 10 years using the archive tier, comfortably exceeding the 7-year requirement. Its built-in management of backup schedules, retention ranges, and restore operations makes it the only option that fully satisfies the database-specific backup needs.
- ✗
Azure Site Recovery
Why it's wrong here
Azure Site Recovery is primarily a disaster recovery service that replicates Azure VMs to a secondary region to enable failover during a regional outage. It continuously replicates VM disks to meet recovery point and time objectives, but it does not provide backup lifecycle management, such as scheduled backup, long-term retention, or point-in-time restoration for databases. It is not designed for archival purposes—its RPO is typically in minutes, and it retains replicated data for only a short window, making it impossible to meet a 7-year retention requirement. While it can protect against site loss, it cannot serve as a backup solution for SQL Server databases, nor does it provide granular database restore capabilities.
- ✗
Azure Files
Why it's wrong here
Azure Files is a fully managed cloud file share service offering SMB and NFS protocols, but it has no built-in backup engine or SQL Server agent. It simply provides file storage and lacks the orchestration, scheduling, or retention policies required to manage SQL database backups. Even if you manually copy .bak files to an Azure file share, you would need to build and maintain your own backup scripting, monitoring, and lifecycle management, which is error-prone and not a managed backup solution. It does not integrate with SQL Server to perform transaction log backups or point-in-time restore, so it fails entirely as a substitute for a dedicated database backup service.
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