AZ-305 Design business continuity solutions Practice Question
A company runs SQL Server on an Azure virtual machine. They need to automate database backups with application-consistency and retain backups for 10 years to meet compliance. They also want to restore to any point in time within the last 35 days. Which Azure Backup solution should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse Azure Backup for Azure VM (which provides crash-consistent backups) with Azure Backup for SQL Server in Azure VM (which provides application-consistent backups with PITR), leading them to choose Option B for simplicity, but only Option A meets the specific SQL Server backup and compliance requirements.
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 VM
Azure Backup for SQL Server in Azure VM (Option A) is correct because it provides native application-consistent backups for SQL Server databases running on Azure VMs, supports long-term retention (LTR) up to 10 years using the backup vault's retention rules, and enables point-in-time restore (PITR) for the last 35 days by leveraging SQL Server transaction log backups. This solution is specifically designed for SQL Server workloads and meets both compliance and recovery requirements without additional infrastructure.
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 SQL Server in Azure VM
Why this is correct
Azure Backup for SQL Server in Azure VM is the correct choice because it natively integrates with SQL Server's I/O and VSS to produce application-consistent backups that preserve transactional integrity. It supports full, differential, and transaction-log backups, enabling point-in-time database restoration, and offers centralized policy management with configurable long-term retention (up to 10 years) and geo-redundant storage options.
- ✗
Azure Backup for Azure VM
Why it's wrong here
Azure Backup for Azure VM provides server-level snapshots using the VM's file-system and crash consistency, not SQL Server application consistency. While a VSS snapshot for a SQL VM may be file-consistent, it does not coordinate with the databases' transaction logs to guarantee a restorable database state, so it cannot reliably support point-in-time recovery or individual database restores.
- ✗
Azure Site Recovery
Why it's wrong here
Azure Site Recovery is a disaster recovery service that continuously replicates an entire VM or workload to a secondary Azure region for orchestrated failover and fallback during outages. It maintains a rolling, ephemeral set of recovery points for achieving RPO/RTO targets, but it is not a backup solution, does not offer long-term retention, and cannot perform granular item-level restores of a SQL database.
- ✗
SQL Server Always On Availability Groups
Why it's wrong here
SQL Server Always On Availability Groups is an availability and disaster recovery feature that creates one or more readable secondary replicas of a database with synchronous or asynchronous data movement. It provides high availability, automatic failover, and read-scale capabilities, but it is not a backup mechanism—it does not create backup files, manage retention policies, or support point-in-time restore; backups must still be taken separately using a database-aware backup tool.
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