AZ-305 Design business continuity solutions Practice Question
A financial services company runs a critical SQL Server database on Azure Virtual Machines. They require a disaster recovery solution with an RPO of less than 15 seconds and an RTO of less than 1 hour. Which technology should they implement?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse Azure Site Recovery's VM-level replication with database-level replication, assuming it can meet low RPO/RTO for SQL Server, but it cannot achieve sub-15-second RPO because it replicates at the hypervisor level with inherent lag.
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 Groups
SQL Server Always On Availability Groups provide synchronous data replication at the database level, enabling an RPO of less than 15 seconds by committing transactions on both primary and secondary replicas simultaneously. With automatic failover and a secondary replica in a different Azure region, the RTO can be under 1 hour, meeting the critical requirements for a SQL Server workload on Azure VMs.
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 Site Recovery
Why it's wrong here
Azure Site Recovery is incorrect because it performs hypervisor-level VM replication using crash-consistent and app-consistent snapshots, not SQL Server transaction log shipping. Its replication frequency is typically 30 seconds to several minutes, so it cannot meet a sub-15-second RPO, and failover involves booting the VM and recovering SQL Server, which can push RTO beyond one hour. Without native awareness of SQL transaction log LSNs, there is no synchronous commit with the primary database, so this mechanism is unsuitable for the stated DR requirement.
- ✓
SQL Server Always On Availability Groups
Why this is correct
SQL Server Always On Availability Groups is correct because, with synchronous-commit mode, every transaction committed on the primary replica is hardened on a secondary replica before acknowledgment, yielding an RPO of zero. The secondary is kept in a continuously recovered state, and automatic failover with a listener can be completed within seconds to minutes, comfortably satisfying both sub-15-second RPO and sub-1-hour RTO. This is a database-level, application-aware solution that maintains transaction consistency, unlike storage or VM-level alternatives.
- ✗
Azure Backup for SQL Server
Why it's wrong here
Azure Backup for SQL Server is incorrect because it is a backup-based data protection service, not a real-time replication or failover mechanism. It delivers full, differential, and transaction log backups to a Recovery Services vault, with log backups commonly scheduled every 15 minutes or less frequently, meaning the last available recovery point can be minutes old and never sub-15 seconds. Restoring a database from Azure Backup requires transferring backup files and replaying logs, which can easily take more than one hour, so it cannot meet the required RTO or RPO.
- ✗
Geo-redundant backups
Why it's wrong here
Geo-redundant backups are incorrect because they only provide asynchronous, storage-level redundancy of backup files in a paired region, not a continuously synchronized copy of the live SQL Server database. The backup file may be hours old depending on the backup schedule, and geo-replication has asynchronous lag, so the RPO is not sub-15 seconds. In a regional disaster, you must restore the database from those backup files, which involves substantial downtime and does not provide the near-instant RTO required for a critical database.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Designing Azure Storage Solutions
Key term
Azure Site Recovery
Azure Site Recovery is a Microsoft Azure service that keeps your business applications and data running by automatically replicating them to a secondary location and failing over if the primary site goes down.
Key term
BIA and RPO RTO Design
Business Impact Analysis and the design of Recovery Point Objective and Recovery Time Objective define how much data loss and downtime a business can tolerate after an IT failure, guiding the architecture of backup and disaster recovery systems.
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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.