- A
Azure Site Recovery
ASR provides continuous replication for physical servers to Azure, enabling failover and failback with RPO as low as 30 seconds and RTO in hours, meeting the requirements.
- B
Azure Backup (MARS agent)
Why wrong: Azure Backup is designed for backup, not DR. It can take application-consistent backups but does not support rapid failover with an RTO of less than 4 hours. Failover would require restoring from backup, which takes longer.
- C
Azure Migrate
Why wrong: Azure Migrate is for discovering, assessing, and migrating on-premises workloads to Azure. It does not provide ongoing replication or failover capabilities for DR.
- D
Azure File Sync
Why wrong: Azure File Sync syncs on-premises file servers to Azure file shares. It does not replicate entire physical servers or support failover of applications.
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 has an on-premises application running on physical servers with various operating systems. They want to use Azure as a disaster recovery site with an RPO of less than 1 hour and an RTO of less than 4 hours. They need to replicate the servers to Azure and support failover and failback. Which Azure service should they use?
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 Site Recovery
Azure Site Recovery (ASR) orchestrates replication, failover, and failback for physical servers and VMs to Azure, meeting the RPO of <1 hour and RTO of <4 hours. It supports heterogeneous operating systems on physical servers and provides continuous replication with recovery points as low as 30 seconds, enabling both planned and unplanned failover with full failback capability.
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.
- ✓
Azure Site Recovery
Why this is correct
ASR provides continuous replication for physical servers to Azure, enabling failover and failback with RPO as low as 30 seconds and RTO in hours, meeting the requirements.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Azure Backup (MARS agent)
Why it's wrong here
Azure Backup is designed for backup, not DR. It can take application-consistent backups but does not support rapid failover with an RTO of less than 4 hours. Failover would require restoring from backup, which takes longer.
- ✗
Azure Migrate
Why it's wrong here
Azure Migrate is for discovering, assessing, and migrating on-premises workloads to Azure. It does not provide ongoing replication or failover capabilities for DR.
- ✗
Azure File Sync
Why it's wrong here
Azure File Sync syncs on-premises file servers to Azure file shares. It does not replicate entire physical servers or support failover of applications.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse Azure Backup (which provides long-term archival backups) with Azure Site Recovery (which provides near-continuous replication and orchestrated failover), failing to recognize that the RPO and RTO requirements demand a replication-based DR solution, not a backup service.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure Site Recovery uses the Mobility Service agent installed on physical servers to replicate disk changes continuously to a Recovery Services vault in Azure, leveraging change block tracking and compression over HTTPS. During failover, it can create Azure VMs from replicated disks with a recovery point objective (RPO) as low as 30 seconds, and failback requires re-protection and reverse replication to on-premises. In real-world scenarios, ASR supports multi-tier application consistency with app-consistent snapshots using VSS, ensuring database integrity during failover.
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.
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: Azure Site Recovery — Azure Site Recovery (ASR) orchestrates replication, failover, and failback for physical servers and VMs to Azure, meeting the RPO of <1 hour and RTO of <4 hours. It supports heterogeneous operating systems on physical servers and provides continuous replication with recovery points as low as 30 seconds, enabling both planned and unplanned failover with full failback capability.
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.
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.