- A
Use Azure Premium SSD v2 managed disks in a storage pool with mirroring across multiple disks.
Premium SSD v2 provides high IOPS and throughput, and multiple disks can be pooled in the OS (e.g., Storage Spaces) to increase capacity and performance. The VM should be in an availability set to meet the SLA.
- B
Use Azure Ultra Disk storage attached to the VM.
Why wrong: Ultra Disk provides extremely high performance but is significantly more expensive than Premium SSD v2. It may be unnecessary for the stated requirement for many transaction-intensive workloads.
- C
Deploy the SQL Server on an availability set and use Storage Spaces Direct with multiple disks.
Why wrong: Storage Spaces Direct is a feature for building clustered storage across multiple nodes, not for a single VM. It would require additional VMs and complexity.
- D
Enable Azure SQL Managed Instance with auto-failover groups.
Why wrong: This migrates the database to a PaaS service, which is a significant change and may not be desired. It also does not directly address increasing storage capacity on the current VM.
Quick Answer
The correct choice is to use Azure Premium SSD v2 managed disks in a storage pool with mirroring across multiple disks. This configuration directly addresses the need for high I/O and availability with storage pool aggregation, as Premium SSD v2 offers sub-millisecond latency and allows you to scale IOPS and throughput independently of disk size—critical for transaction-intensive SQL Server workloads. Mirroring within the storage pool provides redundancy within a single datacenter, which, when combined with an availability set, meets the 99.99% SLA requirement. On the AZ-305 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how to decouple performance from capacity and how to architect for both high throughput and local high availability without relying on zone-redundant storage. A common trap is choosing a single large Premium SSD v2 disk, which lacks redundancy, or opting for Ultra Disk, which is overkill for most SQL Server workloads. Memory tip: think “Mirror for the SLA, v2 for the I/O.”
AZ-305 Design data storage solutions Practice Question
This AZ-305 practice question tests your understanding of design data storage 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. A key principle to apply: premium SSD v2 offers high performance with flexible scaling of IOPS/throughput.. 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 SQL Server database on an Azure virtual machine in a single region. They need to increase storage capacity and improve I/O performance for their transaction-intensive workload. They also want to ensure high availability within the same datacenter (99.99% SLA). What should they do?
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
Use Azure Premium SSD v2 managed disks in a storage pool with mirroring across multiple disks.
Azure Premium SSD v2 managed disks offer the highest I/O performance for transaction-intensive workloads, with sub-millisecond latency and the ability to scale IOPS and throughput independently of disk size. By configuring a storage pool with mirroring across multiple Premium SSD v2 disks, you can aggregate capacity and I/O while providing redundancy within a single datacenter, which supports the 99.99% SLA for the VM when combined with an availability set or proximity placement group.
Key principle: Premium SSD v2 offers high performance with flexible scaling of IOPS/throughput.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use Azure Premium SSD v2 managed disks in a storage pool with mirroring across multiple disks.
Why this is correct
Premium SSD v2 provides high IOPS and throughput, and multiple disks can be pooled in the OS (e.g., Storage Spaces) to increase capacity and performance. The VM should be in an availability set to meet the SLA.
Related concept
Premium SSD v2 offers high performance with flexible scaling of IOPS/throughput.
- ✗
Use Azure Ultra Disk storage attached to the VM.
Why it's wrong here
Ultra Disk provides extremely high performance but is significantly more expensive than Premium SSD v2. It may be unnecessary for the stated requirement for many transaction-intensive workloads.
- ✗
Deploy the SQL Server on an availability set and use Storage Spaces Direct with multiple disks.
Why it's wrong here
Storage Spaces Direct is a feature for building clustered storage across multiple nodes, not for a single VM. It would require additional VMs and complexity.
- ✗
Enable Azure SQL Managed Instance with auto-failover groups.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Azure Ultra Disk as the best performance option, but it lacks the ability to pool multiple disks for capacity and I/O aggregation, making Premium SSD v2 with storage pool mirroring the correct choice for both performance and high availability within a single datacenter.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Premium SSD v2 disks support up to 80,000 IOPS and 1,200 MB/s throughput per disk, and when combined in a storage pool using Windows Storage Spaces with mirroring, the effective IOPS and throughput scale linearly with the number of disks (up to the VM's I/O limits). The mirroring layout (e.g., two-way or three-way) ensures data redundancy within the same datacenter, which is critical for achieving the 99.99% SLA for the VM itself, as the SLA covers connectivity but not data durability without redundancy.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Premium SSD v2 offers high performance with flexible scaling of IOPS/throughput.
- Multiple Premium SSD v2 disks can be pooled for combined capacity and performance.
- OS-level storage pooling (e.g., Storage Spaces) can provide mirroring for data redundancy.
- Premium SSD v2 is a cost-effective choice for I/O-intensive IaaS workloads.
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
Premium SSD v2 offers high performance with flexible scaling of IOPS/throughput.
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.
Review premium SSD v2 offers high performance with flexible scaling of IOPS/throughput., then practise related AZ-305 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.
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Design data storage solutions practice questions
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this AZ-305 question test?
Design data storage solutions — This question tests Design data storage solutions — Premium SSD v2 offers high performance with flexible scaling of IOPS/throughput..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use Azure Premium SSD v2 managed disks in a storage pool with mirroring across multiple disks. — Azure Premium SSD v2 managed disks offer the highest I/O performance for transaction-intensive workloads, with sub-millisecond latency and the ability to scale IOPS and throughput independently of disk size. By configuring a storage pool with mirroring across multiple Premium SSD v2 disks, you can aggregate capacity and I/O while providing redundancy within a single datacenter, which supports the 99.99% SLA for the VM when combined with an availability set or proximity placement group.
What should I do if I get this AZ-305 question wrong?
Review premium SSD v2 offers high performance with flexible scaling of IOPS/throughput., then practise related AZ-305 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Premium SSD v2 offers high performance with flexible scaling of IOPS/throughput.
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 →
Same concept, more angles
1 more ways this is tested on AZ-305
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company runs a SQL Server database on an Azure virtual machine. They need to increase the storage capacity and improve I/O performance for their transaction log. The current data disk is a standard HDD. They want to achieve higher IOPS and throughput without increasing the size of the VM (the VM size supports up to 8 data disks). The database workload is write-intensive on the transaction log. Which configuration should they implement?
medium- A.Add additional standard HDD disks and configure a storage pool with simple (striping) layout
- ✓ B.Replace the standard HDD disk with a premium SSD disk for the log drive
- C.Add a premium SSD disk and configure a storage space with mirroring for the log drive
- D.Use Azure Disk Encryption to improve performance
Why B: Option B is correct because replacing the standard HDD with a premium SSD directly addresses the need for higher IOPS and throughput for a write-intensive transaction log. Premium SSDs provide consistent low-latency performance and significantly higher IOPS/throughput compared to standard HDDs, without requiring a VM size change. Since the VM supports up to 8 data disks, a single premium SSD can meet the performance requirements more effectively than adding more HDDs.
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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.
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