- A
Azure Site Recovery and Azure Traffic Manager
Azure Site Recovery handles VM replication with the required RPO/RTO and supports non-disruptive test failovers. Azure Traffic Manager can automatically route user traffic to the secondary region after failover by using endpoint monitoring and failover priority.
- B
Azure Backup and Azure Traffic Manager
Why wrong: Azure Backup provides backup and restore but does not meet the RPO/RTO for replication and does not support automated failover or test failovers.
- C
Azure Site Recovery and Azure Front Door
Why wrong: Azure Front Door is a global load balancer with advanced routing features, but Azure Traffic Manager is more commonly used for regional failover with Site Recovery. Front Door also works but Traffic Manager is the simpler choice for this scenario.
- D
Azure Backup and Azure Front Door
Why wrong: Azure Backup does not provide the required replication capabilities, and Azure Front Door alone cannot replicate VMs.
Quick Answer
The answer is Azure Site Recovery combined with Azure Traffic Manager. Azure Site Recovery handles the continuous replication of Azure VMs from West US to East US, meeting the 30-minute RPO and 1-hour RTO, while also supporting quarterly disaster recovery drills through its test failover feature that runs in an isolated network without impacting production. Azure Traffic Manager then automatically updates DNS-based routing to direct user traffic to the East US region upon failover, fulfilling the requirement for automated failover routing without manual intervention. On the AZ-305 exam, this pairing tests your understanding of how to architect a complete disaster recovery solution that integrates replication, recovery objectives, and traffic management—a common trap is choosing Azure Front Door or Load Balancer, but Traffic Manager is the correct DNS-level service for region-level failover routing. A helpful memory tip: think of Site Recovery as the "replicator" and Traffic Manager as the "redirector"—together they handle the data and the traffic.
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 runs a critical web application on Azure VMs in the West US region. They need a disaster recovery solution that replicates the VMs to the East US region. The recovery point objective (RPO) must be 30 minutes, and the recovery time objective (RTO) must be 1 hour. The company also needs to perform quarterly disaster recovery drills without impacting the production environment. Additionally, after a failover, the solution must automatically update traffic management to route users to the East US region. Which combination of Azure services 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 and Azure Traffic Manager
Azure Site Recovery (ASR) orchestrates replication, failover, and failback of Azure VMs from West US to East US, meeting the 30-minute RPO and 1-hour RTO. Azure Traffic Manager automatically updates DNS-based traffic routing to the East US region after failover, ensuring users are redirected without manual intervention. This combination satisfies all requirements: DR replication, RPO/RTO, quarterly drills (via test failover), and automated traffic management.
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 and Azure Traffic Manager
Why this is correct
Azure Site Recovery handles VM replication with the required RPO/RTO and supports non-disruptive test failovers. Azure Traffic Manager can automatically route user traffic to the secondary region after failover by using endpoint monitoring and failover priority.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Azure Backup and Azure Traffic Manager
Why it's wrong here
Azure Backup provides backup and restore but does not meet the RPO/RTO for replication and does not support automated failover or test failovers.
- ✗
Azure Site Recovery and Azure Front Door
Why it's wrong here
Azure Front Door is a global load balancer with advanced routing features, but Azure Traffic Manager is more commonly used for regional failover with Site Recovery. Front Door also works but Traffic Manager is the simpler choice for this scenario.
- ✗
Azure Backup and Azure Front Door
Why it's wrong here
Azure Backup does not provide the required replication capabilities, and Azure Front Door alone cannot replicate VMs.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse Azure Front Door with Traffic Manager, assuming Front Door's global routing automatically handles failover, but Front Door requires manual DNS or backend pool updates, whereas Traffic Manager integrates natively with ASR recovery plans for automated DNS failover.
Trap categories for this question
Scenario analysis trap
Azure Front Door is a global load balancer with advanced routing features, but Azure Traffic Manager is more commonly used for regional failover with Site Recovery. Front Door also works but Traffic Manager is the simpler choice for this scenario.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure Site Recovery replicates VMs using continuous replication with crash-consistent or app-consistent snapshots, achieving RPO as low as 30 seconds; for a 30-minute RPO, you can configure app-consistent snapshots every 30 minutes. Traffic Manager uses DNS-based traffic routing with priority or weighted endpoints; after a failover, you can automate endpoint priority changes via Azure Automation runbooks or ASR recovery plans, which update the Traffic Manager profile to direct traffic to the secondary region. Quarterly drills are performed using ASR's test failover feature, which creates isolated copies of VMs in the target region without impacting production.
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
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.
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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 and Azure Traffic Manager — Azure Site Recovery (ASR) orchestrates replication, failover, and failback of Azure VMs from West US to East US, meeting the 30-minute RPO and 1-hour RTO. Azure Traffic Manager automatically updates DNS-based traffic routing to the East US region after failover, ensuring users are redirected without manual intervention. This combination satisfies all requirements: DR replication, RPO/RTO, quarterly drills (via test failover), and automated traffic management.
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
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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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