Match each Azure migration tool to its use case.
Drag a concept onto its matching description — or click a concept then click the description.
Centralized hub for discovery, assessment, and migration
Migrate databases to Azure with minimal downtime
Physical device for offline data transfer
Replicate and migrate on-premises VMs to Azure
Ship hard drives to transfer large data volumes
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Azure Migrate: Assess and migrate on-premises servers to Azure.
Azure Migrate is for server assessment/migration, Azure Site Recovery for disaster recovery, and Azure Database Migration Service for database migrations. Common confusions involve swapping these use cases.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Azure Migrate: Assess and migrate on-premises servers to Azure.
Why this is correct
Azure Migrate is the Microsoft tool purpose-built for cloud readiness and migration of on-premises workloads to Azure. It provides a centralized hub for discovery, assessment, dependency analysis, and actual migration of VMware/Hyper-V VMs and physical servers, using both agent-based and agentless methods. Its 'Server Assessment' tab analyzes readiness, sizing, and cost estimates, while 'Server Migration' offers lift-and-shift replication to Azure VMs.
Azure Migrate: Automate disaster recovery and failover.
Why it's wrong here
Azure Migrate does not provide disaster recovery automation because it is a migration and assessment service, not a replication and failover orchestration engine. Disaster recovery requires continuous replication of source machines, automated failover, failback, and recovery plan scripting, which are functions of Azure Site Recovery. Although Azure Migrate performs an initial replication to move workloads, it lacks ongoing replication health monitoring and coordinated failover procedures.
Azure Site Recovery: Automate disaster recovery and failover.
Why this is correct
Azure Site Recovery automates disaster recovery and failover by continuously replicating on-premises VMs and physical servers to Azure, or between Azure regions, using a recovery services vault. It enables you to define recovery plans that orchestrate failover of multi-tier workloads, run non-disruptive disaster recovery drills, and automate failback after recovery. This service is fundamentally about 'protecting' workloads against outages, not about assessing or migrating servers to Azure for ongoing operations.
Azure Site Recovery: Assess and migrate on-premises servers to Azure.
Why it's wrong here
Azure Site Recovery is not used to assess and migrate on-premises servers to Azure because its architecture is built around replication and failover, not discovery, assessment, or workload relocation. It requires that target resources and source machines are set up for continuous data replication, which is unnecessary for a one-time migration. Migration scenarios—especially initial discovery, cost planning, and dependency mapping—are specifically handled by Azure Migrate's assessment and migration tools and are outside Site Recovery's feature set.
Azure Database Migration Service: Migrate databases with minimal downtime.
Why this is correct
Azure Database Migration Service (DMS) supports online database migrations with minimal downtime by using continuous data sync after an initial baseline replication, so applications can keep running throughout the cutover. It covers modern migrations for SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Azure SQL targets, and includes pre-migration assessments to identify compatibility blockers and recommendation for SKUs. The 'online' migration mode is what differentiates DMS from traditional bulk-copy approaches, as it tracks changes and lets you schedule a brief cutover window rather than a full outage.
Azure Database Migration Service: Transfer large amounts of data via physical device.
Why it's wrong here
Transferring large amounts of data via a physical device is the role of Azure Data Box, which ships a ruggedized appliance for offline bulk transfer when network upload is impractical or too slow. The Azure Database Migration Service operates entirely over the network, using the Azure Data Factory pipeline and a 'hybrid' runtime to stream schema, data, and change logs. Attempting to use DMS for physical media would contradict its online, connected-service design—the service cannot ingest data from a shipped device, and large offline migrations require Data Box or Azure Import/Export.
Go deeper
Learn chapter
Azure Database Migration Service
Key term
Disaster Recovery Design
Disaster Recovery Design is the process of planning and implementing strategies to restore IT systems and data after a catastrophic failure, ensuring business continuity with minimal downtime and data loss.
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.
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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.