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AZ-305 Design business continuity solutions Practice Question

Exhibit

{
  "properties": {
    "replicationPolicy": {
      "recoveryPointRetentionInMinutes": 1440,
      "applicationConsistentSnapshotFrequencyInMinutes": 60
    },
    "targetRegion": "eastus2",
    "storageAccountType": "Standard_LRS"
  }
}

Refer to the exhibit. An administrator configured Azure Site Recovery replication for a VM using the policy shown. The VM workload is a critical database that requires application-consistent snapshots every 30 minutes to meet compliance. What is the issue with the current configuration?

⚠ Common exam trap

Many exam-takers confuse crash-consistent snapshots (which can be as frequent as every few seconds) with application-consistent snapshots, or assume that retention or storage type is the root cause, when the actual constraint is the snapshot frequency mismatch.

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

✓

The application-consistent snapshot frequency is 60 minutes, which is too high (should be 30 minutes).

The current policy sets the application-consistent snapshot frequency to 60 minutes, but the compliance requirement demands a snapshot every 30 minutes. Application-consistent snapshots are taken by the Azure Site Recovery mobility service using VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service) on Windows, and the frequency is configured in the replication policy. Since the requirement is 30 minutes, the policy must be adjusted to match that interval.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✓
The application-consistent snapshot frequency is 60 minutes, which is too high (should be 30 minutes).
Why this is correct
The Azure Site Recovery replication policy is configured for application-consistent snapshots every 60 minutes. This directly contradicts the compliance requirement for the critical database workload, which mandates application-consistent snapshots every 30 minutes. The policy's application-consistent snapshot frequency setting must be reduced to 30 minutes to meet the specified compliance constraint.
✗
The recovery point retention is set too low (1440 minutes).
Why it's wrong here
The 1440-minute recovery point retention represents the maximum duration that older recovery points are kept, which translates to 24 hours of history. This is considered an acceptable configuration for most compliance policies and is not the reason the requirement is unmet. The critical issue is the frequency at which application-consistent snapshots are generated, not the retention window. Because the database requires snapshots every 30 minutes, the policy's 60-minute snapshot interval is what directly violates the compliance requirement.
✗
The target region eastus2 is not a valid paired region for the source.
Why it's wrong here
Azure Site Recovery does not restrict replication targets to the paired region; any Azure region that supports the same VM and storage types is a valid target, and eastus2 is a supported destination region. Even if a different region were preferred, the regional validity is independent of the snapshot frequency requirement. Therefore, claiming eastus2 is not a valid paired region is factually incorrect and does not address the actual configuration flaw. The actual flaw lies in the replication policy's application-consistent snapshot frequency.
✗
The storage account type is Standard_LRS; it should be Premium_LRS.
Why it's wrong here
The storage account type Standard_LRS is fully supported for Azure Site Recovery replication, and Premium_LRS is only necessary when you need higher IOPS and lower latency for the cache or target storage. Since the compliance policy does not specify a storage tier or performance requirement, using Standard_LRS is not a misconfiguration. The actual non-compliance comes from the application-consistent snapshot frequency set to 60 minutes, not from the redundancy/performance tier of the storage account. Upgrading to Premium_LRS would not change the snapshot interval.

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AZ-305 Design business continuity solutions Practice Question

Exhibit

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

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