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AZ-305 Design business continuity solutions Practice Question

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

{
  "type": "Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/backupFabrics/protectionContainers/protectedItems",
  "apiVersion": "2023-04-01",
  "properties": {
    "policyId": "/subscriptions/.../backupPolicies/ContosoVMBackupPolicy",
    "sourceResourceId": "/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/ProdRG/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/ProdVM01",
    "friendlyName": "ProdVM01",
    "lastBackupStatus": "Failed",
    "lastBackupTime": "2025-03-15T10:30:00Z",
    "protectedItemType": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines",
    "healthStatus": "Warning"
  }
}

Refer to the exhibit. An administrator reviews the backup status of a VM. The last backup failed. What is the most likely cause?

⚠ Common exam trap

Many candidates think a deallocated VM can still be backed up (since it still exists in Azure), but Azure Backup requires the VM to be in a running state to perform a successful backup.

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 VM was deallocated at the time of backup.

When a VM is deallocated (stopped and deallocated in Azure), the Azure Backup service cannot create a VM-consistent snapshot because the VM is not running. Backup attempts for deallocated VMs will fail with an error indicating that the VM is not in a running state. This is a common cause of backup failures in Azure.

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 Recovery Services vault is in a different region.
Why it's wrong here
A Recovery Services vault residing in a different region from the VM is fully supported in Azure Backup. Cross-region backup is handled by the Backup Service, which routes the VM's extension to the vault regardless of location, and cross-region restore is an optional configuration. Region mismatch alone would not produce a failure state for an individual backup job, so it is not the root cause here.
✗
The backup policy does not exist.
Why it's wrong here
The backup policy does exist in this scenario because the JSON payload includes the policyId, and Azure Backup will explicitly throw an error like {"code":"PolicyNotFound","message":"The backup policy is not found"} if the policy were deleted or the ID malformed. Since the exhibit shows a valid policyId referencing the policy, the absence of the policy cannot explain the reported backup failure.
✗
The source resource ID is missing.
Why it's wrong here
The sourceResourceId field is present in the exhibit, and Azure Backup requires it to correctly associate the VM to the backup item. If this field were missing or empty, the job would fail at submission time with a validation error, not during the backup operation. Because the resource ID is populated and the backup job was actually attempted, an omitted sourceResourceId is not the cause.
✓
The VM was deallocated at the time of backup.
Why this is correct
Azure Backup cannot take a snapshot of a VM that is in the Deallocated (stopped) state, because the in-guest backup extension is not running and the VM's disks are not guaranteed to be in a consistent, attached state. When a backup job is initiated for a deallocated VM, the job is marked as failed with a warning, or in some cases it is skipped entirely, without affecting the policy or vault configuration. This is a well-known limitation, and the correct explanation for the failure shown in the exhibit.

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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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