AZ-305 Design infrastructure solutions Practice Question
You are designing a backup and disaster recovery strategy for a SQL Server database hosted on an Azure virtual machine. The database is critical and has a recovery point objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a recovery time objective (RTO) of 4 hours. Which TWO services should you include in the solution?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse PaaS services (Azure SQL Database backup and auto-failover groups) with IaaS solutions for SQL Server on Azure VMs, leading candidates to select options that are incompatible with the stated hosting model.
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 Backup
Azure Backup (A) is correct because it provides application-consistent, agent-based backups of SQL Server running on an Azure VM, supporting frequent log backups that can meet a 15-minute RPO and enabling restore within the 4-hour RTO. Azure Site Recovery (D) is correct because it replicates the entire VM (including the SQL Server instance and OS) to a secondary region or target, enabling orchestrated failover and recovery of the virtual machine within the RTO window. Azure SQL Database backup (B) does not apply because the database is hosted on an Azure VM (IaaS), not as an Azure SQL Database (PaaS) service. Azure Files (C) is a managed SMB/NFS file share service and is not a backup or disaster recovery mechanism for a SQL Server VM. Azure SQL Database auto-failover groups (E) are also a PaaS feature for Azure SQL Database/Managed Instance and cannot be used for SQL Server on an Azure VM.
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 Backup
Why this is correct
Azure Backup satisfies the 15-minute RPO by capturing SQL Server transaction log backups every 15 minutes through the workload-aware backup extension, and restores within the 4-hour RTO. It provides the granular, point-in-time recovery the database demands.
- ✗
Azure SQL Database backup
Why it's wrong here
Azure SQL Database backup protects only Azure SQL Database, not SQL Server on an Azure VM. It is tempting because it offers automated backups with point-in-time restore, but the correct services are Azure Backup with the SQL Server extension in a Recovery Services vault, plus Azure Site Recovery or geo-redundant storage.
- ✗
Azure Files
Why it's wrong here
Azure Files provides SMB file shares, not SQL Server backup or VM replication, so it cannot meet the 15-minute RPO. It is tempting as Azure storage for backups, but the correct pairing is Azure Backup with SQL Server in Azure VM, or Azure Site Recovery for VM-level protection.
- ✓
Azure Site Recovery
Why this is correct
Azure Site Recovery replicates the entire VM continuously to a secondary region, enabling recovery of the SQL Server host within the 4-hour RTO during a regional outage. It complements Azure Backup by covering infrastructure-level disaster recovery rather than granular database restore.
- ✗
Azure SQL Database auto-failover groups
Why it's wrong here
Auto-failover groups apply to Azure SQL Database and Managed Instance, not to SQL Server running on a virtual machine, so they cannot protect this workload. It is tempting because they deliver rapid geo-failover, but the stem specifies an IaaS-hosted database requiring VM-level backup and replication.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Designing Governance Solutions
Key term
BIA and RPO RTO Design
Business Impact Analysis and the design of Recovery Point Objective and Recovery Time Objective define how much data loss and downtime a business can tolerate after an IT failure, guiding the architecture of backup and disaster recovery systems.
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.