AZ-305 Design business continuity solutions Practice Question
You are designing a backup strategy for Azure Files shares that contain critical data. The backup must support snapshot-based backups and allow restoration to a specific point in time. The solution must also protect against accidental deletion. What should you use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse Azure File Sync with Azure Backup, or assume that storage replication (GRS) alone provides backup and deletion protection, when in fact Azure Files requires explicit backup configuration and soft delete for those capabilities.
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
✓
Use Azure Backup for Azure Files with soft delete enabled.
Azure Backup for Azure Files provides snapshot-based backups that support point-in-time restoration, and when combined with soft delete, it protects against accidental deletion by retaining deleted data for a configurable retention period (default 14 days). This meets all stated requirements: snapshot backups, point-in-time restore, and deletion protection.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use Azure File Sync with cloud tiering.
Why it's wrong here
Azure File Sync with cloud tiering is a synchronization and caching service, not a backup solution. Cloud tiering only moves cold files from the local server to Azure Files to optimize storage, and any deletion or corruption is replicated across sync endpoints. It does not create point-in-time snapshots or provide restore capabilities, so it cannot serve as a backup strategy.
- ✗
Use Azure Storage account geo-redundant storage (GRS) with versioning.
Why it's wrong here
Geo-redundant storage (GRS) provides asynchronous replication to a secondary region for durability, but it does not offer point-in-time restore or file-level recovery. Also, Azure Files does not support blob versioning; blob versioning is a feature for Azure Blob Storage, not file shares. GRS protects against regional outages but cannot recover from logical corruption or accidental deletion, making it insufficient for backup.
- ✓
Use Azure Backup for Azure Files with soft delete enabled.
Why this is correct
Azure Backup for Azure Files is the correct solution because it provides fully managed, snapshot-based backups with granular recovery points for point-in-time restore. Enabling soft delete ensures that when a file share is deleted, the share and its snapshots are retained for the configured retention period (1 to 365 days), preventing accidental loss and allowing recovery. This combination delivers both backup and accidental-deletion protection.
- ✗
Use Azure Backup for Azure Files without soft delete.
Why it's wrong here
Azure Backup for Azure Files without soft delete exposes you to data loss if the file share is accidentally deleted. Because Azure Backup uses share snapshots that reside in the same storage account, deleting the share without soft delete also deletes those snapshots, eliminating all recovery points. Thus, while backups are taken, they cannot be used to restore a deleted share, making this option incomplete.
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