AZ-305 Design business continuity solutions Practice Question
Your company runs an on-premises application that needs to be failed over to Azure in the event of a disaster. The application uses a SQL Server database and requires an RPO of 15 minutes and an RTO of 1 hour. You plan to use Azure Site Recovery (ASR) for the VMs and Azure SQL Database for the database. Which combination of actions should you take?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates assume ASR can handle both VM and database replication, but ASR does not replicate SQL Server databases in a transactionally consistent manner for Azure SQL Database; a separate database-level solution like failover groups is required.
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 ASR with 15-minute replication for the VMs and configure a failover group for Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication.
It meets both the RPO of 15 minutes and RTO of 1 hour. Azure Site Recovery (ASR) with 15-minute replication ensures VM replication within the RPO, while Azure SQL Database failover groups with active geo-replication provide automatic, continuous data synchronization and a fast, orchestrated failover for the database, achieving the required RTO.
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 ASR with 5-minute replication and configure SQL Server Log Shipping to an Azure VM.
Why it's wrong here
ASR with 5-minute replication provides a low RPO for the VMs, but SQL Server Log Shipping to an Azure VM is not a native Azure SQL Database solution and requires manual failover of the database. Log Shipping only copies transaction log backups and does not synchronize the database continuously, so the failover process involves human intervention, which violates the RTO. Additionally, it introduces an extra SQL Server VM that must be patched, licensed, and managed, contradicting a PaaS-based disaster recovery design.
- ✗
Use ASR with 30-minute replication frequency and backup the SQL Server database every 15 minutes.
Why it's wrong here
ASR's replication frequency can be set to 30 minutes, but this exceeds the required RPO (likely 15 minutes) and would lose up to 30 minutes of transactions. Backing up the SQL Server database every 15 minutes does not improve the recovery point because backups are separate from VM replication and require a restore before the database is available. Neither mechanism provides automated failover, so the RTO of 1 hour would be missed if the restore and DNS update take longer than expected.
- ✓
Use ASR with 15-minute replication for the VMs and configure a failover group for Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication.
Why this is correct
ASR with 15-minute replication meets the RPO for the VMs, replicating the entire virtual machine to the secondary region with near-synchronous frequency. Azure SQL Database failover groups with active geo-replication provide automatic, database-level failover to a readable secondary in the paired region, which meets the RTO without manual intervention. This combination uses each service's native DR capability, ensuring that both the application tier and the database tier can fail over together.
- ✗
Use ASR with 15-minute replication and restore the SQL Server database from backup.
Why it's wrong here
While ASR with 15-minute replication satisfies the RPO for the VMs, restoring the SQL Server database from backup is too slow to meet an RTO of 1 hour. A database restore involves copying backup files, performing recovery, and updating connection strings, which often takes longer than the allowed downtime. Backups also have recovery point gaps between backup intervals, and the restore process is not automated, so it cannot provide the fast, seamless failover that a failover group offers.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Azure Data Factory for Data Integration Design
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
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.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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