The correct answer is to enable Active Geo-Replication with a readable secondary in West US. This deployment option meets the requirements for automatic failover disaster recovery for Azure SQL Database because it uses asynchronous replication to a paired region, ensuring minimal data loss—typically only seconds of lag—during a regional outage. On the Microsoft Azure Database Administrator Associate DP-300 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of high-availability versus disaster recovery solutions; a common trap is confusing failover groups (which offer automatic failover but require a secondary in the same region for synchronous commit) with Active Geo-Replication’s cross-region capability. Remember that for automatic failover with minimal data loss across regions, you need Active Geo-Replication combined with a failover group policy. A helpful memory tip: “Geo for geo-disaster, group for automatic switch.”
DP-300 Plan and implement data platform resources Practice Question
This DP-300 practice question tests your understanding of plan and implement data platform resources. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
You are designing a disaster recovery strategy for an Azure SQL Database that supports a critical OLTP application. The database is currently deployed in the East US region. You need to ensure that failover occurs automatically with minimal data loss in the event of a regional outage. Which deployment option should you recommend?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Enable Active Geo-Replication with a readable secondary in West US.
Active Geo-Replication with a readable secondary in West US provides automatic, asynchronous replication of transactions to a secondary database in a paired region. In the event of a regional outage, you can initiate a manual or automated failover to the secondary with minimal data loss, as replication lag is typically seconds. This option meets the requirement for automatic failover and minimal data loss, whereas other options either lack automatic failover or introduce significant data loss.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✓
Enable Active Geo-Replication with a readable secondary in West US.
Why this is correct
Active Geo-Replication provides automatic failover with minimal data loss when used with failover groups.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Configure auto-failover groups between East US and West US.
Why it's wrong here
Auto-failover groups are a configuration, not a deployment option; the underlying technology is Active Geo-Replication.
✗
Deploy a failover group with manual failover.
Why it's wrong here
Manual failover does not meet the requirement for automatic failover.
✗
Use geo-restore to recover the database in West US.
Why it's wrong here
Geo-restore is a manual recovery process and does not provide automatic failover.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse auto-failover groups (which require manual failover for cross-region scenarios) with Active Geo-Replication's automatic failover capability, or they mistakenly believe geo-restore provides minimal data loss when it actually has a 1-hour RPO.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Active Geo-Replication uses asynchronous replication with a configurable replication lag target (typically 5-30 seconds), and the readable secondary can be used for read-only queries to offload reporting workloads. Under the hood, each transaction log record is replicated to the secondary database, and failover can be initiated with a single command or via an auto-failover group, but the key is that the secondary is always online and ready, minimizing RTO to under 1 minute in most cases. In a real-world scenario, if the East US region experiences a full outage, you can failover to the West US secondary with only the last few seconds of transactions lost, which is critical for an OLTP application requiring high availability.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this DP-300 question in full detail.
Plan and implement data platform resources — This question tests Plan and implement data platform resources — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Enable Active Geo-Replication with a readable secondary in West US. — Active Geo-Replication with a readable secondary in West US provides automatic, asynchronous replication of transactions to a secondary database in a paired region. In the event of a regional outage, you can initiate a manual or automated failover to the secondary with minimal data loss, as replication lag is typically seconds. This option meets the requirement for automatic failover and minimal data loss, whereas other options either lack automatic failover or introduce significant data loss.
What should I do if I get this DP-300 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
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These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. You are designing a disaster recovery strategy for an Azure SQL Database that uses the Business Critical tier. The primary region is East US, and you need to ensure automatic failover with zero data loss in case of a regional outage. The secondary region must be West US. You also need to minimize latency for read-only workloads in the secondary region. What should you implement?
hard
✓ A.Create a failover group with the primary in East US and a readable secondary in West US.
B.Create a failover group with the primary in East US and a non-readable secondary in West US using Basic tier.
C.Configure active geo-replication with a readable secondary in West US.
D.Configure active geo-replication with a readable secondary in West US using Standard tier.
Why A: A failover group with a readable secondary in the Business Critical tier provides automatic failover with zero data loss because it uses synchronous replication. The readable secondary in West US minimizes latency for read-only workloads by allowing direct connections to the secondary replica. This meets all requirements: automatic failover, zero data loss, and low-latency reads in the secondary region.
Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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