DP-300 Practice Question: Monitor, configure, and optimize database resources
Which TWO metrics should you monitor in Azure SQL Database to detect a potential memory pressure issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse high CPU or I/O metrics with memory pressure, but CPU and I/O metrics reflect different resource bottlenecks, while PLE and Memory Grants Pending are the direct indicators of memory contention in Azure SQL Database.
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
✓
Page Life Expectancy
Page Life Expectancy (PLE) is a key metric that indicates how long a data page remains in the buffer pool before being evicted. A consistently low PLE (e.g., below 300 seconds) signals that pages are being flushed too quickly due to memory pressure, often from insufficient buffer pool memory. Memory Grants Pending tracks the number of queries waiting for a memory grant to execute; a non-zero value indicates that the server cannot allocate enough memory to satisfy query workspace requirements, directly pointing to memory pressure.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Page Life Expectancy
Why this is correct
Low PLE indicates memory pressure.
- ✓
Memory Grants Pending
Why this is correct
Pending grants indicate memory contention.
- ✗
Average CPU percent
Why it's wrong here
CPU metric, not memory.
- ✗
Log IO
Why it's wrong here
Transaction log metric.
- ✗
Data IO
Why it's wrong here
Disk IO metric.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Overview of Azure Data Platform Options
Key term
Azure SQL Performance Tuning
Azure SQL Performance Tuning is the process of optimizing the speed and efficiency of queries and database operations in Microsoft Azure SQL Database or SQL Managed Instance to reduce latency and improve throughput.
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