DP-300 Practice Question: Plan and configure high availability and disaster recovery
Which TWO options are required to configure a SQL Server Always On Availability Group on Azure Virtual Machines?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates think a VPN gateway is required for cross-region AGs, but the question asks for required options to configure the AG, and the ILB and WSFC are the only mandatory components; the VPN gateway is optional and only relevant for specific network topologies.
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
✓
Internal Load Balancer
A is correct because an Internal Load Balancer is required to route traffic to the primary replica in a SQL Server Always On Availability Group (AG) deployed on Azure Virtual Machines. The listener uses the ILB's frontend IP and health probe to direct client connections to the current primary node, as the Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC) does not support the cluster IP address in Azure without a load balancer.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Internal Load Balancer
Why this is correct
Required for the listener.
- ✗
Azure Files share for witness
Why it's wrong here
Optional, not required.
- ✓
Windows Server Failover Cluster
Why this is correct
Required for availability group.
- ✗
Azure SQL Database
Why it's wrong here
Not relevant for SQL Server on VMs.
- ✗
VPN gateway between regions
Why it's wrong here
Not required.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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