DP-300 Practice Question: Monitor, configure, and optimize database resources
You are configuring monitoring for an Azure SQL Database that uses the vCore purchasing model. The database is in the General Purpose service tier. You need to receive an alert when the database's CPU consumption exceeds 90 percent for 10 minutes. What should you create?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse control-plane activity log alerts with performance metric alerts, or overcomplicating the solution by using log search alerts when a simple metric alert suffices.
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
✓
A metric alert rule in Azure Monitor on the CPU percent metric.
Azure Monitor metric alerts are the correct mechanism for alerting on a specific performance metric such as CPU percent. They allow you to set a threshold, an aggregation window, and an evaluation frequency. For a requirement to alert when CPU exceeds 90 percent for 10 minutes, a metric alert rule on the CPU percent metric with a 10-minute aggregation window is the direct and supported solution.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
A smart detection alert in Application Insights.
Why it's wrong here
Application Insights smart detection is designed for application performance anomalies, such as abnormal response times or failure rates. It does not monitor Azure SQL Database CPU consumption directly. Using it here would not provide the required alert on the database's CPU metric, and it is not the correct tool for infrastructure-level database monitoring.
- ✓
A metric alert rule in Azure Monitor on the CPU percent metric.
Why this is correct
Azure Monitor metric alerts evaluate a specific metric against a threshold over a defined time window. The CPU percent metric reflects the percentage of the vCore limit being consumed. By creating a metric alert rule on CPU percent with a threshold of 90 and an aggregation granularity of 10 minutes, you can detect sustained high CPU and trigger notifications as required.
- ✗
An activity log alert rule on the database's administrative operations.
Why it's wrong here
Activity log alerts are triggered by control-plane events such as creating or deleting a resource, not by performance metrics like CPU usage. They would not fire when CPU consumption exceeds a threshold. This type of alert is suitable for auditing configuration changes, but it does not meet the requirement to monitor runtime CPU utilization.
- ✗
A log search alert rule based on the AzureDiagnostics table.
Why it's wrong here
Log search alerts query Log Analytics data, which requires diagnostic settings to be configured to send logs and metrics to a workspace. While possible, it is more complex and introduces latency compared to metric alerts. The scenario asks for a straightforward CPU threshold alert, and a log search alert is not the most direct or efficient solution.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Monitoring Database Performance with Azure Tools
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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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Microsoft exam blueprint
This DP-300 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the DP-300 exam.