DP-300 Plan and implement data platform resources Practice Question
You are designing a disaster recovery solution for a critical Azure SQL Database that runs in the West US region. The database is 2 TB in size and requires a recovery point objective (RPO) of less than 5 seconds and a recovery time objective (RTO) of less than 30 seconds. Which deployment option should you recommend?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse Hyperscale's geo-replication with synchronous replication, but Hyperscale uses asynchronous replication with a typical RPO of 5-10 seconds, which does not guarantee the sub-5-second RPO required, while Business Critical zone-redundant provides synchronous replication within the same region.
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 Azure SQL Database Business Critical with zone-redundant configuration
Azure SQL Database Business Critical with zone-redundant configuration is the correct choice because it provides synchronous replication across three availability zones within the same region, ensuring an RPO of 0 (no data loss) and an RTO of under 30 seconds for zonal failures. This meets the strict RPO of less than 5 seconds and RTO of less than 30 seconds for a 2 TB database, as Business Critical offers high-performance local SSD storage and automatic failover without data loss.
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 Azure SQL Database General Purpose with auto-failover group
Why it's wrong here
General Purpose tier has asynchronous replication and RTO of 1 hour.
- ✗
Use Azure SQL Database Hyperscale with geo-replication
Why it's wrong here
Hyperscale geo-replication provides RPO of up to 5 seconds but RTO is typically 1 hour.
- ✓
Use Azure SQL Database Business Critical with zone-redundant configuration
Why this is correct
Business Critical with zone redundancy provides synchronous replication across zones, achieving RPO=0 and RTO~30s.
- ✗
Use Azure SQL Managed Instance Business Critical with zone-redundant configuration
Why it's wrong here
Azure SQL Managed Instance Business Critical does not support zone redundancy for databases.
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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