DP-300 Practice Question: Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment

You are designing a high availability solution for an Azure SQL Database that is used by a mission-critical application. The database is currently in the Standard tier. You need to minimize downtime during planned maintenance and unplanned failures while keeping costs low. What should you recommend?

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

✓

Upgrade to the Premium tier with zone-redundant configuration.

The Premium tier supports zone-redundant configuration, which replicates data across availability zones within the same region, providing high availability and minimizing downtime during planned maintenance or unplanned failures. Option A is wrong: the Basic tier does not support failover groups or zone redundancy. Option B is wrong: active geo-replication is designed for disaster recovery across regions, not for high availability within a region, and incurs higher cost and complexity. Option D is wrong: the Standard tier does not support zone redundancy; zone redundancy is only available in the Premium or Business Critical tiers.

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 the Basic tier with a failover group.
Why it's wrong here
Basic tier does not support failover groups or high availability.
✗
Configure active geo-replication to a secondary region.
Why it's wrong here
Geo-replication is for disaster recovery, not primarily for high availability within a region.
✓
Upgrade to the Premium tier with zone-redundant configuration.
Why this is correct
Premium tier with zone redundancy provides high availability within a region.
✗
Upgrade to the Standard tier and enable zone redundancy.
Why it's wrong here
Standard tier does not support zone redundancy.

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Same concept, more angles

1 more way this is tested on DP-300

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. Your company wants to ensure business continuity for an Azure SQL Database that is used by a critical application. The database must remain available in the event of a single availability zone failure within a region. Which configuration should you use?

easy

✓ A.Configure zone-redundant availability for the database
B.Use active geo-replication to a different region
C.Deploy the database with locally redundant storage
D.Configure read scale-out with a secondary replica

Why A: Azure SQL Database zone-redundant availability replicates the database across multiple availability zones within the same region, providing high availability in the event of a single zone failure. Option B (active geo-replication) replicates to a different region, which protects against regional outages but not specifically a zone failure. Option C (locally redundant storage) stores data within a single data center, offering no zone-level protection. Option D (read scale-out) provides read-only replicas but does not ensure write availability during a zone failure.

Last reviewed: Jun 21, 2026

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