DP-300 Practice Question: Plan and configure high availability and disaster recovery
You are the database administrator for a company that uses Azure SQL Managed Instance named MI1 in the East US region. The company requires a disaster recovery plan that ensures the instance can be failed over to a secondary region with minimal data loss and minimal downtime. The solution must support read-only workloads on the secondary. You need to configure the disaster recovery solution. What should you do?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that geo-redundant backups provide a readable secondary and fast failover, when they only allow restore to a new instance with significant downtime.
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
✓
Configure an auto-failover group with a secondary managed instance in West US.
The requirement is for a disaster recovery solution that provides minimal data loss and downtime, and supports read-only workloads on the secondary. Auto-failover groups for Azure SQL Managed Instance are designed for this purpose, offering a readable secondary, automatic failover, and low RPO/RTO. The other options either do not provide a readable secondary, require manual failover, or are not applicable to managed instance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Configure an auto-failover group with a secondary managed instance in West US.
Why this is correct
Auto-failover groups for Azure SQL Managed Instance support cross-region replication with a readable secondary. They provide minimal data loss (RPO typically <5 seconds) and minimal downtime (RTO <30 seconds) when configured for automatic failover. The secondary can handle read-only workloads. This meets all the requirements.
- ✗
Set up geo-redundant backups for MI1.
Why it's wrong here
Geo-redundant backups allow you to restore the instance to another region in case of a disaster, but they do not provide a readable secondary and do not support failover. The recovery time objective would be much longer than a failover group because it involves restoring the entire instance from backup. This does not meet the minimal downtime or readable secondary requirements.
- ✗
Use Azure Site Recovery to replicate the managed instance to West US.
Why it's wrong here
Azure Site Recovery is designed for replicating virtual machines, not Azure SQL Managed Instance. Managed instance is a platform-as-a-service offering, and its disaster recovery is handled through built-in features like failover groups. Using Azure Site Recovery is not supported for managed instance and would not provide the required functionality.
- ✗
Create a transactional replication subscriber in West US.
Why it's wrong here
Transactional replication can provide a readable secondary, but it requires significant administrative effort to set up and maintain. It also does not provide automatic failover; failover must be manual. The minimal downtime requirement may not be met. Additionally, transactional replication may not replicate all schema changes and is not a comprehensive disaster recovery solution for the entire instance.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Configuring Disaster Recovery for Azure SQL
Key term
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Azure SQL Managed Instance is a fully managed cloud database service that gives you nearly all the features of Microsoft SQL Server on your own server, without you having to manage the hardware or operating system.
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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
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