DP-300 Practice Question: Monitor, configure, and optimize database resources
You are the database administrator for a company that uses Azure SQL Managed Instance. The instance hosts a mission-critical database that experiences periodic performance degradation. You need to set up a proactive monitoring solution that sends alerts when the average DTU usage exceeds 80% over a 5-minute period. The solution should minimize cost. What should you do?
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
✓
Create an Azure Monitor metric alert on the 'dtu_consumption_percent' metric for the managed instance.
Azure Monitor metric alerts on the 'dtu_consumption_percent' metric provide a cost-effective, proactive monitoring solution for Azure SQL Managed Instance. Metric alerts are charged per rule, and there is no additional ingestion cost, making them minimal cost. Option B is incorrect because SQL Server Agent jobs require a SQL Server Agent service and are not designed for real-time metric monitoring; they also incur overhead. Option C is incorrect because Elastic Database Jobs are for executing T-SQL across databases, not for metric-based alerting. Option D is incorrect because streaming diagnostic logs to a Log Analytics workspace and creating a log alert rule incurs data ingestion costs, which is not minimal cost.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Create an Azure Monitor metric alert on the 'dtu_consumption_percent' metric for the managed instance.
Why this is correct
Azure Monitor metric alerts are low-cost and can alert when average DTU usage exceeds threshold over a period.
- ✗
Create a SQL Server Agent job that checks sys.dm_db_resource_stats every 5 minutes and sends an email.
Why it's wrong here
SQL Server Agent cannot directly send alerts based on metrics; it requires custom code and is not cost-effective.
- ✗
Use Elastic Database Jobs to run a query periodically and send alerts.
Why it's wrong here
Elastic Database Jobs is for executing T-SQL across databases, not for metric-based alerts.
- ✗
Stream diagnostic logs to a Log Analytics workspace and create a log alert rule.
Why it's wrong here
Log alerts incur additional costs from data ingestion and workspace queries, failing the requirement to minimise cost. This approach is designed for complex pattern matching across multiple telemetry streams or correlating database events with Microsoft Entra ID sign-in logs. You would use this method when you need to trigger alerts based on specific text strings within log entries rather than simple metric thresholds.
Go deeper
Related to this question
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Overview of Azure Data Platform Options
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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