- A
Implement Azure Site Recovery to replicate the VM to a secondary region.
Why wrong: Azure Site Recovery can replicate VMs, but RPO may be up to a few minutes and RTO can be longer due to VM boot time and application recovery. It might not guarantee RTO of 30 minutes.
- B
Set up log shipping to a secondary SQL Server in a different region and perform manual failover.
Why wrong: Log shipping can meet RPO with frequent log backups, but manual failover increases RTO beyond 30 minutes.
- C
Configure a SQL Server Always On availability group with a synchronous-commit replica in a secondary Azure region.
Synchronous replication provides RPO of 0 (within 5 minutes) and automatic failover can achieve RTO in minutes.
- D
Increase the frequency of transaction log backups to every 5 minutes and use geo-restore.
Why wrong: More frequent backups reduce RPO but restore time remains long, failing RTO.
Quick Answer
The answer is to configure a SQL Server Always On availability group with a synchronous-commit replica in a secondary Azure region. This solution directly meets the low RPO of 5 minutes and RTO of 30 minutes because synchronous replication ensures zero data loss at the transaction level, while automatic failover to the secondary region eliminates the slow manual restore process that caused the 4-hour outage. On the Microsoft Azure Database Administrator Associate DP-300 exam, this scenario tests your ability to distinguish between disaster recovery options for SQL Server on Azure VM, with the common trap being to rely on geo-restore from backups, which cannot achieve sub-hour RTO due to restore latency. Remember that for mission-critical databases requiring low RPO and RTO, Always On availability groups with synchronous commit are the gold standard, whereas asynchronous commit or backup-based recovery are only suitable for looser objectives. Memory tip: "Sync for zero loss, async for cross-region cost savings."
DP-300 Practice Question: Plan and configure high availability and disaster recovery
This DP-300 practice question tests your understanding of plan and configure high availability and disaster recovery. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
You are the database administrator for a global e-commerce company. The company runs its production SQL Server on an Azure Virtual Machine (IaaS) in the West US region. The database is mission-critical and requires a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 5 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 30 minutes in the event of a regional disaster. The VM uses premium SSDs and is backed up daily to a Recovery Services vault with geo-redundant storage. The current backup policy takes full backups weekly, differential backups daily, and transaction log backups every 15 minutes. The VM is in an availability set for high availability within the region. During a recent regional outage simulation, the database was unavailable for 4 hours because the backups needed to be restored to a different region, and the restore process took longer than expected. You need to recommend a solution to meet the RPO and RTO requirements. 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
Configure a SQL Server Always On availability group with a synchronous-commit replica in a secondary Azure region.
Option C is correct because a SQL Server Always On availability group with a synchronous-commit replica in a secondary Azure region provides automatic failover with zero data loss (RPO of 0 seconds) and can meet the 30-minute RTO by enabling fast, automated failover to the secondary region. This solution eliminates the need for manual restore processes and ensures continuous data synchronization, directly addressing the 4-hour outage caused by slow geo-restore.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Implement Azure Site Recovery to replicate the VM to a secondary region.
Why it's wrong here
Azure Site Recovery can replicate VMs, but RPO may be up to a few minutes and RTO can be longer due to VM boot time and application recovery. It might not guarantee RTO of 30 minutes.
- ✗
Set up log shipping to a secondary SQL Server in a different region and perform manual failover.
Why it's wrong here
Log shipping can meet RPO with frequent log backups, but manual failover increases RTO beyond 30 minutes.
- ✓
Configure a SQL Server Always On availability group with a synchronous-commit replica in a secondary Azure region.
Why this is correct
Synchronous replication provides RPO of 0 (within 5 minutes) and automatic failover can achieve RTO in minutes.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Increase the frequency of transaction log backups to every 5 minutes and use geo-restore.
Why it's wrong here
More frequent backups reduce RPO but restore time remains long, failing RTO.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse Azure Site Recovery (VM-level replication) with database-level replication, assuming it provides SQL Server transaction consistency, when in fact it only offers crash-consistent or app-consistent snapshots that may not meet strict RPO/RTO for SQL Server.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
SQL Server Always On availability groups use synchronous-commit mode to ensure that every transaction is written to both the primary and secondary replicas before being acknowledged, guaranteeing zero data loss (RPO=0). Under the hood, this uses the TCP/IP-based availability group listener and requires low-latency network connections (typically <1ms round-trip) to avoid performance impact; in Azure, this often necessitates ExpressRoute or a high-bandwidth VPN. In a real-world scenario, synchronous commit across regions can introduce latency, so asynchronous commit is sometimes used for disaster recovery, but the question's strict RPO of 5 minutes makes synchronous commit the only viable option.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this DP-300 question test?
Plan and configure high availability and disaster recovery — This question tests Plan and configure high availability and disaster recovery — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Configure a SQL Server Always On availability group with a synchronous-commit replica in a secondary Azure region. — Option C is correct because a SQL Server Always On availability group with a synchronous-commit replica in a secondary Azure region provides automatic failover with zero data loss (RPO of 0 seconds) and can meet the 30-minute RTO by enabling fast, automated failover to the secondary region. This solution eliminates the need for manual restore processes and ensures continuous data synchronization, directly addressing the 4-hour outage caused by slow geo-restore.
What should I do if I get this DP-300 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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.
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