Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment →hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
DP-300 Practice Question: Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment
You are the database administrator for a global e-commerce company that uses Azure SQL Database for its product catalog. The database is currently deployed in the East US region using the General Purpose service tier. The company is expanding to Europe and wants to improve disaster recovery posture. The new requirements are: RPO of 5 seconds, RTO of 1 hour, and the ability to serve read traffic from the secondary region during normal operations. The budget is limited, so you must minimize cost while meeting these requirements. The application connection strings can be updated to a listener endpoint. 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 the primary to Business Critical, configure a failover group with a readable secondary in West Europe using Business Critical, and use the listener endpoint for application connections.
It meets all requirements: upgrading the primary to Business Critical provides synchronous replication with an RPO of 2-5 seconds, and configuring a failover group with a readable secondary in West Europe using Business Critical ensures the secondary can serve read traffic from Europe and failover can occur within 1 hour. The listener endpoint simplifies application connection management. Option A is incorrect because General Purpose tier has an RPO of 5-30 minutes, which cannot meet the 5-second requirement, and a same-region secondary does not serve European read traffic. Option C is incorrect because zone-redundancy only protects within a region, not across regions, and a General Purpose secondary would have higher RPO. Option D is incorrect because a readable secondary in the same region does not serve read traffic from Europe, and geo-restore has an RTO of hours, not 1 hour.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Keep the primary as General Purpose, create a readable secondary in the same region, and configure active geo-replication to a secondary in West Europe.
Why it's wrong here
General Purpose cannot guarantee 5-second RPO.
- ✓
Upgrade the primary to Business Critical, configure a failover group with a readable secondary in West Europe using Business Critical, and use the listener endpoint for application connections.
Why this is correct
Business Critical meets RPO, readable secondary serves read traffic, failover group provides automated failover with listener endpoint.
- ✗
Deploy a zone-redundant Business Critical database in East US and use auto-failover groups to a secondary in West Europe with General Purpose.
Why it's wrong here
General Purpose secondary cannot meet the RPO; also no readable secondary for read traffic.
- ✗
Upgrade the primary database to Business Critical, create a readable secondary in the same region, and use geo-restore for DR.
Why it's wrong here
Geo-restore cannot meet the RPO of 5 seconds and RTO of 1 hour.
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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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.