DP-300 Practice Question: Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment
You have a SQL Server on Azure VM running a mission-critical database. The VM is configured with Azure Site Recovery (ASR) for disaster recovery. During a disaster recovery drill, you notice that the recovered database is not consistent. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is assuming ASR replication is automatically database-consistent; exams test whether candidates know that crash-consistent is the default and application-consistent snapshots must be explicitly enabled.
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
✓
Application-consistent snapshots are not enabled in the ASR replication policy.
Azure Site Recovery replicates VM disks, and by default it takes crash-consistent snapshots, which capture the disk state as if the power were cut — the database may have in-flight transactions and be inconsistent on recovery. Enabling application-consistent snapshots in the replication policy triggers VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service) to quiesce the database and flush transactions before snapshotting, ensuring a consistent recovery point.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The secondary region is not in the same geo as the primary.
Why it's wrong here
ASR requires the target region to be within the same geopolitical boundary as the source, so a cross-geo pairing cannot be configured and is not the cause of inconsistency. Geo pairing matters for compliance and data-residency planning, not for the crash-consistency behaviour observed during the drill.
- ✓
Application-consistent snapshots are not enabled in the ASR replication policy.
Why this is correct
ASR's default crash-consistent snapshots capture the disk state without flushing in-memory writes or quiescing the database, so a recovered SQL Server may need crash recovery and appear inconsistent. Enabling application-consistent snapshots, via VSS, produces a transactionally consistent recovery point.
- ✗
The backup retention period is too short.
Why it's wrong here
Backup retention governs how long copies are kept, not the consistency of an ASR-replicated VM; the cause is application-consistent versus crash-consistent snapshots. It is tempting because retention settings do affect recoverability, and would be correct if the scenario described backups expiring before restoration.
- ✗
The database is not part of an Always On availability group.
Why it's wrong here
ASR replicates the VM at the hypervisor layer, capturing crash-consistent snapshots unless VSS is coordinated; Always On membership is irrelevant to that mechanism. Availability groups provide database-level replication and automatic failover, which is the right solution when application-consistent database recovery is required.
Go deeper
Related to this question
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Deploying and Configuring SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines
Key term
SQL Server on Azure VM
SQL Server on Azure VM is a cloud service that lets you run Microsoft SQL Server software inside a virtual machine in Microsoft Azure, giving you full control over the database environment just like you would have on your own physical server.
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JA
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
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.