Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
DP-300 Practice Question: Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment
You have an Azure SQL Database configured with active geo-replication to a secondary region. The primary region experiences a full outage. You need to fail over with minimal data loss. What should you do?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is assuming a planned failover is always preferred for minimal data loss, but in a full outage, unplanned failover is the only option.
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
✓
Initiate an unplanned failover from the primary to the secondary.
During a full outage, the primary is offline, so a planned failover (which requires connectivity to the primary to synchronize) is not possible. The only option to fail over with minimal data loss is to initiate an unplanned (forced) failover, which will make the secondary the new primary. Although there may be some data loss from transactions not yet replicated, this is the best available option. Deleting the secondary or creating a new secondary does not fail over.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Initiate an unplanned failover from the primary to the secondary.
Why this is correct
Correct. In a full outage, you must perform an unplanned failover to promote the secondary to primary. This is the only way to restore service, though some data loss may occur.
- ✗
Delete the secondary database and create a new one in the primary region.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Deleting the secondary does not fail over; it would cause data loss and not restore availability.
- ✗
Initiate a planned failover from the primary to the secondary.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. A planned failover requires the primary to be online to synchronize. During a full outage, this is not possible.
- ✗
Create a new secondary database in the same region as the primary.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Creating a new secondary does not initiate a failover; it only adds replication.
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.