DP-300 Practice Question: Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment
You have an Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication. You need to monitor the replication lag to ensure the RPO is met. Which metric should you monitor?
⚠ Common exam trap
DP-300 often tests the confusion between performance metrics (DTU, IO) and replication-specific metrics — candidates pick DTU because it sounds like a health indicator, but RPO is about data delay, not resource usage.
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
✓
Replication lag
Active geo-replication in Azure SQL Database continuously ships transaction log records from the primary to the secondary. The 'Replication lag' metric specifically measures the delay between the primary and secondary, which directly maps to your Recovery Point Objective (RPO). Monitoring this metric lets you verify that the secondary is keeping up and that you won't lose more than the acceptable amount of data in a failover.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
DTU consumption
Why it's wrong here
DTU consumption measures compute, memory and IO blended load on the primary, revealing nothing about how far the secondary trails. It is tempting because DTU is the headline Azure SQL metric, but it would be the right choice for sizing or throttling analysis, not for measuring replication lag against an RPO.
- ✓
Replication lag
Why this is correct
Replication lag measures the delay between the primary and secondary database in seconds, directly quantifying potential data loss against the RPO. Monitoring it confirms whether active geo-replication keeps the secondary close enough to meet the stated recovery point objective.
- ✗
Data IO percentage
Why it's wrong here
Data IO percentage reports the primary's storage throughput, an unrelated axis to how far behind the geo-secondary has fallen. It is tempting because heavy IO can delay replication indirectly, but it would be the correct metric for diagnosing storage bottlenecks, not for directly measuring replication lag against the RPO.
- ✗
Deadlocks
Why it's wrong here
Deadlocks count blocked transactions on a database, which says nothing about the secondary's replay position. It is tempting because deadlocks indicate contention worth tuning, but that is a concurrency-health metric; replication lag against an RPO requires the dedicated geo-replication lag metric instead.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Monitoring Database Performance with Azure Tools
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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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.