DP-300 Practice Question: Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment
You have an Azure SQL Managed Instance configured with an auto-failover group between two regions. You need to ensure that client applications can automatically connect to the secondary instance after a failover without changing connection strings. What should you configure?
⚠ Common exam trap
DP-300 often tests the misconception that a generic DNS or load-balancing service is needed for failover, when the failover group's built-in listener endpoint already handles redirection.
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
✓
Use the failover group listener endpoint in the connection string.
An auto-failover group provides a read/write listener endpoint (and a read-only listener) with a DNS name that always points to the current primary. Applications connect to the listener FQDN, so after failover the DNS resolves to the new primary without any connection string change.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use the failover group listener endpoint in the connection string.
Why this is correct
The failover group listener provides a stable read-write DNS endpoint that redirects clients to the current primary after failover. Applications keep one connection string, satisfying the no-change requirement, while the listener abstracts the underlying instance swap between regions.
- ✗
Set up a load balancer with health probes.
Why it's wrong here
A load balancer distributes TCP flows to registered backend instances, but it has no awareness of the failover group's role and cannot redirect clients to the current primary. It suits fronting VMs or appliances, not abstracting a managed instance listener.
- ✗
Deploy an Application Gateway with backend pools for each region.
Why it's wrong here
Application Gateway load-balances HTTP traffic to backend pools, but it cannot read or redirect the failover group's listener endpoint, so clients still need the new server name after failover. It suits publishing regional web apps behind a single hostname, not abstracting a database listener.
- ✗
Configure a Traffic Manager profile with endpoint monitoring.
Why it's wrong here
Traffic Manager resolves DNS to endpoints, but the failover group already provides a listener endpoint that redirects connections; DNS-based routing cannot follow the role change and adds a second failover mechanism. It suits globally distributed HTTP or custom endpoints, not SQL listener redirection.
Visual reference
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Deploying and Configuring Azure SQL Managed Instance
Key term
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Azure SQL Managed Instance is a fully managed cloud database service that gives you nearly all the features of Microsoft SQL Server on your own server, without you having to manage the hardware or operating system.
About these practice questions
This DP-300 question is part of Courseiva's 574-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.