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DP-300 Practice Question: Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment

You manage a critical application that uses Azure SQL Database in the West US region. The application requires an RPO of 5 seconds and an RTO of 1 hour in the event of a regional outage. You need to recommend a high availability solution that meets these requirements with minimal cost. 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

Create a failover group with a secondary replica in a paired region using active geo-replication.

It uses active geo-replication with a failover group to a paired region. Active geo-replication typically provides an RPO of 5 seconds or less, and the automated failover can meet an RTO of 1 hour. Option A is incorrect because an auto-failover group within the same region (different availability zone) protects only against zone failure, not a regional outage. Option B is incorrect because geo-restore has a much higher RPO (up to 12 hours) and RTO (hours or days). Option D is incorrect because zone-redundant deployment protects within a region, not against a regional disaster.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

  • Configure an auto-failover group with a secondary in a different availability zone within West US.

    Why it's wrong here

    Auto-failover groups across zones within the same region do not protect against regional failure.

  • Enable geo-restore for the database with a backup retention of 35 days.

    Why it's wrong here

    Geo-restore has an RPO of at least 1 hour and RTO of 12+ hours, not meeting the requirements.

  • Create a failover group with a secondary replica in a paired region using active geo-replication.

    Why this is correct

    Active geo-replication provides an RPO of 5 seconds and can achieve an RTO of 1 hour with automated failover.

  • Deploy a zone-redundant Azure SQL Database in the West US region.

    Why it's wrong here

    Zone redundancy protects against datacenter failures within a region, but not against a full regional outage.

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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security

Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva

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