DP-300 Practice Question: Monitor, configure, and optimize database resources
You manage a critical Azure SQL Database that supports a financial application. The database is configured with the Business Critical service tier (8 vCores) and uses Always On availability groups for high availability. Recently, the application team noticed that some transactions are experiencing high latency during writes. You investigate and find that the log write latency is averaging 10 ms, and there are occasional HADR_SYNC_COMMIT waits. The application requires durable writes with synchronous commit. You need to reduce write latency without compromising data durability. What should you do?
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
✓
Increase the number of vCores to 16
Increasing the number of vCores (Option D) provides additional CPU and memory resources for the log writer, which can process transactions faster, thereby reducing log write latency. In the Business Critical tier, the log write path is CPU-intensive, and scaling up directly improves throughput. Option A is incorrect because Premium SSD v2 is not applicable to Azure SQL Database; storage is managed by the service. Option B is incorrect because disabling automatic tuning does not impact log write performance and may negatively affect overall query performance. Option C is incorrect because the number of secondary replicas is fixed at three in Business Critical, and reducing them is not possible; further, synchronous commit requires at least one secondary to ensure durability.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Switch to Premium SSD v2 storage
Why it's wrong here
Storage type not adjustable in Business Critical.
- ✗
Disable automatic tuning to reduce overhead
Why it's wrong here
Automatic tuning has minimal overhead; does not affect log writes.
- ✗
Reduce the number of secondary replicas to minimize synchronization overhead
Why it's wrong here
Business Critical always has 4 replicas; cannot reduce.
- ✓
Increase the number of vCores to 16
Why this is correct
More vCores increase log write throughput.
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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Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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