DP-300 Practice Question: Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment
You manage a SQL Managed Instance in the East US region. The instance must be recoverable within 1 hour in the event of a regional disaster. You need to configure a secondary replica in a paired region with automatic failover. Which solution meets the requirement?
⚠ Common exam trap
DP-300 often tests the difference between automatic and manual failover solutions, and candidates may incorrectly choose geo-restore or log shipping because they are familiar with backup-based recovery, missing the requirement for automatic failover.
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 an auto-failover group with a secondary replica in West US.
An auto-failover group in Azure SQL Managed Instance provides a secondary replica in a paired region with automatic failover, meeting the requirement for recovery within 1 hour. It uses asynchronous replication and allows a single connection string to fail over automatically, ensuring business continuity during 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 log shipping to a secondary instance in West US.
Why it's wrong here
Log shipping copies transaction log backups to a secondary instance on a schedule, with manual failover and possible data loss, so it cannot meet the one-hour automatic failover requirement. It suits low-cost warm standby for non-critical workloads.
- ✗
Enable geo-redundant backup storage and use geo-restore.
Why it's wrong here
Geo-restore rebuilds from geo-replicated backups into a new instance, which takes hours and provides no secondary replica or automatic failover. It suits disaster recovery where a longer recovery point and time objective are acceptable and no paired-region standby is required.
- ✓
Create an auto-failover group with a secondary replica in West US.
Why this is correct
Auto-failover groups provide a secondary SQL Managed Instance in a paired region with automatic failover and readable endpoints, meeting the one-hour regional recovery requirement. East US pairs with West US, so the replica location is valid.
- ✗
Deploy an Always On availability group with a synchronous secondary in West US.
Why it's wrong here
A synchronous secondary must reside in the same region because synchronous commit requires low-latency round trips; across East US to West US, latency forces asynchronous commit. Synchronous availability groups suit high availability within one region, not cross-region disaster recovery.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Configuring Disaster Recovery for Azure SQL
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.
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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.