Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
DP-300 Practice Question: Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment
You manage an Azure SQL Managed Instance that hosts a line-of-business application. The instance is currently deployed in the UK South region using the General Purpose service tier. The business has a new requirement for disaster recovery with an RPO of 30 minutes and an RTO of 2 hours. You need to implement a solution that minimizes ongoing costs. The secondary region should be UK West. The application can tolerate a brief outage during failover. 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
✓
Deploy a secondary General Purpose instance in UK West and configure a failover group.
Deploying a secondary General Purpose instance in UK West and configuring a failover group meets the RPO of 30 minutes and RTO of 2 hours with minimal cost. Option A is wrong because zone redundancy only protects against zonal failures within a single region, not regional disasters. Option B is wrong because geo-restore has an RPO of up to 1 hour and an RTO of hours to days, failing the requirements. Option C is wrong because Business Critical is more expensive and not necessary for the RPO/RTO targets; General Purpose can achieve them using a failover group.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Deploy a zone-redundant General Purpose instance in UK South only.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Zone redundancy provides high availability within a region but does not provide disaster recovery across regions. It cannot meet an RPO of 30 minutes for a regional outage.
- ✗
Keep the current instance and rely on geo-restore to UK West.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Geo-restore can take up to 12 hours to complete and has an RPO of up to 1 hour, which does not meet the RTO of 2 hours or RPO of 30 minutes.
- ✗
Upgrade both instances to Business Critical and configure a failover group.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. While Business Critical with failover groups can meet the requirements, it is more expensive than General Purpose. The cost can be minimized by using General Purpose instances, which still meet the RPO and RTO targets via a failover group.
- ✓
Deploy a secondary General Purpose instance in UK West and configure a failover group.
Why this is correct
Correct. A failover group with a secondary General Purpose instance in UK West provides automatic replication with an RPO of 30 seconds to 5 minutes (within the 30-minute requirement) and failover within 1-2 minutes (within 2-hour RTO). This is the most cost-effective solution.
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Overview of Azure Data Platform Options
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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