DP-300 Plan and implement data platform resources Practice Question
You need to design a business continuity plan for an Azure SQL Database that must meet an RPO of 5 seconds and an RTO of 1 hour. The database is used by a global application with users in North America and Europe. Which configuration should you implement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse auto-failover groups (Option A) with Active Geo-Replication, not realizing that failover groups alone do not enforce the low RPO; they must be combined with Active Geo-Replication to achieve the 5-second RPO, making Option B the precise configuration.
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
✓
Configure Active Geo-Replication with a readable secondary in a different Azure region and add to a failover group.
Active Geo-Replication with a readable secondary in a different Azure region, added to a failover group, meets the RPO of 5 seconds and RTO of 1 hour. Active Geo-Replication provides asynchronous replication with an RPO of up to 5 seconds, and failover groups enable automatic or manual failover with an RTO typically under 1 hour. The readable secondary supports read-only workloads in Europe, optimizing global application performance.
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 auto-failover groups between two Azure regions.
Why it's wrong here
Auto-failover groups rely on Active Geo-Replication; the correct answer specifies the underlying technology.
- ✓
Configure Active Geo-Replication with a readable secondary in a different Azure region and add to a failover group.
Why this is correct
Active Geo-Replication with failover group meets RPO of 5 seconds and RTO of 1 hour.
- ✗
Deploy the database as zone-redundant within a single region.
Why it's wrong here
Zone-redundancy protects within a region, not from regional outages.
- ✗
Use geo-restore of automated backups to recover in another region.
Why it's wrong here
Geo-restore has an RPO of hours, not seconds.
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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