DP-300 Plan and implement data platform resources Practice Question
Your company has an Azure SQL Database configured with Active Geo-Replication between two regions. The primary database is experiencing performance degradation due to a sudden increase in write-intensive workloads. You need to minimize downtime and ensure no data loss. What should you do?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse 'forced failover' (which causes data loss) with 'planned failover' (which ensures zero data loss), and they overlook that scaling the service tier does not address the need to minimize downtime during an active degradation.
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
✓
Initiate a planned failover to the secondary region
A planned failover (Option D) is correct because Active Geo-Replication supports a graceful, synchronous failover that promotes the secondary database to become the new primary without data loss. This is achieved by first replicating all pending transactions to the secondary, ensuring zero data loss, and then switching roles with minimal downtime. In contrast, a forced failover (Option B) would cause data loss because it does not wait for pending transactions to be replicated.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable read scale-out on the primary database
Why it's wrong here
Read scale-out only redirects read queries, not writes.
- ✗
Initiate a forced failover to the secondary region
Why it's wrong here
Forced failover may lose unsynchronized data.
- ✗
Increase the service tier of the primary database
Why it's wrong here
Scaling up may cause a brief outage and does not immediately offload the load.
- ✓
Initiate a planned failover to the secondary region
Why this is correct
Planned failover synchronizes all data before switching, ensuring zero data loss.
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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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.