Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment →hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
DP-300 Failover Group Practice Question
Your company runs a mission-critical database on Azure SQL Managed Instance in the East US region. To comply with a new regulatory requirement, you must ensure that the database can be recovered within 15 minutes in the event of a regional disaster, with a maximum data loss of 10 seconds. You also need to minimize compute costs during normal operations. What should you configure?
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 the primary instance as Business Critical with a zone-redundant secondary replica, and configure a failover group to a secondary instance in a paired region using Business Critical with a non-readable secondary.
It combines synchronous data redundancy within the primary region via zone-redundant Business Critical, which provides automatic failover within the region for high availability, with an asynchronous geo-failover group to a paired region using a non-readable secondary replica. The Business Critical tier offers synchronous replication within the region, meeting the 10-second RPO, and the failover group enables geo-failover within 15 minutes (RTO). Using a non-readable secondary (no read scale-out) minimizes compute costs during normal operations. Option A is wrong because General Purpose uses asynchronous replication, which cannot achieve a 10-second RPO. Option B is wrong because zone-redundancy alone does not protect against a full regional disaster. Option D is wrong because pairing a Business Critical primary with a General Purpose secondary would result in asynchronous replication between regions, risking higher RPO, and a readable secondary adds unnecessary cost.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use a General Purpose instance with a failover group to a secondary instance in a paired region.
Why it's wrong here
General Purpose has asynchronous replication within the region, leading to higher data loss.
- ✗
Configure a zone-redundant Business Critical instance in East US only, without a geo-secondary.
Why it's wrong here
Zone redundancy does not protect against a regional disaster.
- ✓
Deploy the primary instance as Business Critical with a zone-redundant secondary replica, and configure a failover group to a secondary instance in a paired region using Business Critical with a non-readable secondary.
Why this is correct
This meets the RPO and RTO with minimal cost by avoiding an extra readable replica.
- ✗
Deploy the primary instance as Business Critical with a readable secondary replica, and configure a failover group to a secondary instance in a paired region using General Purpose.
Why it's wrong here
General Purpose does not guarantee low RPO; also readable secondary adds cost unnecessarily.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
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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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.