DP-900 Describe an analytics workload on Azure Practice Question
A company runs a critical workload in Azure Synapse Analytics. They need to ensure that if a single node fails, the data in the control node and compute nodes is not lost. Which configuration should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse the need for high availability with disaster recovery, assuming that because Synapse is a distributed system, they must manually configure clustering or replication, when in fact Synapse provides built-in fault tolerance at the node level as a core feature of the service.
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
✓
No additional configuration is needed; Synapse provides built-in fault tolerance.
Azure Synapse Analytics (formerly SQL DW) is a distributed MPP (Massively Parallel Processing) system that automatically replicates data across multiple internal copies within the control node and compute nodes. This built-in fault tolerance ensures that if a single node fails, data is not lost because Synapse maintains at least three synchronous replicas of all data and metadata. No additional configuration is required for node-level failure protection.
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 SQL Server Always On availability group.
Why it's wrong here
Always On availability groups are a high-availability and disaster-recovery feature of SQL Server that requires configuring Windows Server failover clustering and creating availability group replicas. Azure Synapse Analytics is a fully managed platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering where you do not have access to the underlying SQL Server instance or operating system to set up such replicas. The service's control node and compute nodes are managed by Microsoft, and failover is handled internally. Therefore, this configuration is not applicable in a Synapse environment.
- ✓
No additional configuration is needed; Synapse provides built-in fault tolerance.
Why this is correct
Azure Synapse Analytics provides built-in fault tolerance at the platform level: the control node is paired with a standby node that automatically takes over if a failure occurs, and data in the dedicated SQL pool is stored in Azure Storage with multiple synchronous copies for durability. Compute nodes are stateless and can be rebuilt from metadata and storage, so a single node failure does not cause data loss or long downtime. No additional configuration, such as external clustering or replication, is required to achieve the service's default high-availability guarantees.
- ✗
Configure active geo-replication.
Why it's wrong here
Active geo-replication is a feature exclusive to Azure SQL Database (and Azure SQL Managed Instance) that maintains a continuously replicated readable secondary database in a different Azure region. Azure Synapse Analytics does not support this feature; it does not provide a readable secondary workspace or a continuously synchronized replica for the dedicated SQL pool. For cross-region disaster recovery, Synapse relies on geo-redundant Azure Storage backups and the ability to restore to a new workspace from restore points, which is not the same as active geo-replication.
- ✗
Use a Windows Server Failover Cluster.
Why it's wrong here
A Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC) is an operating-system-level cluster used to provide high availability for SQL Server instances running on Windows Server VMs or physical hosts. Azure Synapse Analytics is a PaaS service where the underlying infrastructure, including the virtual machines and the operating system, is completely hidden from the customer, making it impossible to install or configure a failover cluster. Additionally, WSFC is unnecessary because the service already has built-in redundancy and failover managed by the Azure platform.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Data Roles and Core Concepts
Key term
Data
Data is raw, unprocessed information, like numbers, words, or measurements, that can be stored, processed, and analyzed by computers.
Key term
Azure Synapse Analytics
Azure Synapse Analytics is a cloud-based data integration, warehousing, and analytics service that brings together big data and data warehouse capabilities under one platform.
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Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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