DP-900 Practice Question: Identify considerations for relational data on Azure
A multinational corporation has Azure SQL Databases deployed in multiple Azure regions. They need to ensure that a failover to a secondary region happens automatically and with minimal data loss if the primary region goes down. Which deployment option should they use?
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
✓
Active geo-replication with auto-failover groups
The correct option is A, Active geo-replication with auto-failover groups, because auto-failover groups provide a read-write listener endpoint and allow Azure SQL Database to automatically fail over to a secondary region if the primary region becomes unavailable, with asynchronous replication that minimizes data loss. This directly matches the requirement for automatic cross-region failover with minimal data loss. Option B, zone-redundant databases, only protects against availability zone failures within a single region and does not provide cross-region failover. Option C, Azure Traffic Manager with multiple databases, can route traffic but does not itself perform database replication or automatic database failover. Option D, locally redundant storage (LRS), only replicates data within a single datacenter/region and offers no cross-region disaster recovery.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Active geo-replication with auto-failover groups
Why this is correct
Auto-failover groups provide a read-write listener endpoint that redirects connections to the secondary region automatically during an outage, satisfying the automatic failover requirement. They also support asynchronous replication with configurable grace periods, keeping data loss minimal across the multiple Azure regions described.
- ✗
Zone-redundant database
Why it's wrong here
Zone-redundant deployment replicates synchronously across availability zones within one region, so a whole-region outage leaves no secondary region to fail over to. It is the right choice when resilience against a single datacentre or zone failure inside one region is required, not cross-region continuity.
- ✗
Azure Traffic Manager with multiple databases
Why it's wrong here
Traffic Manager is a DNS-based load balancer that redirects client connections; it does not replicate data between the databases, so each region holds divergent data and failover loses recent transactions. It is correct for distributing traffic across independently replicated endpoints, not for automatic data-level failover.
- ✗
Locally redundant storage (LRS)
Why it's wrong here
Locally redundant storage replicates data three times within a single datacentre in one region, providing no cross-region copy and no automatic failover. It suits workloads tolerating datacentre-level hardware failure only, where cost is prioritised over regional disaster recovery.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2
Key term
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Database is a fully managed relational database-as-a-service (DBaaS) in Microsoft Azure, based on the SQL Server engine, that handles scaling, backups, patching, and high availability automatically.
Key term
Data
Data is raw, unprocessed information, like numbers, words, or measurements, that can be stored, processed, and analyzed by computers.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DP-900 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-900 exam.