Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect ExpertDesign business continuity solutionsMedium
A multinational corporation uses Azure Virtual Machines to host its critical ERP system. The company requires a robust disaster recovery solution that can recover the entire application environment, including VMs, networks, and storage, to a secondary Azure region with an RTO of less than 2 hours and an RPO of less than 15 minutes. The solution must be automated and orchestrated. Which Azure service should be implemented?
- AManual VM snapshot and deployment in a secondary region.
- BAzure Resource Mover.
- CAzure Site Recovery (ASR).
- DAzure Backup for Azure VMs.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Azure Site Recovery (ASR).
Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is designed for comprehensive disaster recovery, enabling replication of Azure VMs to a secondary region. It provides orchestration for automated failover and failback, along with a low RTO (minutes to hours) and RPO (seconds to minutes) for entire application environments, meeting the specified requirements.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Manual snapshots and deployment would be time-consuming, error-prone, and would not meet the RTO or RPO requirements for an automated, orchestrated solution.
- B. Azure Resource Mover is for moving Azure resources between regions, not for continuous replication, RTO/RPO adherence, or orchestrated disaster recovery.
- D. Azure Backup is primarily for data backup and recovery, typically with higher RTOs for entire VM restoration, not optimized for orchestrated disaster recovery of complex environments.
Azure Site Recovery (ASR)
Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is a disaster recovery service that replicates workloads running on physical servers, Azure VMs, or VMware VMs to a secondary location, enabling orchestrated failover and failback for business continuity.
- Replicates VMs (Azure, VMware, physical) to Azure or secondary site.
- Provides orchestrated failover and failback.
- Low RTO and RPO for disaster recovery.
- Supports DR drills without impacting production.
Memory trick: ASR is your Automatic Safe Return for VMs in a regional disaster.