Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect ExpertDesign business continuity solutionsMedium
A global e-commerce company operates its primary web application from a single Azure region. Due to recent growth, the company wants to ensure that its application remains available even if an entire Azure region experiences a major outage. The application uses Azure App Service for its front end, Azure SQL Database for its primary data store, and Azure Storage for static content. The company requires a recovery time objective (RTO) of less than 4 hours and a recovery point objective (RPO) of less than 15 minutes. Which disaster recovery strategy should the company implement for its Azure SQL Database to meet these requirements?
- AConfigure active geo-replication for the Azure SQL Database to a secondary region.
- BUse Azure SQL Database standard backups with geo-restore to a secondary region.
- CImplement a failover group for the Azure SQL Database across two regions.
- DDeploy an Azure SQL Database Hyperscale tier with zone redundancy in the primary region.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Implement a failover group for the Azure SQL Database across two regions.
Failover groups provide automatic asynchronous replication of databases to a secondary region, enabling RPO of minutes and RTO of hours. This setup allows for manual or automatic failover, meeting the specified RTO and RPO requirements. Active geo-replication requires manual intervention for failover, which may not meet the RTO.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Active geo-replication provides a low RPO but requires manual failover, which might not meet the RTO without specific automation.
- B. Standard backups with geo-restore would likely exceed the 4-hour RTO due to the time required for restoration.
- D. Zone redundancy protects against datacenter failures within a region, but not against an entire region outage, which is the scenario described.
Azure SQL Database Failover Groups
Azure SQL Database Failover Groups automate the replication and failover of a group of databases to a secondary region, providing business continuity for regional disasters.
- Automates failover for a group of databases.
- Supports both manual and automatic failover policies.
- Provides a read-write listener and an optional read-only listener.
- Ensures low RPO and RTO for regional disaster recovery.
Memory trick: SQL Disasters need Fast Recovery like a Failover Group.