Disaster recovery strategies in Azure - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

🧠 Conceptual

intermediate

Understanding Azure Site Recovery (ASR)

Which statement best describes the primary function of Azure Site Recovery in disaster recovery?

A It replicates virtual machines to a secondary region to enable failover during outages.

B It automatically backs up databases to Azure Blob Storage every hour.

C It monitors network traffic to prevent DDoS attacks during disasters.

D It encrypts data at rest to protect against unauthorized access.

💡 Hint

Think about how Azure helps keep applications running when a whole data center fails.

Azure Site Recovery replicates workloads to a secondary location, allowing failover if the primary site is unavailable.

❓ Architecture

intermediate

Choosing the right Azure disaster recovery architecture

You need to design a disaster recovery solution for a critical web app hosted in Azure. The app must recover within 15 minutes after a regional outage. Which Azure feature combination best meets this requirement?

A Use Azure Backup with geo-redundant storage and manual VM redeployment.

B Use Azure Blob Storage with locally redundant storage and scheduled snapshots.

C Deploy the app in two Azure regions with Azure Traffic Manager and Azure Site Recovery.

D Configure Azure Firewall with automatic failover and Azure Monitor alerts.

💡 Hint

Consider both replication and traffic routing for fast recovery.

Deploying in two regions with Traffic Manager and Site Recovery enables quick failover and minimal downtime.

❓ security

advanced

Securing disaster recovery data in Azure

During disaster recovery, which Azure feature ensures that replicated data is protected against unauthorized access both in transit and at rest?

A Azure Firewall with IP whitelisting.

B Azure Disk Encryption combined with Azure VPN Gateway.

C Azure Active Directory Conditional Access policies only.

D Azure Storage Service Encryption with HTTPS enforced for replication traffic.

💡 Hint

Think about encryption for stored data and secure communication channels.

Azure Storage Service Encryption protects data at rest, and HTTPS secures data in transit during replication.

❓ service_behavior

advanced

Behavior of Azure Recovery Services Vault during failover

What happens to the Recovery Services Vault when you initiate a failover of a protected VM to the secondary Azure region?

A The vault remains in the primary region and continues to manage replication and recovery points for the VM.

B The vault duplicates itself in the secondary region and merges backup data automatically.

C The vault migrates to the secondary region and pauses replication until failback is initiated.

D The vault automatically switches to the secondary region and deletes backups in the primary region.

💡 Hint

Consider the vault's role and location relative to the VM replication.

The Recovery Services Vault stays in the primary region and manages replication and recovery points even after failover.

✅ Best Practice

expert

Optimizing Recovery Point Objective (RPO) in Azure disaster recovery

You want to minimize data loss during failover for a high-transaction database in Azure. Which approach best reduces the Recovery Point Objective (RPO)?

A Configure asynchronous replication with a 15-minute replication interval.

B Use synchronous replication with Azure SQL Database geo-replication enabled.

C Enable Azure Backup with incremental snapshots every hour.

D Schedule daily backups to Azure Blob Storage with geo-redundancy.

💡 Hint

Think about replication methods that keep data copies closely synchronized.

Synchronous replication ensures data is written to both primary and secondary locations simultaneously, minimizing data loss.

Practice

1. What is the main purpose of a disaster recovery strategy in Azure?

easy

A. To keep cloud services safe and running during failures

B. To reduce the cost of cloud services

C. To increase the speed of the internet connection

D. To create new cloud services automatically

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand disaster recovery goals

   Disaster recovery aims to keep services available and safe during unexpected problems.

2. Step 2: Identify the main purpose in Azure context

   Azure disaster recovery focuses on maintaining service continuity and data protection.

3. Final Answer:

   To keep cloud services safe and running during failures -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Disaster recovery = keep services running [OK]

Hint: Disaster recovery means keeping services running during problems [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Confusing disaster recovery with cost saving
• Thinking it improves internet speed
• Assuming it creates new services automatically

2. Which Azure service is used to organize backups and failover plans for disaster recovery?

easy

A. Azure Virtual Machines

B. Azure Recovery Services Vault

C. Azure Blob Storage

D. Azure Functions

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify the service for backup and failover

   Azure Recovery Services Vault is designed to manage backups and disaster recovery plans.

2. Step 2: Compare with other services

   Virtual Machines run workloads, Blob Storage stores data, Functions run code, but only Recovery Services Vault organizes recovery.

3. Final Answer:

   Azure Recovery Services Vault -> Option B

4. Quick Check:

   Recovery Vault = backup and failover organizer [OK]

Hint: Recovery Services Vault manages backups and failover plans [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Choosing Virtual Machines as backup organizer
• Confusing Blob Storage with recovery management
• Selecting Functions for disaster recovery

3. Consider this Azure CLI command snippet for disaster recovery setup:

az backup vault create --resource-group MyGroup --name MyVault
az backup protection enable-for-vm --vault-name MyVault --vm MyVM --policy-name DefaultPolicy

What is the expected result after running these commands?

medium

A. The backup policy DefaultPolicy is deleted

B. A virtual machine named MyVault is created and backed up

C. A backup vault named MyVault is created and MyVM is protected by backup

D. The resource group MyGroup is deleted

Solution

1. Step 1: Analyze the first command

   The first command creates a backup vault named MyVault in resource group MyGroup.

2. Step 2: Analyze the second command

   The second command enables backup protection for the VM named MyVM using the DefaultPolicy in the vault MyVault.

3. Final Answer:

   A backup vault named MyVault is created and MyVM is protected by backup -> Option C

4. Quick Check:

   Vault created + VM backup enabled = A backup vault named MyVault is created and MyVM is protected by backup [OK]

Hint: First create vault, then enable VM backup in that vault [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Thinking a VM named MyVault is created
• Assuming resource group is deleted
• Believing backup policy is deleted

4. You wrote this Azure Recovery Services Vault configuration but backups are not starting:

resource "azurerm_recovery_services_vault" "example" {
  name                = "example-vault"
  location            = "eastus"
  resource_group_name = "example-rg"
  sku                 = "Standard"
}

resource "azurerm_backup_policy_vm" "example_policy" {
  name                = "example-policy"
  resource_group_name = "example-rg"
  recovery_vault_name = azurerm_recovery_services_vault.example.name

  backup {
    frequency = "Daily"
    time      = "02:00"
    timezone  = "UTC"
  }

  retention_daily {
    count = 7
  }
}

What is the likely error preventing backups from starting?

medium

A. The backup frequency must be hourly, not daily

B. The vault SKU must be Premium, not Standard

C. The resource group name is incorrect

D. The backup policy is missing the 'timezone' setting

Solution

1. Step 1: Review backup policy requirements

   Azure backup policies require a timezone setting to schedule backups correctly.

2. Step 2: Check configuration details

   The policy lacks a timezone field, which can prevent backups from starting.

3. Final Answer:

   The backup policy is missing the 'timezone' setting -> Option D

4. Quick Check:

   Missing timezone in policy stops backups [OK]

Hint: Backup policies need timezone to schedule backups [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Assuming SKU Standard is invalid
• Thinking resource group name is wrong without evidence
• Believing frequency must be hourly

5. You want to design a disaster recovery plan in Azure that automatically fails over your web app to a secondary region if the primary region goes down. Which combination of Azure services and features should you use?

hard

A. Azure Traffic Manager with Recovery Services Vault and automated failover runbooks

B. Azure Blob Storage with manual backup and restore scripts

C. Azure Functions with local backups only

D. Azure Virtual Machines without any backup or failover setup

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify failover automation tools

   Azure Traffic Manager can route traffic to a secondary region automatically when the primary fails.

2. Step 2: Combine with backup and automation

   Recovery Services Vault stores backups, and runbooks automate failover processes for quick recovery.

3. Step 3: Evaluate other options

   Blob Storage and Functions alone do not provide automated failover; VMs without backup lack recovery.

4. Final Answer:

   Azure Traffic Manager with Recovery Services Vault and automated failover runbooks -> Option A

5. Quick Check:

   Traffic Manager + Recovery Vault + automation = automated failover [OK]

Hint: Use Traffic Manager plus Recovery Vault and automation for failover [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Choosing manual backup without automation
• Using Functions without failover setup
• Ignoring backup and failover in VM-only option