AZ-305 Question 120
Single answerA marketing company has a single Azure SQL Database that must retain monthly backups for compliance for up to 60 months, in addition to the standard 35-day point-in-time restore period. Minimizing administrative overhead is a priority. Which backup strategy should you recommend?
- A
Rely on the default backups alone, which already retain data for the required duration.
- B
Adjust the default retention setting to 60 months for the built-in backups in Azure SQL Database.
- C
Use Azure SQL Database Long-Term Retention (LTR) to configure monthly backups for up to 60 months.
- D
Migrate the database to an Azure VM and leverage Azure Backup for long-term backups.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
In Azure SQL Database, the standard point-in-time restore retains backups for up to 35 days, which will not fulfill a 5-year compliance requirement. Long-Term Retention (LTR) extends backup retention to monthly, weekly, or annual intervals, up to a maximum of 10 years. This is the recommended solution for compliance retention of Azure SQL Databases. For more information, see Microsoft’s documentation on Azure SQL Database backups and long-term retention: https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/azure-sql/database/automated-backups-overview#long-term-backup-retention.
- A. Incorrect.
Option 1 is incorrect because the default point-in-time restore feature in Azure SQL Database only retains backups for up to 35 days. This does not satisfy the 5-year retention requirement.
- B. Incorrect.
Option 2 is incorrect because Azure SQL Database’s default retention configuration cannot be directly set to 60 months. You need to enable Long-Term Retention specifically to store backups for more than 35 days.
- C. Correct.
Option 3 is correct because Azure SQL Database’s built-in Long-Term Retention (LTR) allows you to configure monthly, weekly, or yearly backups for up to 10 years. This meets the company’s requirement without significant administrative overhead.
- D. Incorrect.
Option 4 is incorrect because migrating to an Azure VM adds complexity. While Azure Backup for SQL Server VMs can handle longer retention periods, it is unnecessary overhead when LTR is directly supported by Azure SQL Database.