AZ-305 Question 59
Single answerYour organization is planning to migrate a mission-critical line-of-business application to Azure. The application’s relational database regularly exceeds 5 TB of data and the business requires minimal lag for read operations across multiple regions. Additionally, the team wants to reduce operational overhead by avoiding the management of operating system updates and patches. Which Azure solution design best meets these requirements?
- A
Deploy a SQL Server Always On availability group on Azure VMs for cross-region replication
- B
Use Azure SQL Database in the Hyperscale tier with auto-failover groups
- C
Configure Azure SQL Database in the Basic tier with standard geo-replication
- D
Implement Azure Database for PostgreSQL Single Server with read replicas across regions
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
Azure SQL Database Hyperscale is specifically designed for large-scale relational workloads and offers PaaS capabilities that offload OS-level management and patching to Microsoft. The auto-failover group feature facilitates global read scale with minimal replication lag, aligning perfectly with the scenario’s requirements. For more details, refer to Microsoft’s documentation on Azure SQL Database Hyperscale (https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/azure-sql/database/service-tier-hyperscale).
- A. Incorrect.
While SQL Server Always On availability groups on Azure VMs can provide multi-region replication, this approach leaves you responsible for managing the underlying operating system, patches, and machine configuration. This does not meet the requirement to minimize operational overhead.
- B. Correct.
Azure SQL Database Hyperscale supports very large databases (up to 100 TB) and can utilize auto-failover groups for globally distributed read scale and high availability. This PaaS offering also handles OS patching and updates, which reduces operational complexity.
- C. Incorrect.
Although Azure SQL Database in the Basic tier provides a fully managed environment, the Basic tier is not designed for multi-terabyte workloads or the performance requirements of near real-time replication. This choice would not adequately scale to handle the large data size and global read operations.
- D. Incorrect.
Azure Database for PostgreSQL Single Server does allow read replicas, but it is a different database engine altogether and may require significant refactoring of your SQL Server–based workload. Additionally, Single Server read replicas come with replication delays that may not meet your near real-time requirement.