Azure Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Flashcards

What is the maximum backup retention period for Azure VM backups using Azure Backup with Enhanced Policy?

Answer: 99 years

Azure Backup Enhanced Policy supports backup retention for up to 99 years, enabling organizations to meet long-term data retention regulatory requirements for VM backups.

An architect must ensure that Azure Cosmos DB can survive a complete region failure with automatic failover and zero data loss. What must be configured?

Answer: Multi-region writes with automatic failover enabled

Enabling multi-region writes with automatic failover allows Cosmos DB to continue accepting writes from another region automatically if the primary write region fails, with near-zero data loss.

Which Azure feature allows you to test a disaster recovery failover of VMs without impacting the production environment or interrupting replication?

Answer: Test Failover in Azure Site Recovery

Test Failover in ASR spins up the replicated VM in an isolated network without stopping replication, validating the DR plan without affecting production workloads.

An organization must protect Azure File Shares from ransomware by maintaining file snapshots that cannot be deleted by a compromised admin account. Which feature addresses this?

Answer: Multi-User Authorization with Resource Guard

Multi-User Authorization with Resource Guard requires approval from an independent Resource Guard resource to delete backup data, preventing a single compromised admin from destroying backups.

Which Azure service provides a managed runbook-style orchestration engine that automates complex DR workflows including sequencing, dependencies, and custom scripts?

Answer: Azure Site Recovery Recovery Plans

ASR Recovery Plans allow you to define failover sequences, add manual actions, and inject Azure Automation runbooks into the failover workflow for automated DR orchestration.

When designing for high availability in Azure, what is the minimum number of Availability Zones recommended to achieve the 99.99% VM SLA?

Answer: 2 zones

Deploying VMs across at least 2 Availability Zones qualifies for Azure's 99.99% VM uptime SLA, as Microsoft guarantees connectivity to at least one zone during a single zone failure.