Microsoft AZ-305 Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solution Exam Dumps and Practice Test Questions Set 5 Q61-75
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Question 61
You need to design a solution for monitoring the health of Azure virtual machines and receive notifications when performance thresholds are exceeded. Which Azure service should you recommend?
A) Azure Monitor
B) Azure Security Center
C) Azure Application Insights
D) Azure Log Analytics
Answer: A) Azure Monitor
Explanation:
Azure Monitor collects telemetry data from Azure resources, including virtual machines, networks, and applications. It provides metrics such as CPU utilization, memory usage, disk I/O, and network traffic. Users can configure alerts based on thresholds or anomalies to notify administrators proactively. Azure Monitor integrates with Action Groups to trigger emails, SMS, webhooks, or automation runbooks for response actions.
Azure Security Center focuses on security posture and threat detection. While it monitors security-related events and provides recommendations, it does not provide detailed performance monitoring or alerting for VMs.
Azure Application Insights monitors application performance, including web apps and services, tracking requests, dependencies, and exceptions. It is not designed for infrastructure-level metrics monitoring or VM performance alerts.
Azure Log Analytics is a tool used to query, analyze, and visualize logs collected from various sources, including Azure Monitor. While it enables deep analysis, it does not provide automated threshold-based alerting on its own; it relies on integration with Azure Monitor.
The correct selection must provide VM health monitoring, collect telemetry metrics, and trigger alerts when thresholds are exceeded. Azure Monitor meets this requirement with metric collection, alerting, visualization, and integration with automation tools. Other services focus on security monitoring, application-level telemetry, or log querying and cannot deliver the complete infrastructure monitoring and alerting solution. Therefore, Azure Monitor is the correct choice.
Question 62
You need to design a solution for storing large-scale structured data with low latency for analytics workloads. Which Azure service should you recommend?
A) Azure SQL Database
B) Azure Table Storage
C) Azure Synapse Analytics
D) Azure Blob Storage
Answer: C) Azure Synapse Analytics
Explanation:
Azure Synapse Analytics is a scalable analytics service designed for large volumes of structured and semi-structured data. It allows fast querying using massively parallel processing (MPP) and integrates with Power BI, Azure Data Lake, and machine learning workflows. Synapse provides low-latency analytics, optimized storage formats, and high-performance query execution suitable for big data workloads.
Azure SQL Database is a relational database service ideal for transactional workloads, small to medium-scale analytics, and structured data. It is not optimized for large-scale analytics or big data querying.
Azure Table Storage is a NoSQL key-value store for structured data but is optimized for simple queries and high-volume storage rather than complex analytics.
Azure Blob Storage stores unstructured object data such as media, logs, and backups. It is not designed for analytics queries or structured data workloads.
The correct selection must provide low-latency querying, scalability, and analytics capabilities for large structured datasets. Azure Synapse Analytics meets these requirements with MPP, integrated analytics tools, and optimized query execution. Other services focus on transactional workloads, simple key-value storage, or unstructured storage and cannot meet large-scale analytics demands. Therefore, Azure Synapse Analytics is the correct choice.
Question 63
You need to design a solution to route traffic globally based on performance, directing users to the nearest available Azure region. Which Azure service should you recommend?
A) Azure Traffic Manager
B) Azure Load Balancer
C) Azure Application Gateway
D) Azure Front Door
Answer: A) Azure Traffic Manager
Explanation:
Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic routing service that directs users to endpoints based on performance, geographic location, priority, or weighted rules. Performance routing monitors endpoint latency and directs traffic to the lowest-latency endpoint, ensuring optimal user experience. It supports failover and load distribution across multiple regions without requiring application changes.
Azure Load Balancer distributes traffic at Layer 4 across VMs within a single region and does not provide global routing or DNS-based endpoint selection.
Azure Application Gateway is a Layer 7 web traffic load balancer that operates regionally, providing SSL offload, URL-based routing, and WAF capabilities. It does not route traffic globally based on performance metrics.
Azure Front Door is a global Layer 7 service with SSL termination, caching, and low-latency routing, similar to Traffic Manager. However, Front Door primarily focuses on application acceleration and caching rather than DNS-based performance routing.
The correct selection must route traffic globally based on performance metrics and direct users to the nearest or fastest endpoint. Azure Traffic Manager meets this requirement with DNS-based routing, endpoint monitoring, and failover support. Other services focus on regional traffic distribution, application-level routing, or global delivery with caching and cannot provide pure performance-based DNS routing. Therefore, Azure Traffic Manager is the correct choice.
Question 64
You need to design a solution for automating deployment of Azure resources with repeatable templates. Which Azure service should you recommend?
A) Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Templates
B) Azure DevOps Pipelines
C) Azure Policy
D) Azure Blueprints
Answer: A) Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Templates
Explanation:
Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Templates provide declarative JSON-based templates to deploy, configure, and manage Azure resources consistently. They allow repeatable deployments, version control, and parameterization for environment-specific configurations. ARM Templates enable full automation without manual intervention, ensuring consistency across multiple environments.
Azure DevOps Pipelines are CI/CD workflows for building, testing, and deploying applications. While pipelines can orchestrate ARM Template deployments, they are not templates themselves.
Azure Policy is used to enforce compliance and governance on Azure resources. It cannot automate deployments but ensures that deployed resources comply with defined rules.
Azure Blueprints enable packaging of ARM Templates, policies, and role assignments into a single package for environment deployment. While Blueprints extend ARM Templates for complex governance scenarios, the core automation mechanism is provided by ARM Templates.
The correct selection must automate resource deployment, enable repeatable templates, and support parameterization. ARM Templates meet this requirement with declarative definitions, reusable modules, and consistent deployments. Other services focus on CI/CD orchestration, governance, or packaging rather than direct template-based deployment. Therefore, ARM Templates are the correct choice.
Question 65
You need to design a solution for securing Azure virtual network traffic between subnets and on-premises networks. Which Azure service should you recommend?
A) Network Security Groups (NSGs)
B) Azure Firewall
C) Azure Front Door
D) Azure Key Vault
Answer: A) Network Security Groups (NSGs)
Explanation:
Network Security Groups (NSGs) allow administrators to define inbound and outbound traffic rules at the subnet or network interface level. They provide granular control over network communication between Azure subnets, VMs, and on-premises networks. NSGs help enforce security policies and prevent unauthorized traffic, supporting high-security hybrid network designs.
Azure Firewall is a fully managed cloud-native firewall providing stateful packet inspection, threat intelligence, and centralized logging. While it offers advanced network security, NSGs are simpler, subnet-level solutions for filtering traffic.
Azure Front Door provides Layer 7 global traffic routing and WAF capabilities but does not control subnet-to-subnet network traffic.
Azure Key Vault manages encryption keys and secrets but does not control network traffic or enforce access between subnets.
The correct selection must provide subnet-level traffic filtering and enforce security policies between Azure and on-premises networks. NSGs meet this requirement with configurable rules for inbound and outbound traffic, making them the correct choice. Other services focus on centralized firewall, application-level traffic, or key management and cannot enforce network rules at the subnet level. Therefore, Network Security Groups are the correct choice.
Question 66
You need to design a solution that encrypts data at rest for Azure SQL Database using service-managed keys. Which Azure feature should you recommend?
A) Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
B) Azure Key Vault
C) Always Encrypted
D) Azure Storage Service Encryption
Answer: A) Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
Explanation:
Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) automatically encrypts the database, log files, and backups at rest using service-managed keys without requiring application changes. It provides built-in encryption, compliance, and security with minimal administrative effort. TDE is fully managed and integrated with Azure SQL Database, ensuring data protection at rest.
Azure Key Vault manages encryption keys and secrets. While it can store keys for customer-managed encryption, service-managed keys for TDE do not require Key Vault.
Always Encrypted encrypts sensitive columns within SQL databases and requires client-side configuration. It is used for granular data protection, not full database encryption at rest.
Azure Storage Service Encryption encrypts blobs, files, and other storage services but is not directly used for SQL Database encryption.
The correct selection must provide automatic, service-managed encryption of SQL Database data at rest. TDE meets this requirement by providing encryption with no application changes, full integration, and compliance support. Other services focus on key management, column-level encryption, or storage encryption and cannot provide full database encryption automatically. Therefore, Transparent Data Encryption is the correct choice.
Question 67
You need to design a solution for distributing traffic to multiple Azure App Service instances with session persistence. Which Azure service should you recommend?
A) Azure Application Gateway
B) Azure Load Balancer
C) Azure Traffic Manager
D) Azure Front Door
Answer: A) Azure Application Gateway
Explanation:
Azure Application Gateway is a robust Layer 7 load balancing solution specifically designed to manage web traffic for applications running in Azure. It operates at the application layer, enabling advanced traffic routing capabilities that go beyond simple network-level load distribution. One of its key features is session affinity, which ensures that clients are consistently routed to the same backend server during a session. This is particularly important for stateful applications, such as e-commerce websites or applications that maintain user-specific session data, as it preserves continuity and prevents data loss or inconsistencies when a user interacts with the application over multiple requests. Session affinity in Application Gateway is achieved through the use of cookies, which bind a client session to a particular backend instance, ensuring a seamless user experience.
Another important capability of Application Gateway is SSL termination. By offloading SSL/TLS processing from backend servers, Application Gateway reduces the computational load on application servers and simplifies certificate management. This enables secure communication between clients and the gateway while allowing traffic to be transmitted unencrypted or re-encrypted to backend servers based on configuration. This feature is essential for web applications that require secure connections without placing undue strain on application resources, ensuring both performance and security.
In addition to session management and SSL termination, Application Gateway supports URL-based routing, which allows traffic to be directed to specific backend pools based on the requested URL path. This functionality is useful for applications that host multiple services or microservices under a single domain, enabling granular routing decisions that improve resource utilization and application scalability. For example, requests for /images can be directed to a specialized image processing backend, while requests for /api can be routed to a different service optimized for API operations.
Security is further enhanced through the integration of the Web Application Firewall (WAF). The WAF provides protection against common web vulnerabilities, including SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other OWASP Top 10 threats. It can operate in detection mode to monitor attacks or in prevention mode to block malicious requests, helping to safeguard applications from exploitation while providing logging and monitoring capabilities for security auditing. This combination of routing, session management, and security makes Application Gateway a comprehensive solution for web application delivery.
Other Azure services, while valuable in their own domains, do not provide the same combination of features. Azure Load Balancer operates at Layer 4, distributing network traffic without understanding HTTP or HTTPS requests. It does not support session persistence or application-layer routing, making it suitable only for stateless workloads. Azure Traffic Manager, a DNS-based global traffic routing service, directs traffic based on geographic location or performance but cannot maintain session persistence at the application level. Similarly, Azure Front Door provides global routing, caching, and acceleration, but it does not inherently maintain session affinity for backend App Services, limiting its ability to manage stateful application sessions.
The correct selection for a web application that requires session persistence, advanced Layer 7 routing, SSL offloading, and integrated security is Azure Application Gateway. It combines application-aware traffic management, session affinity, URL-based routing, SSL termination, and WAF capabilities, making it the optimal choice for delivering secure, reliable, and stateful web applications. Other services focus on stateless load balancing, global routing, or caching, and cannot ensure consistent session handling or Layer 7 security. Therefore, Azure Application Gateway is the most suitable solution for scenarios requiring comprehensive web traffic management.
Question 68
You need to design a solution that automatically scales Azure App Service instances based on CPU utilization. Which Azure feature should you recommend?
A) App Service Autoscale
B) Azure Load Balancer
C) Azure Traffic Manager
D) Virtual Machine Scale Sets
Answer: A) App Service Autoscale
Explanation:
App Service Autoscale automatically adjusts the number of App Service plan instances based on configured rules, such as CPU utilization, memory usage, or HTTP queue length. It ensures that applications maintain performance during demand spikes and reduces costs during low usage periods. Autoscale is fully integrated into the App Service platform and requires minimal configuration.
Azure Load Balancer distributes traffic across instances but does not automatically adjust the number of App Service instances.
Azure Traffic Manager routes traffic globally but does not scale App Service instances based on metrics.
Virtual Machine Scale Sets automatically scale VMs but are not used to scale PaaS App Service instances.
The correct selection must dynamically adjust App Service instances based on performance metrics. App Service Autoscale meets this requirement with automatic instance management, integration with monitoring metrics, and cost optimization. Other services focus on traffic routing or VM scaling and cannot scale PaaS services automatically. Therefore, App Service Autoscale is the correct choice.
Question 69
You need to design a solution for centralized identity management for multiple Azure subscriptions. Which Azure service should you recommend?
A) Azure Active Directory
B) Azure Key Vault
C) Azure Policy
D) Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Answer: A) Azure Active Directory
Explanation:
Azure Active Directory, commonly referred to as Azure AD, is a comprehensive cloud-based identity and access management service that enables organizations to securely manage user identities and control access to applications and resources across both cloud and on-premises environments. It serves as a centralized platform for authentication, authorization, and identity management, allowing users to sign in once and gain access to multiple Azure subscriptions, SaaS applications, and internal resources without needing to maintain multiple sets of credentials. This single sign-on capability not only improves user experience but also enhances security by reducing password fatigue and the risk of password-related breaches.
One of the core features of Azure AD is identity federation, which allows organizations to integrate with other identity providers and support seamless access across different environments. This ensures that users can authenticate using existing credentials from trusted sources while maintaining centralized control and auditing. Azure AD also provides conditional access policies, enabling organizations to define granular access rules based on user location, device compliance, risk level, or other factors. By implementing conditional access, administrators can ensure that only authorized users on trusted devices and networks can access critical resources, significantly reducing security risks. Multi-factor authentication is another integral feature of Azure AD, adding an extra layer of security by requiring users to provide additional verification, such as a mobile app notification or one-time code, when signing in.
While Azure AD provides identity and authentication services, other Azure services focus on different aspects of security and management but do not replace centralized identity management. Azure Key Vault, for example, securely stores secrets, encryption keys, and certificates, providing secure access to sensitive data, but it does not manage user identities or authentication. Azure Policy is used to enforce compliance and governance rules on resources, such as requiring encryption or tagging, but it does not handle user sign-in or access management. Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) allows organizations to assign permissions to users, groups, and service principals, but it relies on Azure AD for authentication and identity verification, meaning it cannot function independently as an identity management solution.
For organizations seeking a centralized and secure approach to identity and access management, Azure Active Directory is the ideal solution. It not only handles authentication across multiple applications and subscriptions but also supports advanced security features such as conditional access, identity federation, and multi-factor authentication. By integrating with Azure AD, businesses can manage user access consistently across cloud and on-premises environments, enforce security policies, and monitor authentication activity through detailed reporting and auditing. Other services, while important for security, compliance, or authorization, do not provide the foundational identity management capabilities required for secure and centralized authentication.
Azure Active Directory meets the requirements for centralized identity authentication, access management, and security policy enforcement. Its features allow organizations to maintain consistent identity controls across multiple Azure subscriptions, SaaS platforms, and on-premises resources, ensuring secure and efficient management of users and groups. Other services, including Key Vault, Azure Policy, and RBAC, complement Azure AD but cannot provide the full identity management capabilities that Azure AD offers. Therefore, Azure Active Directory is the correct choice for organizations looking to implement a secure, centralized identity and access management solution.
Question 70
You need to design a solution for storing structured data with relational capabilities and high availability. Which Azure service should you recommend?
A) Azure SQL Database
B) Azure Table Storage
C) Azure Cosmos DB
D) Azure Blob Storage
Answer: A) Azure SQL Database
Explanation:
Azure SQL Database is a fully managed platform-as-a-service offering that delivers robust relational database capabilities in the cloud. It is designed to support structured data workloads, enabling organizations to manage, query, and analyze relational data efficiently. The service is fully compatible with SQL Server, providing developers and database administrators with familiar tools, syntax, and management practices. This compatibility facilitates straightforward migration of on-premises SQL Server databases to Azure with minimal application changes. Beyond compatibility, SQL Database offers advanced relational features such as indexing, stored procedures, triggers, and support for ACID transactions, ensuring that data integrity and consistency are maintained across operations.
One of the core strengths of Azure SQL Database is its built-in high availability and business continuity capabilities. It supports automatic failover and geo-replication, allowing databases to remain accessible even in the event of hardware failures or regional outages. Automated backups and point-in-time restore features protect against data loss, while service-level agreements (SLAs) guarantee uptime, making it suitable for mission-critical applications where continuous availability is essential. In addition, the platform integrates seamlessly with Azure’s monitoring and security services, providing detailed telemetry, auditing, and compliance reporting, which reduces operational overhead for administrators.
In contrast, other Azure data services do not offer the same combination of relational features and managed high availability. Azure Table Storage is a NoSQL key-value store designed to handle large volumes of structured data, but it lacks relational database capabilities such as ACID transactions, joins, and advanced querying. It also does not provide automated high availability or failover guarantees, making it unsuitable for applications that require transactional integrity and complex relational operations. Similarly, Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed NoSQL database that excels in multi-region replication, low-latency access, and support for multiple data models, including key-value, document, and graph. However, Cosmos DB does not provide traditional relational database functionality or compatibility with SQL Server, limiting its use for applications designed around relational schema and transactional processing. Azure Blob Storage, on the other hand, is optimized for storing unstructured data such as media files, backups, and large datasets. While it provides scalable storage, it lacks relational data management, query capabilities, and transactional support, making it unsuitable for structured relational workloads.
The decision to choose Azure SQL Database over other Azure storage and database services is guided by the requirement to support structured relational data with high availability, automated backups, and managed maintenance. SQL Database delivers a fully managed environment, reduces administrative overhead, ensures compliance with enterprise and regulatory standards, and maintains data integrity and business continuity. Its combination of relational features, SLA-backed reliability, integrated monitoring, and security support makes it the ideal choice for workloads that require a robust, scalable, and highly available relational database in the cloud. Therefore, for organizations seeking a managed relational database platform that balances performance, reliability, and operational efficiency, Azure SQL Database is the correct solution.
Question 71
You need to design a solution for globally distributing traffic to multiple Azure web applications with automatic failover. Which Azure service should you recommend?
A) Azure Front Door
B) Azure Load Balancer
C) Azure Application Gateway
D) Azure Traffic Manager
Answer: A) Azure Front Door
Explanation:
Azure Front Door is a global, high-performance Layer 7 service designed to enhance the performance, reliability, and availability of web applications deployed across multiple regions. It provides intelligent routing of HTTP and HTTPS traffic to the nearest healthy endpoint, ensuring that users experience low latency regardless of their geographic location. By distributing traffic across globally deployed application endpoints, Azure Front Door helps organizations deliver faster response times, reduce network congestion, and maintain consistent application performance worldwide. One of its core capabilities is automatic failover, which ensures that if a regional endpoint becomes unavailable due to outages or maintenance, traffic is seamlessly rerouted to the next closest healthy endpoint, maintaining business continuity and minimizing downtime.
Front Door also offers advanced Layer 7 features that are critical for modern web applications. SSL offload is one such feature, which allows the service to handle SSL/TLS encryption and decryption at the edge, reducing the computational load on backend servers and improving overall performance. It also includes caching capabilities to store frequently accessed content at edge locations, further reducing latency and improving user experience. In addition, Front Door integrates Web Application Firewall (WAF) protection to safeguard applications against common web vulnerabilities and attacks, such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting, ensuring security alongside performance. Health probes are continuously conducted to monitor endpoint availability and detect failures in real time, allowing Front Door to route traffic only to healthy, responsive endpoints.
In comparison, other Azure services provide some traffic management or load balancing capabilities but fall short of offering the full range of global, Layer 7 features required for multi-region web applications. Azure Load Balancer operates at Layer 4 and distributes traffic at the transport level. While it provides high availability within a single region, it does not support global routing, SSL offload, caching, or WAF protection, making it unsuitable for globally distributed applications. Azure Application Gateway operates at Layer 7 and includes SSL termination, URL-based routing, and WAF capabilities; however, it is a regional service and cannot provide global failover, limiting its usefulness for multi-region deployments. Azure Traffic Manager offers DNS-based traffic routing to distribute traffic across global endpoints. While it enables geographic distribution, DNS-based routing can result in higher latency due to caching and does not provide real-time failover or Layer 7 capabilities like SSL offload and caching, which are critical for modern applications.
For organizations that need to deliver web applications globally with high performance, security, and availability, Azure Front Door is the most suitable solution. It combines low-latency traffic routing, automatic failover, SSL offload, caching, WAF protection, and real-time health monitoring into a single service. By using Front Door, businesses can ensure that their applications remain performant and resilient, even during regional outages or spikes in traffic. Other services either focus on regional traffic management, transport-level load balancing, or DNS-based distribution, which do not fully meet the requirements for global failover, Layer 7 optimization, and security. Therefore, Azure Front Door is the correct choice for delivering globally distributed web applications with high availability and performance.
Question 72
You need to design a solution for securing web applications against common threats such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting. Which Azure service should you recommend?
A) Azure Application Gateway WAF
B) Azure Load Balancer
C) Azure Traffic Manager
D) Azure Key Vault
Answer: A) Azure Application Gateway WAF
Explanation:
Azure Application Gateway is a robust Layer 7 web traffic load balancer that includes an integrated Web Application Firewall (WAF), designed to protect web applications from a wide range of security threats. The WAF component is specifically engineered to detect and mitigate attacks targeting application-layer vulnerabilities. This includes protection against common threats such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), remote file inclusion, and other vulnerabilities identified in the OWASP Top 10. By providing this level of protection, the WAF helps organizations secure their web applications from malicious actors who attempt to exploit weaknesses in application code or user input handling.
Application Gateway’s WAF operates in two distinct modes: detection and prevention. In detection mode, the WAF monitors incoming HTTP and HTTPS requests and identifies potential security threats, logging them for review and alerting administrators without blocking legitimate traffic. This mode is useful for gaining visibility into attack patterns and tuning security policies before enforcing stricter measures. In prevention mode, the WAF actively blocks malicious requests in real time, mitigating attacks before they can reach the application backend. This proactive approach ensures that vulnerabilities cannot be exploited and that sensitive data, such as user credentials and financial information, is safeguarded. Additionally, the WAF integrates with Azure monitoring and logging solutions, enabling centralized auditing, alerting, and reporting. Administrators can track blocked requests, investigate attack patterns, and configure alerts to respond to suspicious activities promptly.
While Azure Application Gateway WAF provides comprehensive application-layer security, other Azure networking and security services do not offer the same capabilities. Azure Load Balancer operates at Layer 4, distributing network traffic across virtual machines within a region. Although it ensures high availability and scalability, it does not inspect HTTP requests or provide protections against application-level attacks. This limitation makes it unsuitable for organizations seeking to defend web applications from common threats such as SQL injection or XSS. Similarly, Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based global traffic routing service. Its primary function is to direct user requests to the most appropriate endpoint based on factors such as performance, geographic location, or endpoint health. While Traffic Manager improves application availability and latency, it does not provide security monitoring, traffic inspection, or threat mitigation capabilities. Azure Key Vault is another service often used in securing cloud environments, but its functionality is focused on managing encryption keys, secrets, and certificates. Key Vault ensures secure storage and access control for sensitive cryptographic material, but it does not inspect or protect web traffic, making it inadequate for application-layer threat mitigation.
The correct selection for protecting web applications at Layer 7 must include the ability to detect and prevent attacks, provide logging and monitoring, and integrate with broader security management tools. Azure Application Gateway WAF meets all of these requirements by delivering comprehensive application-layer protection, real-time threat detection and prevention, and integration with Azure monitoring and logging for centralized security management. Other services may provide traffic distribution, routing, or cryptographic management, but they do not deliver the specialized application-layer security features necessary to defend web applications from common and sophisticated vulnerabilities. Therefore, Azure Application Gateway WAF is the correct choice for securing web applications against modern threats.
Question 73
You need to design a solution for encrypting data in transit between Azure virtual networks. Which Azure feature should you recommend?
A) VPN Gateway
B) Network Security Groups (NSGs)
C) Azure Firewall
D) Azure Key Vault
Answer: A) VPN Gateway
Azure VPN Gateway is a critical networking service in Azure designed to provide secure communication between Azure virtual networks and on-premises networks or between different virtual networks (VNets). It achieves this by establishing encrypted tunnels using IPsec/IKE protocols, ensuring that all data transmitted over the network remains confidential and protected from interception. By encrypting traffic in transit, VPN Gateway guarantees both data integrity and privacy, making it a foundational component for organizations implementing hybrid cloud architectures or multi-region Azure deployments that require secure connectivity. This service allows businesses to extend their on-premises infrastructure into Azure while maintaining the same level of security and trust as an internal network, enabling seamless integration of cloud resources into existing enterprise environments.
One of the key advantages of Azure VPN Gateway is its support for hybrid networking scenarios. Organizations can connect on-premises networks to Azure VNets securely over the public internet, without exposing sensitive data to potential threats. Additionally, VPN Gateway facilitates VNet-to-VNet communication, allowing secure interaction between resources in separate virtual networks across different regions. This is particularly useful for multinational organizations or complex cloud architectures that require segmented network topologies while still ensuring secure communication between distributed components. VPN Gateway also supports high availability, routing integration, and scaling capabilities, enabling businesses to maintain performance and resilience while ensuring secure data transfer across networks.
In comparison, other Azure services provide network protection but do not offer the same level of data encryption for transit traffic. Network Security Groups (NSGs), for instance, control inbound and outbound traffic to subnets or individual network interfaces through rules that allow or deny traffic based on source and destination IP addresses, ports, and protocols. While NSGs are highly effective for filtering traffic and enforcing access control at the network level, they do not encrypt the data being transmitted, meaning that information could still be intercepted if transmitted over an insecure channel. Similarly, Azure Firewall offers stateful traffic filtering, threat intelligence integration, and logging capabilities, providing robust protection against unauthorized access and malicious activity. However, like NSGs, Azure Firewall does not provide encryption for data in transit, so while it enhances security, it cannot ensure confidentiality during transmission between networks.
Azure Key Vault is another service that focuses on security, but its functionality is different. Key Vault securely stores encryption keys, secrets, and certificates, enabling organizations to manage cryptographic material for data encryption at rest or for application-level encryption. While Key Vault plays a crucial role in overall security architecture, it does not provide network-level encryption or establish secure tunnels for transmitting data between networks, and therefore cannot fulfill the specific requirement of protecting in-transit data.
The primary requirement in this scenario is to ensure that data transmitted between networks is encrypted, maintaining confidentiality and integrity throughout the transfer process. Azure VPN Gateway directly addresses this requirement by establishing secure, IPsec/IKE-based encrypted tunnels for both hybrid and VNet-to-VNet connectivity. Other services, such as NSGs, Azure Firewall, and Key Vault, provide important security functions like traffic filtering, threat protection, and key management, but they do not encrypt data in transit. Therefore, for scenarios where secure network communication is essential, Azure VPN Gateway is the correct choice. Its combination of encrypted tunneling, hybrid network support, and VNet-to-VNet connectivity makes it the most suitable service for ensuring secure, private, and reliable data transmission across Azure and on-premises networks.
Question 74
You need to design a solution to provide high availability for Azure SQL Database across regions with automatic failover. Which Azure feature should you recommend?
A) Active Geo-Replication
B) Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
C) Azure Key Vault
D) Always Encrypted
Answer: A) Active Geo-Replication
Explanation:
Active Geo-Replication is an essential feature of Azure SQL Database that provides robust solutions for high availability, disaster recovery, and business continuity for mission-critical workloads. This feature allows the creation of readable secondary databases in different Azure regions, which continuously replicate transactions from the primary database. By maintaining up-to-date replicas across geographically separated regions, Active Geo-Replication ensures that in the event of a regional outage, hardware failure, or other disruptions affecting the primary database, applications can failover to a secondary database with minimal downtime. This capability is critical for organizations that require continuous availability of their applications and cannot tolerate extended service interruptions.
The replication process in Active Geo-Replication is asynchronous, meaning that transactions are sent from the primary database to secondary replicas without waiting for acknowledgment before committing on the primary. This approach reduces latency for primary database operations while ensuring that secondary databases remain nearly current and ready for failover. Additionally, the secondary databases created through this feature are readable, allowing applications to offload read-only workloads such as reporting or analytics. This not only improves overall application performance but also provides flexibility in workload management, making it possible to scale out read-intensive operations without impacting the primary database’s transactional performance.
One of the most important advantages of Active Geo-Replication is the ability to perform both automatic and manual failover. In scenarios where the primary database becomes unavailable due to planned maintenance, unplanned outages, or regional disasters, failover can be initiated to a secondary database to maintain continuity of service. Automatic failover allows applications to resume operations quickly without requiring manual intervention, while manual failover gives administrators control over when and how the transition occurs. This ensures that business-critical applications maintain uptime and data consistency across regions, significantly reducing the risk of operational disruptions.
In comparison, other Azure services address different aspects of data protection but do not provide the same capabilities for high availability and disaster recovery. Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), for example, focuses on securing data at rest by encrypting the database and backups. While TDE protects sensitive information from unauthorized access, it does not provide replication, failover, or continuous availability features. Similarly, Azure Key Vault is a service designed for managing encryption keys, secrets, and certificates. It enhances security and compliance but does not create replicated databases or enable failover mechanisms. Always Encrypted protects sensitive data at the column level within the database, ensuring that confidential information remains encrypted even during query execution. However, like TDE and Key Vault, Always Encrypted does not offer database replication, high availability, or disaster recovery capabilities.
The primary requirement in this scenario is to replicate data across regions and ensure continuous availability in the event of a failure. Active Geo-Replication directly addresses this need by providing readable secondary replicas, continuous transaction replication, and seamless failover options. Other services, including TDE, Azure Key Vault, and Always Encrypted, focus on encryption and data protection but cannot maintain availability or enable automatic failover. By implementing Active Geo-Replication, organizations can achieve both high availability and disaster recovery objectives, ensuring that their applications remain operational even during regional outages or unexpected disruptions. Therefore, Active Geo-Replication is the most appropriate solution for maintaining continuous database availability while supporting disaster recovery and read-scale scenarios.
Question 75
You need to design a solution for centralized monitoring and alerting across multiple Azure subscriptions. Which Azure service should you recommend?
A) Azure Monitor
B) Azure Security Center
C) Azure Key Vault
D) Azure Traffic Manager
Answer: A) Azure Monitor
Explanation:
Azure Monitor is a comprehensive cloud-based monitoring solution that provides centralized collection, analysis, and visualization of telemetry data from a wide range of Azure resources and subscriptions. It is designed to give organizations deep insights into the performance, health, and operational status of their applications and infrastructure. Azure Monitor collects metrics, logs, and diagnostic data from virtually all Azure resources, enabling a holistic view of system behavior and performance trends. By aggregating this data in a centralized location, Azure Monitor allows administrators and DevOps teams to identify issues, detect anomalies, and respond proactively to potential problems before they affect users or business operations.
One of the key capabilities of Azure Monitor is metrics collection. Metrics provide quantitative measurements about resource usage, system performance, and operational health. Users can create charts, visualize trends over time, and identify performance bottlenecks. In addition, logs collected by Azure Monitor provide detailed insights into system events, errors, and configuration changes. These logs can be queried using Azure Monitor’s powerful query language to extract actionable information, helping teams troubleshoot issues more effectively and optimize their workloads.
Azure Monitor also includes robust alerting and notification capabilities. Administrators can define alerts based on static thresholds or dynamic conditions that detect anomalies in metrics or logs. When an alert is triggered, it can automatically notify the relevant personnel or systems through Action Groups, which support multiple notification channels such as email, SMS, webhooks, or automated runbooks. This integration enables immediate response to critical issues and allows organizations to implement automated remediation processes, reducing downtime and operational risk.
Dashboards and visualizations in Azure Monitor provide intuitive ways to view cross-subscription performance and health data. Users can create custom dashboards to display key metrics, track trends, and monitor the status of multiple resources in a single pane of glass. This centralized view helps teams manage complex environments more efficiently, ensuring that resources across different subscriptions are performing as expected and that any deviations from normal behavior are promptly addressed.
Other Azure services, while important for specific purposes, do not provide the same centralized monitoring capabilities. Azure Security Center focuses on assessing security posture, detecting threats, and providing recommendations for hardening environments. While it complements monitoring by alerting on security issues, it does not provide general performance or health monitoring across subscriptions. Azure Key Vault manages encryption keys, secrets, and certificates, ensuring secure access to sensitive data, but it does not collect telemetry or trigger operational alerts. Azure Traffic Manager optimizes global traffic routing using DNS-based policies, yet it does not monitor the health or performance of resources beyond routing endpoints.
To meet the requirement of monitoring performance and health across multiple subscriptions and providing automated alerts, Azure Monitor is the most appropriate choice. It offers comprehensive telemetry collection, alerting, visualization, and integration with a wide range of Azure services. While other services focus on security, encryption, or traffic management, Azure Monitor delivers a centralized, proactive, and actionable approach to monitoring and maintaining the health and performance of cloud resources. Therefore, Azure Monitor is the correct solution for organizations seeking comprehensive monitoring capabilities.