Microsoft AZ-305 Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solution Exam Dumps and Practice Test Questions Set 9 Q121-135

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Question 121

You need to design a solution that allows secure key management for encryption used by Azure Storage and SQL Database. Which service should you recommend?

A) Azure Key Vault
B) Azure Storage Account Encryption
C) Azure Active Directory
D) Azure Policy

Answer: A) Azure Key Vault

Explanation:

Azure Key Vault provides centralized, secure management of encryption keys, secrets, and certificates. It integrates with services like Azure Storage and Azure SQL Database to enable customer-managed keys (CMKs) for data encryption at rest. Key Vault allows key rotation, auditing, and access control policies, ensuring compliance and operational security. By controlling key access, organizations can manage encryption without giving direct access to underlying storage or database resources, increasing security and governance.

Azure Storage Account Encryption automatically encrypts data at rest using Microsoft-managed keys or customer-managed keys. While it protects data, it does not provide centralized key management across multiple services.

Azure Active Directory handles authentication and identity management but does not manage encryption keys or integrate key rotation for storage or databases.

Azure Policy enforces compliance rules on resources but does not store or manage encryption keys.

The correct selection must provide secure, centralized key management with auditing and integration across multiple Azure services. Azure Key Vault meets this requirement, offering key lifecycle management, access control, and audit logs. Other services focus on encryption, identity, or compliance enforcement without providing centralized key management. Therefore, Azure Key Vault is the correct choice.

Question 122

You need to ensure that Azure virtual machines in multiple regions are protected from regional outages. Which solution should you recommend?

A) Azure Availability Zones
B) Availability Sets
C) Azure Load Balancer
D) Azure Traffic Manager

Answer: A) Azure Availability Zones

Explanation:

Azure Availability Zones are physically separate locations within an Azure region. Deploying VMs across zones ensures protection against regional outages because each zone has independent power, networking, and cooling. If one zone fails, workloads in other zones remain available, providing high availability for critical applications. Azure recommends combining Availability Zones with load balancing and autoscaling to maximize resilience.

Availability Sets distribute VMs across fault and update domains within a single datacenter. They protect against local hardware failures and maintenance events but do not provide protection against a datacenter-wide outage.

Azure Load Balancer distributes traffic across VMs within a region to improve availability and performance but cannot protect against regional failures.

Azure Traffic Manager provides DNS-based routing to globally distributed endpoints. While it helps redirect traffic during regional failures, it does not ensure high availability for VMs within a region.

The correct selection must protect workloads from regional outages and ensure high availability across physically separate locations. Availability Zones provide this capability. Other services focus on local fault tolerance, traffic distribution, or global DNS routing without guaranteeing zone-level resilience. Therefore, Azure Availability Zones are the correct choice.

Question 123

You need to design a solution that allows applications to query encrypted data without exposing encryption keys. Which feature should you use?

A) Always Encrypted
B) Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
C) Azure Key Vault
D) Azure Storage Service Encryption

Answer: A) Always Encrypted

Explanation:

Always Encrypted secures sensitive data in SQL Database by encrypting columns at the client-side. Applications encrypt data before sending it to the database, preventing unauthorized access by administrators or other users. Encryption keys remain outside the database, typically managed in Azure Key Vault, ensuring that only authorized applications can decrypt the data. Always Encrypted supports deterministic and randomized encryption to balance query capabilities and security.

Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) encrypts the entire database at rest, protecting against unauthorized access to storage. It does not provide column-level encryption or allow querying without exposing keys.

Azure Key Vault manages encryption keys and secrets but does not encrypt database columns directly or allow querying encrypted data transparently.

Azure Storage Service Encryption protects data at rest for blob storage and other services but is not designed for database-level column encryption or transparent querying.

The correct selection must allow secure, client-side encryption for database columns and enable applications to query encrypted data without exposing keys. Always Encrypted meets these requirements. Other services provide database encryption, key management, or storage encryption without supporting transparent client-side column-level queries. Therefore, Always Encrypted is the correct choice.

Question 124

You need to design a solution that distributes traffic globally to the nearest healthy endpoint while providing SSL offload and caching. Which service should you recommend?

A) Azure Front Door
B) Azure Load Balancer
C) Azure Traffic Manager
D) Azure Application Gateway

Answer: A) Azure Front Door

Explanation:

Azure Front Door is a global Layer 7 service that provides SSL offload, caching, WAF protection, and routing traffic to the nearest healthy backend. It improves performance for globally distributed applications by reducing latency and providing automatic failover in case of regional outages. Front Door integrates with Application Insights for monitoring traffic and detecting anomalies.

Azure Load Balancer provides Layer 4 load balancing within a region and cannot perform SSL offload or global traffic routing.

Azure Traffic Manager uses DNS-based routing to direct traffic to the closest or healthiest endpoint. It does not handle SSL offload or caching and operates at the DNS level rather than Layer 7.

Azure Application Gateway is a regional Layer 7 service that supports SSL offload, WAF, and URL-based routing. However, it does not provide global routing or low-latency optimization across multiple regions.

The correct selection must optimize global traffic distribution, provide SSL offload, and improve latency for end-users. Azure Front Door meets these requirements by combining global routing, caching, SSL termination, and WAF capabilities. Other services focus on regional load balancing, DNS routing, or application-level WAF without global performance optimization. Therefore, Azure Front Door is the correct choice.

Question 125

You need to design a solution to automatically scale virtual machines based on CPU utilization. Which feature should you recommend?

A) Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS)
B) Azure Load Balancer
C) Azure Traffic Manager
D) Azure Application Gateway

Answer: A) Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS)

Explanation:

Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) allow the deployment of a set of identical VMs that can scale automatically based on predefined metrics like CPU utilization or memory usage. VMSS integrates with Azure Monitor to trigger scaling operations and ensures high availability by distributing VMs across fault and update domains. Scaling out increases capacity during high demand, while scaling in reduces costs during low usage periods.

Azure Load Balancer distributes incoming traffic among existing VMs to balance load but does not automatically scale VM instances.

Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based routing service that directs traffic to the nearest or healthiest endpoint but does not manage VM scaling or capacity.

Azure Application Gateway is a Layer 7 load balancer with SSL offload, URL-based routing, and WAF. It cannot scale VM instances automatically based on utilization metrics.

The correct selection must enable automatic scaling of VMs based on real-time performance metrics, ensuring both high availability and cost efficiency. VMSS meets this requirement with autoscaling rules, integration with monitoring, and fault-tolerant distribution. Other services focus on traffic distribution or load balancing without providing automated scaling. Therefore, Virtual Machine Scale Sets are the correct choice.

Question 126

You need to design a solution that allows auditing and tracking access to sensitive data and keys in Azure. Which service should you recommend?

A) Azure Key Vault
B) Azure Storage Account
C) Azure Active Directory
D) Azure Policy

Answer: A) Azure Key Vault

Explanation:

Azure Key Vault provides a centralized solution for managing encryption keys, secrets, and certificates. One of its key features is comprehensive auditing and logging. Key Vault integrates with Azure Monitor and Azure Event Hubs to log all access requests, key usage, and secret operations. This ensures that administrators can track who accessed sensitive data, what operations were performed, and when they occurred. These audit logs support compliance requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, and ISO standards.

Azure Storage Account provides storage for blobs, files, and tables. While it can log access to stored data, it does not manage encryption keys or provide detailed auditing of sensitive key operations.

Azure Active Directory manages authentication, identity, and access to resources. It provides auditing for login events and conditional access but does not track detailed operations on encryption keys or secrets.

Azure Policy enforces compliance rules and governance standards but does not track individual user access or usage events for sensitive data.

The correct selection must provide detailed auditing of all access and operations performed on sensitive data and encryption keys. Azure Key Vault meets this requirement with integrated logging, event routing, and compliance-ready reporting. Other services focus on storage, authentication, or compliance enforcement without providing key-level audit tracking. Therefore, Azure Key Vault is the correct choice.

Question 127

You need to ensure that virtual machines across multiple regions are resilient to zone-level failures and provide high availability. Which Azure feature should you use?

A) Availability Zones
B) Availability Sets
C) Azure Load Balancer
D) Azure Traffic Manager

Answer: A) Availability Zones

Explanation:

Azure Availability Zones are physically separate locations within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Deploying VMs across Availability Zones ensures that even if one zone experiences a failure, workloads in other zones remain operational. This provides fault tolerance and high availability at the region level. Azure recommends combining Availability Zones with load balancing and VM scale sets for maximum resiliency.

Availability Sets distribute VMs across fault and update domains within a single datacenter. They protect against local hardware or maintenance failures but do not provide zone-level resiliency.

Azure Load Balancer distributes network traffic across VMs but does not inherently protect against zone-level or datacenter-wide failures.

Azure Traffic Manager provides global DNS-based routing to the healthiest endpoints but does not guarantee high availability within a specific region or across zones.

The correct selection must ensure that VMs continue to operate during zone-level failures and provide high availability for critical applications. Availability Zones meet this requirement by physically separating resources and enabling fault-tolerant deployments. Other services focus on local fault tolerance, traffic distribution, or global routing without guaranteeing zone-level resilience. Therefore, Azure Availability Zones are the correct choice.

Question 128

You need to design a solution for automating deployment of resource groups, policies, and role assignments across multiple subscriptions consistently. Which service should you use?

A) Azure Blueprints
B) Azure Policy
C) ARM Templates
D) Azure DevOps

Answer: A) Azure Blueprints

Explanation:

Azure Blueprints is a powerful governance and deployment tool in Microsoft Azure that enables administrators to define, deploy, and manage a repeatable set of Azure resources, role assignments, and policies across multiple subscriptions. By providing a centralized mechanism to package resources, access controls, and compliance rules into a single artifact, Blueprints ensures that organizations can maintain consistent governance and operational standards while simplifying large-scale deployments. This approach is particularly valuable for enterprises that need to enforce regulatory compliance, maintain consistent configurations, and streamline the deployment of complex environments across multiple Azure subscriptions.

At its core, Azure Blueprints integrates Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates, role-based access controls, and Azure Policy into a unified framework. ARM templates define the declarative infrastructure, specifying the resources and configurations needed for deployment. Role assignments within Blueprints ensure that users and groups have the correct permissions to manage or interact with these resources, promoting security and operational efficiency. Policies embedded in Blueprints enforce compliance rules, such as resource location restrictions, mandatory tagging, or encryption requirements, ensuring that deployed resources adhere to organizational standards. This integration allows administrators to deploy fully governed environments without the need to manually configure resources, roles, and policies individually, reducing the risk of misconfiguration and improving deployment speed.

Azure Blueprints also supports versioning, enabling organizations to track changes and updates to the blueprint over time. This ensures that deployments are consistent and auditable, with the ability to apply updates to existing environments as policies, roles, or resource definitions evolve. Versioning facilitates governance across large organizations by providing clear visibility into which blueprint versions have been applied to each subscription, ensuring that all deployed environments remain aligned with organizational standards and regulatory requirements. Additionally, Blueprints allow for repeatable deployment, meaning the same configuration can be consistently applied across multiple subscriptions, improving efficiency and reducing operational overhead.

While Azure Blueprints provides a comprehensive multi-subscription deployment and governance solution, it is important to distinguish it from other Azure services that provide related but more limited functionality. Azure Policy, for example, enforces compliance rules on existing resources and ensures that new or modified resources meet organizational standards. However, Policy does not deploy complete resource configurations or role assignments across subscriptions. ARM templates provide declarative definitions for deploying resources, but they require additional effort to integrate role assignments and policy enforcement consistently, making them less suitable for governance at scale. Azure DevOps focuses on automating continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines for applications and infrastructure, enabling rapid deployment and version control, but it does not provide subscription-wide governance or enforce compliance rules as part of the deployment.

For organizations seeking repeatable, automated, and compliant deployments across multiple Azure subscriptions, Azure Blueprints is the ideal solution. It combines resource deployment, access control, and policy enforcement into a single, versioned package, ensuring operational consistency, governance, and compliance. By allowing administrators to deploy fully governed environments at scale, Blueprints reduces manual effort, mitigates the risk of configuration drift, and provides a clear mechanism for tracking and updating deployments over time. Other services may enforce compliance, deploy resources, or automate application pipelines, but only Azure Blueprints delivers centralized, subscription-wide deployment and governance capabilities, making it the definitive choice for large-scale Azure environments.

Question 129

You need to design a solution that allows real-time scaling of web application VMs based on CPU and memory metrics. Which Azure feature should you recommend?

A) Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS)
B) Azure Load Balancer
C) Azure Application Gateway
D) Azure Traffic Manager

Answer: A) Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS)

Explanation:

Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) in Microsoft Azure provide a highly efficient and flexible way to deploy and manage a group of identical virtual machines that can automatically scale based on performance metrics. VMSS enables organizations to maintain optimal application performance while optimizing costs by adjusting the number of running instances in real time. By using scale sets, administrators can define scaling rules that respond to metrics such as CPU utilization, memory consumption, or custom metrics specific to the workload. This capability ensures that applications can handle fluctuations in demand without manual intervention, allowing businesses to maintain a seamless user experience during peak periods and reduce unnecessary resource consumption during periods of low demand.

One of the key advantages of VMSS is its ability to ensure high availability. Virtual machines in a scale set are distributed across multiple fault domains and update domains. Fault domains protect against physical hardware failures by placing VMs in separate racks within a data center, while update domains ensure that maintenance or platform updates do not impact all VMs simultaneously. This distribution reduces the risk of downtime and ensures that applications remain operational even during maintenance events or hardware issues. High availability, combined with autoscaling, provides a robust infrastructure that can adapt dynamically to changing workloads while maintaining continuity and reliability.

VMSS integrates seamlessly with Azure Monitor, which allows administrators to set up automated scale-out or scale-in operations based on real-time performance metrics. Scale-out rules add additional VM instances when utilization thresholds are exceeded, ensuring that applications maintain performance under heavy load. Conversely, scale-in rules remove unnecessary VM instances when demand decreases, helping to reduce costs without compromising availability. This dynamic scaling capability is particularly valuable for applications with unpredictable or variable workloads, such as e-commerce platforms during sales events, web applications with fluctuating traffic, or batch-processing systems with varying computational demands.

It is important to contrast VMSS with other Azure services that provide related functionality but do not offer automatic scaling. Azure Load Balancer distributes incoming traffic among existing virtual machines, ensuring even load distribution, but it does not dynamically adjust the number of VMs based on utilization metrics. Azure Application Gateway is a regional Layer 7 load balancer that provides features such as SSL offload, Web Application Firewall, and session affinity, but it also does not automatically scale VM instances in response to performance data. Azure Traffic Manager provides global DNS-based routing, directing users to the best-performing endpoints across regions, but it does not monitor resource utilization or adjust VM quantities to match demand.

For organizations seeking real-time scaling based on application performance, high availability, and cost efficiency, Virtual Machine Scale Sets are the optimal solution. They combine automated scaling, fault-tolerant distribution, and monitoring integration to provide a reliable and adaptable infrastructure that aligns resources with demand. While load balancers, application gateways, and traffic managers play important roles in traffic distribution and global routing, only VMSS offers a fully integrated solution for dynamic scaling of compute resources. By using VMSS, organizations can ensure that their applications remain responsive and cost-effective under all conditions, meeting the demands of modern, cloud-based workloads.

Question 130

You need to design a solution to recover Azure VMs and workloads quickly in the event of a regional outage. Which service should you use?

A) Azure Site Recovery
B) Azure Backup
C) Azure Key Vault
D) Azure Policy

Answer: A) Azure Site Recovery

Explanation:

Azure Site Recovery is a robust disaster recovery solution in Microsoft Azure designed to ensure business continuity for both Azure virtual machines and on-premises workloads. By replicating workloads to a secondary Azure region, Site Recovery allows organizations to maintain operations during regional outages, hardware failures, or other disruptions. The service provides continuous replication of virtual machine data, ensuring that the secondary location remains up to date with minimal data loss. This capability enables organizations to meet stringent recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs), which are critical for minimizing downtime and maintaining operational continuity during unexpected events.

One of the key strengths of Azure Site Recovery is its support for multi-tier application orchestration. Many modern applications consist of multiple interdependent components, such as web servers, application servers, and databases. Site Recovery allows these complex applications to be replicated and recovered in a coordinated manner, ensuring that dependencies are preserved and applications can resume operations without manual intervention. Administrators can define recovery plans that specify the order of failover, any required scripts or manual actions, and automated notifications, providing a structured approach to disaster recovery. Additionally, Site Recovery supports test failovers, allowing organizations to validate their disaster recovery plans without impacting production workloads. This helps ensure that recovery processes are effective and that applications will function correctly in the event of an actual outage.

Continuous monitoring is another critical feature of Azure Site Recovery. The service provides real-time insights into replication health, potential issues, and configuration compliance. This proactive monitoring allows administrators to detect and address problems before they impact business operations, reducing the risk of downtime and data loss. Site Recovery also offers both automated and manual failover options. Automated failover is particularly valuable in scenarios where rapid response is required, such as regional outages or system failures, while manual failover provides administrators with control during planned maintenance or testing. This flexibility ensures that organizations can tailor their disaster recovery strategies to meet both operational requirements and compliance needs.

It is important to contrast Azure Site Recovery with other Azure services that address related but distinct needs. Azure Backup, for instance, provides point-in-time data protection and enables recovery of files, folders, and virtual machines. While Backup is essential for safeguarding data, it does not replicate workloads in real time or provide automated failover during regional outages. Azure Key Vault secures encryption keys and secrets, supporting compliance and data protection requirements, but it does not manage replication, failover, or disaster recovery for workloads. Similarly, Azure Policy enforces governance and compliance rules across resources, ensuring that organizational standards are met, but it does not facilitate workload replication or failover during outages.

For organizations seeking comprehensive disaster recovery, continuous replication, and orchestration of multi-tier applications across regions, Azure Site Recovery is the ideal solution. By combining automated failover, replication monitoring, and test failover capabilities, Site Recovery ensures minimal downtime, reduces operational risk, and helps maintain business continuity during both planned and unplanned disruptions. Other Azure services, while important for backup, security, or governance, do not provide the same level of disaster recovery for virtual machines and multi-tier applications. As such, Azure Site Recovery is the definitive choice for ensuring resilient, highly available infrastructure in Azure.

Question 131

You need to design a solution that provides high availability and low-latency access for globally distributed users of a web application. Which Azure service should you recommend?

A) Azure Front Door
B) Azure Load Balancer
C) Azure Traffic Manager
D) Azure Application Gateway

Answer: A) Azure Front Door

Explanation:

Azure Front Door is a comprehensive global Layer 7 service offered by Microsoft Azure that is designed to optimize application performance, availability, and security for users around the world. It achieves this by intelligently routing user traffic to the nearest healthy backend, reducing latency and ensuring fast response times for applications, regardless of the user’s geographic location. By leveraging a globally distributed network of edge locations, Front Door provides low-latency access, improving the end-user experience for applications with a worldwide audience. Its design is particularly beneficial for mission-critical applications that require high availability, quick failover, and optimized traffic delivery across multiple regions.

One of the key features of Azure Front Door is its ability to provide SSL offload at the edge. By terminating SSL connections closer to the user, Front Door reduces the computational load on backend servers and speeds up secure content delivery. This enhances overall application performance while ensuring secure communication between users and applications. In addition to SSL offload, Front Door includes integrated caching capabilities, which allow frequently requested content to be stored at edge locations. This caching reduces the need to fetch data from the backend repeatedly, further lowering latency and improving performance. For security, Azure Front Door incorporates a Web Application Firewall (WAF) that protects applications from common threats such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and other vulnerabilities. This combination of performance optimization and integrated security makes Front Door a robust solution for global, high-traffic applications.

Azure Front Door also ensures high availability through automatic failover across regions. If a backend in one region becomes unavailable, traffic is automatically redirected to the next available healthy endpoint, minimizing downtime and maintaining application accessibility. Administrators can configure health probes and routing rules to define how traffic should be distributed, allowing for fine-grained control over global traffic management. This ability to handle both performance optimization and disaster recovery at the application layer sets Front Door apart from other Azure services.

Other Azure services provide specific capabilities but do not deliver the same combination of global optimization, security, and high availability. Azure Load Balancer, for example, operates at Layer 4 within a region and distributes network traffic among virtual machines for local high availability, but it does not optimize global traffic, perform SSL offload, or provide WAF protection. Azure Traffic Manager uses DNS-based routing to direct users to the closest or healthiest endpoints across regions, improving availability and reliability at a global scale. However, Traffic Manager does not perform Layer 7 routing, caching, SSL offload, or application-layer security, which limits its ability to enhance performance for end users. Azure Application Gateway is a regional Layer 7 load balancer that supports SSL termination, WAF, and URL-based routing, providing robust security and routing within a single region. However, it lacks global traffic distribution capabilities and cannot optimize latency for users located far from the application’s region.

For organizations seeking a solution that combines global traffic optimization, low-latency access, integrated security, and automatic failover, Azure Front Door is the ideal choice. Its combination of Layer 7 routing, caching, SSL offload, WAF protection, and multi-region failover ensures high performance, reliability, and security for worldwide applications. Other Azure services, while useful for local or regional traffic management, cannot deliver the same level of global optimization and application-layer protection. Azure Front Door is therefore the most comprehensive solution for global, highly available, and secure web applications.

Question 132

You need to design a solution to ensure that all Azure resources comply with regulatory standards and organizational policies. Which service should you recommend?

A) Azure Policy
B) Azure Blueprints
C) Azure RBAC
D) Azure Monitor

Answer: A) Azure Policy

Explanation:

Azure Policy is a core governance tool in Microsoft Azure that provides organizations with the ability to enforce rules and regulatory compliance across their cloud resources. It allows administrators to define policies that specify desired configurations, security standards, and operational best practices, and then continuously evaluates resources against these rules. By doing so, Azure Policy ensures that all resources, whether deployed initially or modified over time, adhere to organizational and regulatory requirements. Non-compliant resources can be flagged, and in many cases, Azure Policy can automatically remediate the configuration to bring it into compliance, reducing the risk of misconfiguration and ensuring consistent governance across the environment.

One of the key capabilities of Azure Policy is its ability to enforce rules across a wide range of resources and settings. Policies can dictate storage encryption standards, specifying that all storage accounts must be encrypted using a certain method. They can also control allowed virtual machine sizes to ensure that resources align with cost or performance guidelines, enforce mandatory tagging to improve resource management, and restrict the locations where resources can be deployed to comply with data residency requirements. By implementing these policies, organizations can ensure that resources are deployed and maintained in a secure, compliant, and operationally consistent manner.

Azure Policy integrates closely with Azure Blueprints, another governance tool, to provide a complete compliance and deployment strategy. Blueprints allow organizations to define pre-configured environments, including resources, policies, and role assignments, which can be deployed as a unit. While Azure Blueprints is powerful for establishing initial compliance and standardization during resource deployment, it does not provide ongoing evaluation or enforcement. For continuous compliance monitoring and automated remediation, Azure Policy is essential, as it continuously evaluates all resources, ensuring they remain compliant even if changes occur after deployment. This combination allows organizations to establish both initial and ongoing governance controls.

It is important to differentiate Azure Policy from other Azure services that focus on related but distinct functions. Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) provides granular access management for Azure resources, defining who can perform specific actions on which resources. While RBAC is critical for security and operational control, it does not enforce resource configurations or compliance standards. Similarly, Azure Monitor collects telemetry data, logs, and metrics from resources and applications, offering insights into performance, availability, and operational health. Although monitoring is valuable for understanding the state of resources, it does not actively enforce compliance or correct non-compliant configurations.

For organizations seeking to maintain continuous compliance and governance across their Azure environment, Azure Policy is the most appropriate solution. It provides real-time evaluation of resource configurations, automatic remediation of non-compliant resources, and detailed compliance reporting. By enforcing organizational and regulatory standards consistently, Azure Policy helps reduce risk, improve operational efficiency, and ensure that resources adhere to best practices. Other services, while valuable for deployment, access management, or monitoring, cannot provide the same continuous compliance enforcement that Azure Policy delivers. As a result, Azure Policy is the definitive tool for ensuring ongoing governance, standardization, and regulatory adherence across all Azure resources.

Question 133

You need to ensure that a mission-critical SQL Database can failover automatically to a secondary region during an outage. Which feature should you recommend?

A) Active Geo-Replication
B) Always Encrypted
C) Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
D) Azure Key Vault

Answer: A) Active Geo-Replication

Explanation:

Active Geo-Replication is a powerful feature of Azure SQL Database designed to enhance business continuity and disaster recovery by creating readable secondary databases in a geographically separate Azure region. This capability ensures that data is continuously replicated from the primary database to the secondary, providing near real-time synchronization between the two locations. By maintaining a secondary database in a different region, organizations can protect critical data and applications against regional outages or failures, ensuring minimal disruption to business operations. Active Geo-Replication not only supports disaster recovery scenarios but also improves overall system performance by allowing read-only queries to be executed on the secondary database, thereby offloading read traffic from the primary database and improving response times for users.

One of the key benefits of Active Geo-Replication is its ability to support both planned and unplanned failovers. Planned failovers can be initiated during maintenance or upgrades, allowing administrators to switch operations to the secondary database without causing downtime or data loss. Unplanned failovers, on the other hand, are critical for responding to unexpected outages in the primary region, enabling applications to resume operations quickly and maintain high availability. This flexibility makes Active Geo-Replication an essential component of a comprehensive disaster recovery strategy, as it ensures that applications remain accessible and operational even in the event of regional disruptions.

In addition to failover capabilities, Active Geo-Replication provides continuous replication of transactions from the primary database to the secondary. This ensures that the secondary database is always up-to-date and can take over operations seamlessly when a failover occurs. The system also allows multiple secondary databases to be created, providing additional geographic redundancy and enabling load balancing for read-intensive workloads. Organizations can configure multiple secondary databases in different regions, further enhancing resilience and ensuring that critical services remain available to users globally.

It is important to contrast Active Geo-Replication with other Azure services that provide encryption or security features but do not offer replication or failover. Always Encrypted, for example, is a feature of Azure SQL Database that encrypts sensitive columns, protecting data at the column level from unauthorized access. While it is essential for data security and compliance, it does not replicate databases across regions or support failover. Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) encrypts the database at rest, securing stored data from unauthorized access. However, TDE also does not provide multi-region replication or disaster recovery capabilities. Similarly, Azure Key Vault is a service for managing encryption keys and secrets securely. While Key Vault ensures secure key storage and access management, it does not handle database replication, failover, or business continuity functions.

For organizations seeking continuous replication, automatic failover, and multi-region availability for Azure SQL Databases, Active Geo-Replication is the most suitable choice. It delivers high availability, disaster recovery, and load balancing capabilities, ensuring minimal downtime and operational continuity. By allowing read-only queries on secondary databases and supporting both planned and unplanned failovers, it addresses critical business continuity requirements while optimizing database performance. Other Azure services, while valuable for encryption, key management, or data protection, do not offer the comprehensive replication and failover functionality that Active Geo-Replication provides. As a result, Active Geo-Replication is the definitive solution for ensuring resilient, highly available SQL Database environments in Azure.

Question 134

You need to design a solution to automate patching and updates for Azure VMs across multiple regions while maintaining compliance. Which service should you recommend?

A) Azure Automation Update Management
B) Azure Policy
C) Azure Security Center
D) Azure DevOps

Answer: A) Azure Automation Update Management

Explanation:

Azure Automation Update Management is a comprehensive solution within the Azure ecosystem designed to automate, schedule, and monitor operating system updates for both Windows and Linux virtual machines across multiple regions. This service addresses one of the critical aspects of IT operations and security management—ensuring that virtual machines remain up to date with the latest patches, fixes, and security updates. By using Update Management, administrators can significantly reduce the operational burden associated with manual patching while maintaining compliance and security standards throughout their environment.

Update Management provides a centralized platform for scheduling updates across large numbers of virtual machines. Administrators can configure recurring schedules to automatically deploy updates at defined intervals or set up one-time deployment schedules as needed. This flexibility allows organizations to maintain a balance between operational continuity and security, ensuring that critical systems are patched without causing disruption to business operations. Additionally, the integration with Azure Log Analytics provides detailed compliance reporting, enabling administrators to monitor the patching status of all managed machines, track missing updates, and generate insights into update trends and potential vulnerabilities. These reports help organizations ensure that their environments remain compliant with internal policies and external regulatory requirements.

Another key advantage of Azure Automation Update Management is its ability to reduce administrative overhead. Traditional patch management processes often require manual tracking, deployment, and verification, which can be time-consuming and prone to human error. Update Management automates these processes, allowing IT teams to focus on higher-value tasks while ensuring consistent and reliable update deployment across their infrastructure. This automation not only improves efficiency but also strengthens security posture by minimizing the risk of unpatched vulnerabilities. The service also supports the management of both Windows and Linux operating systems, making it a versatile solution for hybrid and multi-platform environments.

It is important to contrast Azure Automation Update Management with other Azure services that provide related but distinct functionality. Azure Policy, for example, can enforce rules to ensure that updates are installed, but it does not provide the ability to automate the deployment or scheduling of updates. Its primary function is compliance enforcement rather than active update management. Similarly, Azure Security Center is designed to identify missing updates, assess vulnerabilities, and monitor security posture across resources. While this provides valuable visibility, Security Center does not directly deploy or schedule updates across virtual machines. Azure DevOps is another important service in the Azure ecosystem, but its focus is on automating application deployment through continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines. It does not manage operating system-level patching or provide compliance reporting for virtual machines.

For organizations seeking a solution that automates update deployment, enforces compliance, provides reporting, and minimizes administrative overhead, Azure Automation Update Management is the most appropriate choice. It offers a centralized, automated, and flexible approach to patch management, ensuring that virtual machines are consistently updated, compliant, and secure. While other Azure services provide monitoring, enforcement, or deployment capabilities, only Update Management delivers a complete, automated operating system patching solution, making it essential for maintaining secure and reliable IT environments.

Question 135

You need to design a solution to encrypt sensitive data at rest in Azure Storage and control access to encryption keys. Which service should you recommend?

A) Azure Key Vault
B) Azure Storage Service Encryption
C) Azure Active Directory
D) Azure Policy

Answer: A) Azure Key Vault

Explanation:

Azure Key Vault is a cloud service designed to provide centralized management of encryption keys, secrets, and certificates, offering organizations a secure and manageable way to control sensitive information across their Azure environment. One of its most important capabilities is enabling customer-managed keys (CMK) for Azure Storage accounts. By using Key Vault, organizations retain full control over the encryption keys that protect their data at rest, allowing them to manage key rotation schedules, define access policies, and monitor key usage through auditing. This centralized approach ensures that organizations can enforce governance, maintain compliance with regulatory requirements, and strengthen overall security for critical data assets. Integration with Storage Service Encryption allows Azure Storage to utilize these customer-managed keys for encryption operations, combining seamless data protection with customer control over key management.

Azure Key Vault supports access control at a granular level, allowing organizations to specify which users, groups, or services have permissions to use, manage, or administer encryption keys. This enables tight control over sensitive operations, reducing the risk of unauthorized access. Key Vault also provides detailed auditing and logging of all key operations, which is essential for compliance reporting and forensic investigation. Organizations can track key usage, access attempts, and changes, ensuring accountability and transparency in key management processes. Automated key rotation is another critical feature, allowing keys to be periodically updated without disrupting applications or requiring manual intervention. This reduces the risk of key compromise and helps maintain high levels of security over time.

It is important to distinguish Key Vault from other Azure services that provide related but different capabilities. Azure Storage Service Encryption, for instance, automatically encrypts data at rest within storage accounts to ensure that information is protected from unauthorized access. However, while it offers robust encryption, it does not provide centralized key management, detailed auditing, or control over key rotation across multiple services. Customers cannot directly manage the keys used for encryption, limiting their ability to enforce custom governance policies. Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is primarily responsible for authentication, identity management, and access control within Azure environments. While it ensures that only authorized users can access resources, it does not provide encryption key storage or management capabilities. Similarly, Azure Policy allows organizations to define and enforce compliance rules across resources, ensuring adherence to organizational standards. Although it is a powerful tool for governance and regulatory compliance, it does not handle encryption operations or provide key lifecycle management.

For organizations that require centralized and secure key management for data at rest and across Azure services, Azure Key Vault is the optimal solution. It offers comprehensive functionality, including the ability to manage customer-managed keys, enforce access policies, automate key rotation, integrate with storage encryption, and maintain detailed auditing for compliance purposes. Other Azure services, while valuable for encryption, identity management, or policy enforcement, do not provide the same level of control or centralized management for encryption keys. By leveraging Key Vault, organizations can achieve both security and compliance, ensuring that sensitive data remains protected while maintaining oversight and governance over encryption operations.