DP-300 Exam Questions & Answers

Geo-redundant storage (with GRS or GZRS) replicates your data to another physical location in the secondary region to protect against regional outages. However, that data is available to be read only if the customer or Microsoft initiates a failover from the primary to secondary region. When you enable read access to the secondary region, your data is available to be read if the primary region becomes unavailable. For read access to the secondary region, enable read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS) or read-access geo-zone-redundant storage (RA-GZRS).

Incorrect Answers:

A: Locally redundant storage (LRS) copies your data synchronously three times within a single physical location in the primary region. LRS is the least expensive replication option, but is not recommended for applications requiring high availability.

C: Zone-redundant storage (ZRS) copies your data synchronously across three Azure availability zones in the primary region.

D: Geo-redundant storage (with GRS or GZRS) replicates your data to another physical location in the secondary region to protect against regional outages. However, that data is available to be read only if the customer or Microsoft initiates a failover from the primary to secondary region.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-redundancy

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/intelligent-insights-troubleshoot-performance#tempdb-contention

Instead restore Database1 from Server1 to the Server2 by using the RESTORE Transact-SQL command and the REPLACE option.

Note: REPLACE should be used rarely and only after careful consideration. Restore normally prevents accidentally overwriting a database with a different database. If the database specified in a RESTORE statement already exists on the current server and the specified database family GUID differs from the database family GUID recorded in the backup set, the database is not restored. This is an important safeguard.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/statements/restore-statements-transact-sql

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/troubleshoot/sql/performance/recommendations-reduce-allocation-contention

Enable Azure SQL Auditing at the server level on the Azure SQL logical server:

sql60152867

and configure the audit destination as the Azure Storage account:

sa60152867

This is the correct solution because the task says all databases on sql60152867. Database-level auditing would only apply to one database. Server-level auditing applies to all existing and newly created databases on the logical server. Microsoft states that server auditing policies apply to all existing and newly created databases on the server. The default auditing policy includes BATCH_COMPLETED_GROUP, which audits queries and stored procedures executed against the database, plus successful and failed authentication events.

Azure Portal Method --- Recommended for Simulation

Step 1: Open the Azure SQL logical server

Sign in to the Azure portal.

Search for:

SQL servers

Open the SQL logical server named:

sql60152867

Be careful with the name. In your prompt, it appears as sql60l 52867, but the earlier tasks strongly indicate the real server name is probably:

sql60152867

Use the SQL logical server that hosts the databases, not a single SQL database.

Step 2: Open Auditing

On the SQL server page:

In the left menu, go to Security.

Select Auditing.

Microsoft's setup path is to navigate to Auditing under the Security heading in either the SQL database or SQL server pane. For this task, you must use the SQL server pane because the requirement covers all databases.

Step 3: Enable server-level auditing

Set:

Enable Azure SQL Auditing = On

or:

Auditing = On

depending on the portal wording.

This enables the server-level audit policy.

Step 4: Select Storage as the audit destination

Under Audit log destination, select:

Storage

Then choose the storage account:

sa60152867

Microsoft states that Azure SQL auditing can write database events to an Azure storage account, Log Analytics workspace, or Event Hubs. For this simulation, the destination must be the storage account sa60152867, so do not choose Log Analytics or Event Hub unless the task separately asks for them.

Step 5: Configure storage authentication

If the portal asks for authentication type, use one of these depending on what is available in the lab:

Option

Use when

Managed Identity

Preferred if available

Storage access keys

Use if the lab expects the older/default storage-key method

Microsoft recommends managed identity for storage authentication because storage access keys are a security risk. However, many exam simulations still accept the default storage-key flow as long as the audit destination is correctly set to the required storage account.

Step 6: Leave default audit action groups enabled

Do not remove the default audit action groups.

The default Azure SQL auditing policy includes:

BATCH_COMPLETED_GROUP

SUCCESSFUL_DATABASE_AUTHENTICATION_GROUP

FAILED_DATABASE_AUTHENTICATION_GROUP

BATCH_COMPLETED_GROUP is the key one here because it captures completed T-SQL batches, meaning the queries executed against the databases. Authentication and principal fields identify the login/user context. Microsoft states that the default auditing policy audits all queries and stored procedures executed against the database, plus successful and failed logins.

Step 7: Save the auditing configuration

Select:

Save

Wait for the portal notification that the auditing settings were saved successfully.

That completes the required configuration.

Verification

Verify from the Azure portal

Open the SQL server:

sql60152867

Go to:

Security > Auditing

Confirm:

Auditing: On

Destination: Storage

Storage account: sa60152867

Scope: Server-level

Verify storage output

After users execute queries, audit files should appear in the storage account.

Open storage account:

sa60152867

Go to Containers.

Open:

sqldbauditlogs

Azure SQL audit logs written to Azure Storage are stored in a container named sqldbauditlogs. Audit logs are written as .xel files and can be opened with SQL Server Management Studio.

What Information Is Captured?

The audit log includes the exact fields needed for this task.

Required information

Audit log field

Query executed

statement / statement_s

Database name

database_name / database_name_s

User context

database_principal_name / database_principal_name_s

Login context

server_principal_name / server_principal_name_s

Session principal

session_server_principal_name / session_server_principal_name_s

Time of execution

event_time / event_time_t

Client IP

client_ip / client_ip_s

Microsoft's audit log format documents statement as the T-SQL statement that was executed, database_principal_name as the database user context, and server_principal_name as the current login.

SSMS Method --- Viewing the Audit Logs

SSMS is not the main tool to enable Azure SQL auditing in this simulation, but it can be used to read the .xel audit files after they are written.

Step 1: Download or access the .xel files

From the storage account:

sa60152867 > Containers > sqldbauditlogs

Download the .xel audit file, or access it through supported tooling.

Step 2: Open the audit file in SSMS

Open SQL Server Management Studio.

Go to:

File > Open > File

Select the .xel audit file.

Review fields such as:

statement

database_principal_name

server_principal_name

database_name

event_time

client_ip

This verifies that the queries and the users that executed them are being captured.

Azure CLI Method

Use this only if Cloud Shell is available and you know the resource group names.

az sql server audit-policy update \

--resource-group <resource-group-name> \

--name sql60152867 \

--state Enabled \

--storage-account sa60152867

Depending on the environment, you may also need to specify the storage endpoint and access key, or use managed identity configuration. In the portal simulation, the UI normally handles this for you.

PowerShell Method

Use this if Azure PowerShell is available.

Set-AzSqlServerAudit `

-ResourceGroupName '<resource-group-name>' `

-ServerName 'sql60152867' `

-BlobStorageTargetState Enabled `

-StorageAccountResourceId '/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<storage-rg>/providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/sa60152867'

This configures auditing at the server level, which is the correct scope for all databases.

Final Exam-Lab Action

Configure this in the Azure portal:

SQL server: sql60152867

Security > Auditing

Auditing: On

Audit destination: Storage

Storage account: sa60152867

Default audit action groups: Enabled

Save

That captures queries and the users who executed them for all databases on the SQL logical server and stores the audit records in sa60152867.