Drag and Drop Question You have an SAP landscape on Azure that contains the virtual machines shown in the following table. You need to recommend a recovery solution in the event of an Azure regional outage. The solution must meet the following requirements: - Minimize costs. - Minimize data loss. - Minimize administrative effort. What should you recommend for each virtual machine? To answer, drag the appropriate services to the correct virtual machines. Each service may be used once, more than once, or not at all. You may need to drag the split bar between panes or scroll to view content. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point. Answer:

Microsoft

AZ-120 · Question #243

Drag and Drop Question You have an SAP landscape on Azure that contains the virtual machines shown in the following table. You need to recommend a recovery solution in the event of an Azure regional…

The correct answer is An AlwaysOn availability group; HANA system replication; Azure Site Recovery. SAP on Azure Regional DR - Drag-and-Drop Explained The question presents three VMs in a typical SAP landscape. Based on the correct answers, the VM types are: | Position | VM Type | Correct Answer | |---|---|---| | 1 | SQL Server VM | AlwaysOn Availability Group | | 2 | SAP…

Design and implement high availability and disaster recovery (HA/DR)

Question

Drag and Drop Question You have an SAP landscape on Azure that contains the virtual machines shown in the following table. You need to recommend a recovery solution in the event of an Azure regional outage. The solution must meet the following requirements:

Minimize costs.
Minimize data loss.
Minimize administrative effort.

What should you recommend for each virtual machine? To answer, drag the appropriate services to the correct virtual machines. Each service may be used once, more than once, or not at all. You may need to drag the split bar between panes or scroll to view content. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point. Answer:

Exhibit

Answer Area

Drag items

An AlwaysOn availability groupAn application groupAzure BackupAzure Site RecoveryHANA system replicationGeo-zone-redundant storage (GZRS)

Correct arrangement

An AlwaysOn availability group
HANA system replication
Azure Site Recovery

Explanation

SAP on Azure Regional DR - Drag-and-Drop Explained

The question presents three VMs in a typical SAP landscape. Based on the correct answers, the VM types are:

Position	VM Type	Correct Answer
1	SQL Server VM	AlwaysOn Availability Group
2	SAP HANA VM	HANA System Replication
3	SAP Application Server	Azure Site Recovery

Placement 1: SQL Server VM → AlwaysOn Availability Group

SQL Server's native cross-region DR mechanism is AlwaysOn AG. It replicates at the database transaction level, supports synchronous mode (zero data loss) or asynchronous mode (near-zero), and is already licensed within SQL Server - no additional cost. This satisfies all three constraints: minimal cost, minimal data loss, minimal admin effort.

Why not ASR? Azure Site Recovery replicates at the VM/disk level and doesn't understand SQL Server transactions. It's a valid fallback, but AlwaysOn AG is the purpose-built, more efficient solution for SQL Server.

Placement 2: SAP HANA VM → HANA System Replication (HSR)

HSR is SAP's native replication technology built into the HANA database engine. It replicates logs continuously to a secondary HANA instance in another region. In synchronous mode (SYNC) it achieves zero data loss; in asynchronous mode (ASYNC) it minimizes it with less latency overhead.

Why not Azure Site Recovery? ASR is storage/hypervisor-level replication and is not HANA-aware. It cannot guarantee HANA-consistent crash recovery during failover. SAP and Microsoft both explicitly recommend HSR over ASR for HANA DR.

Placement 3: SAP Application Server → Azure Site Recovery

SAP application servers (e.g., NetWeaver ABAP) are stateless - they hold no persistent data. Their state lives in the database. ASR continuously replicates the VM to a secondary region and enables one-click failover. There's no need for an expensive always-on standby server, making this the cheapest option that still satisfies RPO/RTO requirements.

Why not HANA System Replication or AlwaysOn? Those are database technologies. You cannot apply them to a stateless application tier VM.

Common Mistakes

Using Azure Backup for any of these: Backup is point-in-time restore, not continuous replication. Recovery can take hours and violates the "minimize data loss" requirement.
Using ASR for HANA: A very common mistake. ASR works generically for any VM but isn't HANA-consistent - SAP certifications require HSR for HANA DR.
Using HSR for SQL Server: HSR is proprietary to SAP HANA. It cannot replicate SQL Server.
Forgetting GZRS is storage-only: Geo-zone-redundant storage protects Azure Storage accounts/disks at rest, but it does not failover a running VM or database - it's a distractor here.

Core Rule to Remember

Use the native database replication technology for database VMs (AlwaysOn for SQL Server, HSR for HANA), and use Azure Site Recovery for stateless tiers where no data lives.

Topics

#AlwaysOn availability group#HANA system replication#Azure Site Recovery#DR solution matching

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