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AZ-305 · Question #336

Hotspot Question You have 10 on-premises servers that run Windows Server. You need to perform daily backups of the servers to a Recovery Services vault. The solution must meet the following…

The correct answer is On the servers:: The Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent; For the storage:: Locally-redundant storage (LRS). Hotspot Explanation: Backing Up On-Premises Servers to a Recovery Services Vault --- Dropdown 1: On the servers - Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent Why MARS is correct: MARS is specifically designed for backing up files, folders, and system state from on-premises…

Submitted by noor.lb· Mar 6, 2026Design business continuity solutions

Question

Hotspot Question You have 10 on-premises servers that run Windows Server. You need to perform daily backups of the servers to a Recovery Services vault. The solution must meet the following requirements: - Back up all the files and folders on the servers. - Maintain three copies of the backups in Azure. - Minimize costs. What should you configure? To answer, select the appropriate options in the answer area. NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point. Answer:

Exhibit

AZ-305 question #336 exhibit

Answer Area

  • On the servers:The Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent
    The Azure Site Recovery Mobility serviceThe Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agentVolume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)
  • For the storage:Locally-redundant storage (LRS)
    Geo-redundant storage (GRS)Locally-redundant storage (LRS)Zone-redundant storage (ZRS)

Explanation

Hotspot Explanation: Backing Up On-Premises Servers to a Recovery Services Vault


Dropdown 1: On the servers - Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent

Why MARS is correct: MARS is specifically designed for backing up files, folders, and system state from on-premises Windows servers directly to an Azure Recovery Services vault. It runs as a lightweight agent on each server, handles scheduling, and supports the exact requirement: file/folder backup to Azure.

Why the alternatives are wrong:

  • Azure Site Recovery Mobility service - This is for disaster recovery (replicating entire VMs for failover), not for file/folder backup. It doesn't integrate with Recovery Services vaults for backup purposes.
  • Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) - VSS is a Windows-native technology that creates point-in-time snapshots locally. It's a component MARS uses internally, but VSS alone does not back up data to Azure. You can't configure VSS to send backups to a Recovery Services vault.

Key concept: MARS agent is the standard solution for agent-based, file-level backup of on-premises Windows machines to Azure Recovery Services vaults.


Dropdown 2: For the storage - Locally-redundant storage (LRS)

Why LRS is correct: The requirement says "maintain three copies of the backups in Azure" and minimize costs. LRS stores exactly three copies of data within a single Azure datacenter (one region, one availability zone). It is the cheapest redundancy tier and directly satisfies the "three copies" requirement.

Why the alternatives are wrong:

  • Geo-redundant storage (GRS) - GRS stores six copies (3 locally + 3 in a paired region hundreds of miles away). This exceeds the three-copy requirement and costs significantly more. Only use GRS if you need protection against a full regional outage.
  • Zone-redundant storage (ZRS) - ZRS stores three copies across three availability zones within a region. While it also provides three copies, it costs more than LRS and adds zone-level redundancy that wasn't required by the scenario.

Key concept: Recovery Services vaults let you choose the storage replication type. When the requirement explicitly states three copies and minimize costs, LRS is the precise and cheapest match - it was designed for exactly this: three synchronous copies in one location.


Summary Table

DropdownCorrect ChoiceReason
On the serversMARS agentFile/folder backup from on-premises Windows to Azure vault
Storage typeLRSExactly 3 copies, lowest cost

Topics

#Azure Backup#MARS Agent#Recovery Services Vault#Storage Redundancy

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