Note: This question is part of a series of questions that present the same scenario. Each question in the series
contains a unique solution. Determine whether the solution meets the stated goals.
Your network contains a single Active Directory forest. The forest contains a domain controller and Active
Directory Federation Services (AD FS) servers that are deployed to virtual machines. The virtual machines run
either on-premises or on Microsoft Azure.
You have Azure AD Connect deployed on-premises. The Azure AD Connect database is installed on an onpremises instance of Microsoft SQL Server 2014.
Last month, an Azure AD Connect server experienced a hardware failure that caused an Azure AD Connect
server to go offline for several days.
You need to recommend a solution to reduce the outage window when hardware failure occurs on the Azure
AD Connect server.
Solution: You deploy a new on-premises Azure AD Connect server that uses a new SQL Server instance. You
set the Azure AD Connect server to staging mode.
Does this meet the goal?
A.
Yes
B.
No
Explanation:
Azure AD Connect sync Staging mode can be used for several scenarios, including:
High availability.
Test and deploy new configuration changes.
Introduce a new server and decommission the old.
Have a spare standby server – staging modeIf you have a more complex environment, then having one or more standby servers is recommended. During
installation, you can enable a server to be in staging mode.
SQL Clustering would be needed for high availability.
Note: SQL High Availability
If you are not using the SQL Server Express that comes with Azure AD Connect, then high availability for SQL
Server should also be considered. The only high availability solution supported is SQL clustering. Unsupported
solutions include mirroring and Always On.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/active-directory-aadconnectsyncoperations/
Shouldn’t the answer be yes? The explanation doesn’t match the selected answer
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/connect/active-directory-aadconnectsync-operations
The SQL server has to be either the same instance, or in a cluster
as per this comment about Staging Mode in MS site, answer Yes is correct.
“For those of you with knowledge of older sync technologies, the staging mode is different since the server has its own SQL database. This architecture allows the staging mode server to be located in a different datacenter”.
From “https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/connect/active-directory-aadconnectsync-operations” – If you are not using the SQL Server Express that comes with Azure AD Connect, then high availability for SQL Server should also be considered. The high availability solutions supported include SQL clustering and AOA (Always On Availability Groups). Unsupported solutions include mirroring.
Now answer is subjective, I’ll go for No option-B because database is mention in question “The Azure AD Connect database is installed on an on premises instance of Microsoft SQL Server 2014.”