CompTIA Server+ (SK0-005)Security and Disaster RecoveryHard
A company is implementing a new data retention policy for its archival server backups. The policy states that a full backup must be performed monthly, and these monthly backups must be kept for 7 years. Weekly incremental backups are performed and kept for 1 month, and daily incremental backups are kept for 1 week. This tiered approach to data retention is an example of which backup strategy?
- AActive-Passive Clustering
- BSnapshotting
- CMirroring
- DGrandfather-Father-Son (GFS)
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS)
The Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) backup strategy is a rotation scheme that uses daily (Son), weekly (Father), and monthly/yearly (Grandfather) backups, each with different retention periods. The scenario describes exactly this tiered approach with varying retention for daily, weekly, and monthly backups.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Active-Passive Clustering is a high-availability solution, not a backup strategy.
- B. Snapshotting creates point-in-time images of a system or volume, not a long-term rotation strategy.
- C. Mirroring creates an exact, real-time copy of data, not a backup rotation scheme.
Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) Backup
A backup rotation scheme that uses three generations of backups: daily (Son), weekly (Father), and monthly/yearly (Grandfather), each with increasingly longer retention periods.
- Optimizes storage and recovery times.
- Provides multiple recovery points over different timescales.
- Commonly used for long-term data retention.
Memory trick: GFS: Grandparents for years, Parents for weeks, Kids for days.