CompTIA Server+ (SK0-005)Server AdministrationMedium
A server administrator is designing a new server infrastructure for a high-traffic e-commerce application. To ensure continuous availability and resilience against single points of failure, the administrator plans to deploy multiple application servers and database servers. Which server administration concept is primarily being addressed by this design?
- ALoad balancing
- BDisaster recovery
- CHigh availability
- DResource pooling
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. High availability
High availability (HA) is the design principle of a system that ensures a very high level of operational performance for a given period of time, often through redundancy and failover mechanisms, directly addressing the need for continuous availability and resilience against single points of failure.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Load balancing distributes traffic across multiple servers, which is a component of high availability, but not the overarching concept of ensuring continuous uptime.
- B. Disaster recovery focuses on restoring operations after a major catastrophic event, while HA focuses on preventing outages during normal operations.
- D. Resource pooling aggregates resources from multiple servers, but doesn't inherently guarantee continuous availability without other HA mechanisms.
High Availability (HA)
A system design approach that ensures a very high level of operational uptime for a given period, typically by eliminating single points of failure through redundancy.
- Minimizes downtime for critical services.
- Often uses redundant components (servers, power, network).
- Includes failover mechanisms for automatic recovery.
Memory trick: HA keeps the system 'always on', DR brings it back from the brink.