CompTIA DataSys+ (DS0-001)Business ContinuityMedium
A data architect is designing a high-availability solution for a critical database cluster. The requirement is for automatic failover without manual intervention and the ability to continue operations even if one node fails, with no data loss. Which high-availability component is primarily responsible for detecting a node failure and initiating the failover process?
- AShared storage
- BLoad balancer
- CCluster manager/quorum service
- DDatabase replication agent
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Cluster manager/quorum service
A cluster manager or quorum service is responsible for monitoring the health of nodes in a high-availability cluster, detecting failures, and orchestrating the failover of resources (like the database instance) to a healthy node. It ensures that only one node is active at a time to prevent split-brain scenarios.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Shared storage provides access to data for all nodes but does not actively monitor node health or trigger failover.
- B. A load balancer distributes incoming traffic but does not manage cluster state or initiate failover of the database itself.
- D. A database replication agent handles data synchronization but does not typically manage the cluster-wide failover logic or quorum.
Cluster Manager
Software component in a high-availability cluster responsible for monitoring node health, managing resources, and orchestrating automatic failover.
- Detects node failures.
- Maintains cluster quorum.
- Initiates and manages failover of services/resources.
Memory trick: The Manager orchestrates the cluster dance.