Palo Alto Networks Certified Security Automation Engineer (PCSAE)Cortex XSOAR FundamentalsHard
A large enterprise has deployed Cortex XSOAR and is implementing a robust disaster recovery (DR) strategy. The primary XSOAR instance is in Region A, and the DR site is in Region B. To minimize data loss in the event of a regional outage, what is the most critical metric to optimize when configuring database replication between the primary and DR sites?
- AService Level Agreement (SLA)
- BMean Time To Recover (MTTR)
- CRecovery Time Objective (RTO)
- DRecovery Point Objective (RPO)
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
Recovery Point Objective (RPO) directly addresses data loss. It defines the maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time. To 'minimize data loss', the RPO must be as close to zero as possible through frequent or continuous database replication.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. SLA is an agreement on service availability and performance, but RPO is the specific metric for data loss.
- B. MTTR is a metric for how long it takes to repair a failed system, similar to RTO but often more granular.
- C. RTO focuses on the time it takes to restore service, not directly on minimizing data loss.
Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
The maximum tolerable period in which data might be lost from an IT service due to a major incident.
- Measures acceptable data loss (in time).
- Determines frequency of backups or replication.
- Goal is to minimize data loss, ideally to zero.
Memory trick: DR metrics are about 'Time' for recovery and 'Points' of data loss.