CompTIA DataSys+ (DS0-001)Business ContinuityMedium
A database administrator is evaluating different disaster recovery strategies for a critical online transaction processing (OLTP) database. The business requires a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 4 hours and a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 1 hour. The solution must minimize operational overhead during normal operations. Which of the following disaster recovery strategies best meets these requirements?
- AWarm Standby
- BHot Standby
- CCold Standby
- DDaily Full Backups with Offsite Storage
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. Warm Standby
Warm Standby offers a balance between recovery time and cost, making it suitable for an RTO of 4 hours and an RPO of 1 hour with minimal operational overhead during normal operations. It involves a fully functional but non-active database that can be quickly brought online.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. Hot Standby (or Active-Active/Active-Passive with replication) would typically provide a much lower RTO and RPO, but with significantly higher cost and operational overhead than required.
- C. Cold Standby typically has a much longer RTO than 4 hours, as it requires significant setup time after a disaster.
- D. Daily Full Backups would result in an RPO of up to 24 hours (data loss since last backup) and a much longer RTO due to the time required to restore and apply logs.
Warm Standby
A disaster recovery strategy where a secondary database system is maintained in a near-ready state, often with frequent data synchronization from the primary.
- Offers a balance between RTO/RPO and cost.
- Secondary system is partially configured and updated regularly.
- Requires some manual intervention or automation to become fully operational after failover.
Memory trick: Warm standby keeps your data ready, not too hot, not too cold, just right for recovery.