220-1102 Operational Procedures Practice Question
A company performs daily backups of its critical database server. The backup logs show 'completed successfully' each day with no errors. However, during a disaster recovery drill, the database administrators discover that many backup files are corrupt and cannot be restored. What should the technician have done to prevent this situation?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume 'completed successfully' logs guarantee data integrity, but CompTIA tests the distinction between backup completion and restore validation, emphasizing that only a tested restore proves recoverability.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Test restoring from the backup periodically
The core issue is that backup success logs only indicate the backup process completed, not that the data is restorable. By periodically testing restores, the technician would have identified the corruption early, allowing for corrective action before a disaster. This aligns with the 3-2-1 backup rule's validation step, which is critical for ensuring backup integrity.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Encrypt the backup files to prevent corruption
Why it's wrong here
Encryption protects data confidentiality by scrambling backup files so they are unreadable without the correct key, but it does nothing to ensure the files are intact or free from corruption. Corruption can arise from bit rot, Media errors, or an interrupted backup process, and encryption neither detects nor prevents those failures. In fact, decryption of corrupt ciphertext often produces garbled output that may be unrecognizable as a database.
- ✓
Test restoring from the backup periodically
Why this is correct
Performing periodic test restores is the only way to prove that backup data is truly recoverable. A successful backup job only verifies that data was copied; it does not guarantee that the resulting files can be read, parsed, and used to bring the database back online. Restoring to a separate test environment and validating the restored database (e.g., running integrity checks or sample queries) directly confirms the backup chain works and that recovery objectives can be met.
- ✗
Store backups at an offsite location
Why it's wrong here
Offsite storage protects the organization against site-level disasters like fires, floods, or building outages by placing a copy elsewhere. However, it does not validate the integrity of the backup files; a corrupt backup stored in a different physical location is just as useless as a corrupt backup kept on-premises. Offsite placement addresses availability of the backup media, not the verifiability of the data it contains.
- ✗
Use a different backup software application
Why it's wrong here
Switching to a different backup software application does not add integrity verification of the data being backed up. The new application may use different algorithms or formats, but unless you explicitly test restores, you still have no evidence that its output is recoverable. This change also introduces migration risks and potential misconfiguration, which could create new failure points without solving the core problem: corruption is undetected because no one validates the backups.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1102 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1102 exam.