- A
Use active-active or automatic failover between two sites with health checks.
A second site with automatic failover or active-active traffic handling preserves availability when one location goes offline. Health checks let the load balancer or orchestration layer stop sending traffic to a failed site quickly. This directly addresses the requirement to keep the portal online during a total site outage.
- B
Keep only RAID 1 inside each server, because mirroring alone handles site outages.
Why wrong: RAID improves local disk resilience, but it does not protect against an entire site failure. It also does not provide recovery from corruption or ransomware. Disk mirroring is useful, but it is only one layer and cannot satisfy the full availability and recovery requirement by itself.
- C
Maintain immutable offsite backups and test restores on a regular schedule.
Immutable backups protect recovery copies from tampering, deletion, or encryption by an attacker. Offsite storage adds geographic separation, which helps if the primary site is lost. Restore testing proves the backups are usable, so the organization knows it can actually recover rather than merely store copies.
- D
Store nightly backups on the same storage array as the production data.
Why wrong: Backups on the same storage array may be fast, but they are vulnerable to the same outage, corruption, or ransomware event as production data. This does not provide meaningful site independence or recovery assurance. Backup location and immutability matter as much as backup frequency.
- E
Replace the load balancer with a static DNS record for each server.
Why wrong: Static DNS records do not provide rapid health-based failover and are slow to react to outages. They also place too much responsibility on clients or manual updates during an incident. A resilient design needs automated failover, not just name resolution.
Quick Answer
The answer is to maintain immutable offsite backups and test restores on a regular schedule, paired with active-active or automatic failover between two sites with health checks. Immutable offsite backups ensure that ransomware cannot encrypt or delete the recovery data, while regular restore testing verifies that the backups are actually usable when needed. For the site failure requirement, automatic failover with health monitoring instantly redirects traffic to a surviving site, keeping the portal online without manual intervention. On the Security+ SY0-701 exam, this question tests your understanding of resilience and recovery under the "Business Continuity" and "Disaster Recovery" domains—specifically the difference between high availability (failover) and data integrity (immutable backups). A common trap is confusing replication with immutability: replication alone won’t protect against encryption if the replica is also accessible. Remember the mnemonic “Failover for uptime, immutable for recovery” to keep both requirements distinct.
SY0-701 Security Architecture Practice Question
This SY0-701 practice question tests your understanding of security architecture. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A customer portal must stay online if an entire site fails, and the company must also be able to recover if data is corrupted or encrypted by ransomware. Which two design choices best satisfy both requirements? Select two.
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue:
"best"Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
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
Use active-active or automatic failover between two sites with health checks.
Option A is correct because active-active or automatic failover between two sites with health checks ensures that if an entire site fails, traffic is automatically redirected to the surviving site, maintaining availability. This design satisfies the first requirement of staying online during a site failure by using redundant infrastructure and health monitoring to detect and react to outages.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use active-active or automatic failover between two sites with health checks.
Why this is correct
A second site with automatic failover or active-active traffic handling preserves availability when one location goes offline. Health checks let the load balancer or orchestration layer stop sending traffic to a failed site quickly. This directly addresses the requirement to keep the portal online during a total site outage.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Keep only RAID 1 inside each server, because mirroring alone handles site outages.
Why it's wrong here
RAID improves local disk resilience, but it does not protect against an entire site failure. It also does not provide recovery from corruption or ransomware. Disk mirroring is useful, but it is only one layer and cannot satisfy the full availability and recovery requirement by itself.
- ✓
Maintain immutable offsite backups and test restores on a regular schedule.
Why this is correct
Immutable backups protect recovery copies from tampering, deletion, or encryption by an attacker. Offsite storage adds geographic separation, which helps if the primary site is lost. Restore testing proves the backups are usable, so the organization knows it can actually recover rather than merely store copies.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Store nightly backups on the same storage array as the production data.
Why it's wrong here
Backups on the same storage array may be fast, but they are vulnerable to the same outage, corruption, or ransomware event as production data. This does not provide meaningful site independence or recovery assurance. Backup location and immutability matter as much as backup frequency.
- ✗
Replace the load balancer with a static DNS record for each server.
Why it's wrong here
Static DNS records do not provide rapid health-based failover and are slow to react to outages. They also place too much responsibility on clients or manual updates during an incident. A resilient design needs automated failover, not just name resolution.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often assume RAID or local backups provide sufficient protection against site outages and ransomware, but RAID only handles disk failure and same-site backups are vulnerable to the same ransomware attack, so both requirements demand geographically separate, immutable backups and multi-site failover.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Active-active configurations distribute traffic across multiple sites using global server load balancing (GSLB) with health probes (e.g., ICMP, HTTP 200 checks) to detect site failure and update DNS or routing tables. Immutable offsite backups, often implemented with object lock (e.g., S3 Object Lock or WORM storage), prevent modification or deletion of backup data even by privileged accounts, ensuring recoverability against ransomware that encrypts live data. Regular restore testing validates backup integrity and recovery time objectives (RTOs), which is critical because backups can be silently corrupted or incomplete.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A security analyst at a medium-sized enterprise encounters this scenario during an investigation or architecture review. The correct answer reflects best practice for the specific threat or control described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Security exam questions test whether you can match controls to threats in context — not just recall definitions.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SY0-701 question test?
Security Architecture — This question tests Security Architecture — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use active-active or automatic failover between two sites with health checks. — Option A is correct because active-active or automatic failover between two sites with health checks ensures that if an entire site fails, traffic is automatically redirected to the surviving site, maintaining availability. This design satisfies the first requirement of staying online during a site failure by using redundant infrastructure and health monitoring to detect and react to outages.
What should I do if I get this SY0-701 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "best". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This SY0-701 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 SY0-701 exam.
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