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220-1201 A company uses a public cloud IaaS provider Practice Question
A company uses a public cloud IaaS provider. The security team discovers that a virtual machine's data disk was accidentally deleted by an administrator. They need to recover the data from a snapshot taken 24 hours ago. The snapshot is stored in the same cloud region. What is the most efficient recovery method?
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
✓
Create a new data disk from the snapshot and attach it to the VM
Most cloud IaaS providers allow creating a new volume from a snapshot, which can then be attached to the existing VM. This is faster than restoring the entire VM from a full image. The technician should create a new disk from the snapshot and attach it, then copy the data to the original disk if needed.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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Restore the entire VM from the snapshot
Why it's wrong here
Restoring the entire VM from a snapshot would overwrite the current operating system disk and any changes made since the snapshot was taken, leading to potential data loss on the OS drive itself. This action would also necessitate a full VM reboot, causing significant downtime for all services running on the virtual machine, which is disproportionate when only a single data disk is affected.
- ✓
Create a new data disk from the snapshot and attach it to the VM
Why this is correct
In a public cloud IaaS environment, a snapshot of a data disk can be directly used to provision a new, independent managed disk. This newly created disk can then be attached to the existing, running virtual machine, effectively replacing the lost data disk without requiring a full VM restart. This method ensures minimal service interruption and efficiently restores only the necessary component.
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Download the snapshot to an on-premises server and then upload it
Why it's wrong here
Downloading a large block-level snapshot to an on-premises server and then re-uploading it back to the cloud is highly inefficient and impractical. This process would incur substantial data transfer costs, introduce significant latency due to WAN bandwidth limitations, and consume excessive time, completely bypassing the cloud provider's native, optimized recovery mechanisms for disk restoration within their infrastructure.
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Use the snapshot to create a new VM and then copy files via network
Why it's wrong here
Creating a new VM from the snapshot and copying files over the network introduces unnecessary latency and data transfer costs, whereas the correct method directly attaches the snapshot as a managed disk to the existing VM, avoiding the overhead of a second VM and network copy. This option is tempting because creating a new VM from a snapshot is a standard disaster-recovery procedure when the original VM is corrupted or unavailable, but here the original VM remains intact and only its data disk needs restoration.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1201 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 220-1201 exam.