- A
Fault tolerance
Why wrong: Fault tolerance provides continuous uptime by running a duplicate VM, but it requires significant resources and is not just a restart mechanism.
- B
High availability
High availability monitors hosts and automatically restarts VMs on another host if a failure occurs, meeting the requirement of minimal downtime.
- C
Live migration
Why wrong: Live migration moves a running VM to another host manually, not automatically in response to a failure.
- D
Snapshots
Why wrong: Snapshots capture a VM's state for backup, but they do not provide automatic restart after a host failure.
Question 129 of 750
High Availability vs Fault Tolerance in Virtualization
This 220-1202 practice question tests your understanding of virtualization and cloud technologies. 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 company uses a private cloud for its internal applications. The IT team wants to ensure that if one physical host fails, the virtual machines running on it can be automatically restarted on another host with minimal downtime. Which feature should they implement?
Quick Answer
The answer is high availability, as it is the correct virtualization feature for automatically restarting virtual machines on another physical host after a failure with minimal downtime. Unlike fault tolerance, which maintains a mirrored copy of the VM for zero downtime but demands significantly more resources, high availability provides a practical balance between cost and uptime by detecting a host failure and triggering a restart on a surviving node. On the CompTIA A+ Core 2 220-1202 exam, this concept tests your ability to distinguish between disaster recovery features in a private cloud environment—a common trap is confusing high availability with fault tolerance, which offers continuous operation but is resource-intensive and often unnecessary for most business needs. Remember the memory tip: “HA restarts, FT never parts”—high availability reboots the VM after a crash, while fault tolerance keeps it running without interruption.
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
✓
High availability
High availability (HA) is the correct feature because it is designed to automatically restart virtual machines on a surviving host within a cluster when a physical host fails. HA uses heartbeat monitoring between hosts and a resource manager to detect failures and trigger VM restarts, minimizing downtime without requiring manual intervention.
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.
- ✗
Fault tolerance
Why it's wrong here
Fault tolerance provides continuous uptime by running a duplicate VM, but it requires significant resources and is not just a restart mechanism.
- ✓
High availability
Why this is correct
High availability monitors hosts and automatically restarts VMs on another host if a failure occurs, meeting the requirement of minimal downtime.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Live migration
Why it's wrong here
Live migration moves a running VM to another host manually, not automatically in response to a failure.
- ✗
Snapshots
Why it's wrong here
Snapshots capture a VM's state for backup, but they do not provide automatic restart after a host failure.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
CompTIA A+ candidates often confuse High Availability (automatic restart after failure) with Fault Tolerance (continuous uptime with a secondary VM), leading them to mistakenly choose FT when the question asks for automatic restart with minimal downtime rather than zero downtime.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, HA relies on a master-slave election protocol among hosts in a cluster, where each host sends heartbeat signals (typically over the management network) every second. If a host fails to respond for a configurable number of intervals (default is 5 seconds), the master host declares it dead and initiates restarts of its VMs on other hosts, respecting VM restart priority and host affinity rules. In real-world scenarios, HA can be combined with DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler) to intelligently place restarted VMs based on available resources, but it does not guarantee zero downtime—only minimal downtime for restart.
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 practitioner preparing for the 220-1202 exam encounters this exact type of scenario on the job. The correct answer here is not the most general option — it is the best answer for the specific constraint described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Real exam questions reward reading the full scenario before eliminating options, because the constraint defines which answer fits.
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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Virtualization and Cloud Technologies — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this 220-1202 question test?
Virtualization and Cloud Technologies — This question tests Virtualization and Cloud Technologies — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: High availability — High availability (HA) is the correct feature because it is designed to automatically restart virtual machines on a surviving host within a cluster when a physical host fails. HA uses heartbeat monitoring between hosts and a resource manager to detect failures and trigger VM restarts, minimizing downtime without requiring manual intervention.
What should I do if I get this 220-1202 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
This 220-1202 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 220-1202 exam.
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