Google PCA Ensure solution and operations reliability Practice Question
A company deploys a stateful workload using StatefulSets on GKE. They want to ensure that if a pod is evicted, its persistent volume claim (PVC) is reattached to the replacement pod in the same zone. Which configuration achieves this?
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that Deployments can handle stateful workloads with persistent storage, but they lack the ordinal identity and PVC reattachment guarantees that StatefulSets provide for zone-pinned recovery.
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 a StatefulSet with a volumeClaimTemplate referencing a persistent disk in the same zone.
StatefulSets are designed for stateful workloads and guarantee stable network identities and persistent storage. When a pod is evicted, the StatefulSet controller ensures the replacement pod uses the same PVC, which is bound to a GCE Persistent Disk in the same zone as the original pod, provided the volumeClaimTemplate specifies a disk in that zone. This maintains data locality and avoids cross-zone reattachment.
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 a StatefulSet with a volumeClaimTemplate referencing a persistent disk in the same zone.
Why this is correct
StatefulSet ensures stable pod identity and PVC reattachment; zone affinity ensures the disk is in the same zone.
- ✗
Use a Deployment with a PVC that has allowedTopologies restricting to the desired zone.
Why it's wrong here
Deployment pods are not guaranteed to have stable identities, and PVC binding can break on rescheduling.
- ✗
Use a Deployment with a persistent volume that is manually attached after pod creation.
Why it's wrong here
Deployments do not guarantee persistent pod identity, and manual attachment is error-prone.
- ✗
Use a StatefulSet with a persistent disk that has access mode ReadOnlyMany.
Why it's wrong here
StatefulSet requires ReadWriteOnce for stateful workloads to allow the pod to write.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Cloud Storage: Objects and Buckets
Key term
GKE
GKE is Google's managed Kubernetes service that automates deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications in the cloud.
Key term
Data
Data is raw, unprocessed information, like numbers, words, or measurements, that can be stored, processed, and analyzed by computers.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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