Google PCA Practice Question: Managing and Provisioning a Solution Infrastructure
A company has a legacy application that runs on a single Compute Engine VM and expects to use a fixed IP address. They want to migrate the VM to a different region with minimal downtime. Which TWO actions should they take?
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
✓
Reserve a static external IP address in the target region
Snapshot the VM disk and create a new VM from the snapshot in the target region. Reserve a static external IP address in the target region to keep the IP fixed. Snapshots are regional, so you can create an instance in another region. Deleting the original VM first would cause downtime. Converting to managed instance group is not necessary for a single VM.
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 gcloud compute instances move command
Why it's wrong here
The move command only works within the same region, not across regions.
- ✗
Delete the original VM before creating the new one
Why it's wrong here
Deleting first would cause downtime; the new VM should be created first.
- ✗
Convert the VM to a managed instance group
Why it's wrong here
Managed instance groups are for scaling multiple VMs, not for migrating a single VM.
- ✓
Reserve a static external IP address in the target region
Why this is correct
Reserving a static IP ensures the VM has a fixed IP after migration.
- ✓
Create a snapshot of the boot disk and create a new VM from the snapshot in the target region
Why this is correct
Using a snapshot to create a new VM in the target region migrates the data.
Go deeper
Related to this question
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Google Cloud Compute Options Overview
Key term
Instance group
An instance group is a collection of virtual machine instances that are managed as a single unit for scaling, load balancing, and lifecycle management in cloud computing.
Key term
Compute Engine
Compute Engine is Google Cloud's Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering that lets you create and run virtual machines on Google's infrastructure.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCA practice question is part of Courseiva's free Google Cloud 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 PCA exam.