Google PCA Ensure solution and operations reliability Practice Question
A company runs a stateful application on Compute Engine with persistent disks. They want to ensure data durability across a zone failure. What is the best approach?
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the distinction between synchronous replication (regional persistent disks) and asynchronous backup (snapshots), leading candidates to choose snapshots for durability when they actually need zero RPO across a zone failure.
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 regional persistent disks
Regional persistent disks (RPDs) synchronously replicate data between two zones in the same region, providing an RPO of zero and automatic failover without application-level changes. This ensures data durability across a zone failure while maintaining consistent performance and low latency.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Replicate data at application level to another instance in a different zone
Why it's wrong here
Application-level replication shifts consistency and failover logic onto the application, and the second instance's disk is not synchronously mirrored; it suits custom clustering where the app manages replication. Regional persistent disks provide synchronous block-level replication across zones without application changes.
- ✗
Use Google Cloud NetApp Volumes with replication
Why it's wrong here
NetApp Volumes with replication is a managed file-service feature for NAS workloads and cross-region replication, not the block-storage durability mechanism for Compute Engine persistent disks. Regional persistent disks replicate synchronously between two zones in the same region, matching the zone-failure requirement.
- ✓
Use regional persistent disks
Why this is correct
Regional persistent disks synchronously replicate data across two zones within the same region, so a zone failure leaves a healthy replica available. Zonal persistent disks reside in a single zone and cannot satisfy the cross-zone durability constraint.
- ✗
Take regular snapshots of the persistent disks and store them in a multiregional bucket
Why it's wrong here
Snapshots are point-in-time copies with recovery lag, so data written after the last snapshot is lost in a zone failure; they serve backup and restore scenarios. Regional persistent disks replicate synchronously across two zones, which is the durability mechanism the stem requires.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Cloud SQL and Managed Data Stores
Key term
RPO
Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is the maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time, defining how recent data must be to resume operations after a disruption.
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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