Google PCA Ensure solution and operations reliability Practice Question
After a data corruption incident, a company needs to restore their Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL instance from a backup. What is the correct procedure to minimize downtime?
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that creating a new instance and renaming it is the standard recovery procedure, but the trap here is that candidates overlook the additional downtime caused by DNS propagation and connection string updates, making the direct in-place restore the correct choice for minimizing downtime.
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
✓
Restore the backup directly to the existing Cloud SQL instance
Restoring a backup directly to the existing Cloud SQL instance is the fastest method to minimize downtime because it overwrites the current data in-place without requiring DNS propagation, connection string changes, or reconfiguration of applications. Cloud SQL supports in-place restore from automated or on-demand backups, which typically completes within minutes for most instance sizes, as the operation leverages the underlying storage layer to apply the backup snapshot directly to the existing persistent disk.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Restore the backup directly to the existing Cloud SQL instance
Why this is correct
Cloud SQL supports restoring from backup to the same instance with minimal steps.
- ✗
Create a new instance from the backup, then rename and delete the old instance
Why it's wrong here
This is possible but slower and requires additional steps.
- ✗
Use point-in-time recovery to restore to a time before corruption
Why it's wrong here
Point-in-time recovery requires binary logging enabled, and may not be available for the exact moment before corruption.
- ✗
Export the backup to Cloud Storage and import into the existing instance
Why it's wrong here
Export/import is for data migration, not quick restore.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to Google Cloud Platform
Key term
Fully Qualified Domain Name
A Fully Qualified Domain Name is the complete and unambiguous website or server name that includes the host, domain, and top-level domain, leaving no room for guesswork.
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
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.