PCDE Practice Question: Deploy scalable and highly available databases in Google Cloud
A company runs a global application on Cloud Spanner with a multi-region configuration. They need to test their DR procedures without impacting production. Which THREE actions should they perform? (Choose 3)
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
✓
Simulate a zone failure by modifying IAM permissions to restrict access to replicas in a zone.
Non-destructive tests include creating a backup and restoring it to a separate instance for validation, simulating a zone failure by restricting replica access, and performing regular failover drills via backup/restore to test RTO.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Delete the production instance and recreate it from a backup.
Why it's wrong here
Destructive; not suitable for testing.
- ✓
Simulate a zone failure by modifying IAM permissions to restrict access to replicas in a zone.
Why this is correct
This allows testing failover behavior without actual outage.
- ✓
Create a backup of the production database and restore it to a separate instance for validation.
Why this is correct
This tests restore procedures without affecting production.
- ✗
Promote a read replica to a writable instance in a different region.
Why it's wrong here
Spanner does not have read replicas that can be promoted; it uses multi-region instances.
- ✓
Perform a failover test by initiating a planned regional outage using Spanner's API.
Why this is correct
Spanner supports planned failover for testing; this validates failover procedures.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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