PCDE Practice Question: Manage a solution that can span multiple database technologies
An organization needs to run a disaster recovery drill for its Cloud SQL for MySQL instance by promoting a read replica to a standalone instance. The replica is in the same region as the primary. After the drill, they want the original primary to resume serving writes. What should they do?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume you can simply re-attach the promoted replica or use a failover command to reverse the roles, but Cloud SQL's architecture treats promotion as an irreversible operation that requires deleting and recreating the replica.
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
✓
Promote the replica, then delete and recreate the replica from the original primary after the drill.
Promoting a read replica in Cloud SQL for MySQL breaks the replication link, making the replica a standalone primary. After the drill, you must delete the promoted replica and create a new read replica from the original primary to re-establish replication. This is the only supported method because Cloud SQL does not allow reversing the promotion or re-attaching a promoted instance as a replica.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Promote the replica, then delete and recreate the replica from the original primary after the drill.
Why this is correct
Promotion is irreversible; to restore replication, you must recreate the replica.
- ✗
Stop replication, then restart the primary instance to make it the new replica.
Why it's wrong here
Restarting does not change roles.
- ✗
Use the gcloud command to switch roles between the primary and replica.
Why it's wrong here
There is no such command; replica promotion is one-way.
- ✗
Promote the replica, then perform a failover on the original primary to make it the new primary.
Why it's wrong here
Failover is not applicable; the original primary is still active.
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