VA-003 Explain Vault architecture Practice Question
A company is using Vault's Integrated Storage (Raft) for high availability. During a network partition, two Vault nodes become isolated from the third. What happens to the isolated nodes?
⚠ Common exam trap
HashiCorp often tests the misconception that all nodes in a partitioned cluster stop serving requests, but the correct understanding is that only the minority side (nodes that lose quorum) stop, while the majority side continues to operate normally.
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
✓
The two isolated nodes continue to serve requests, the third stops
In Vault Integrated Storage (Raft), a quorum of nodes (majority) is required to maintain cluster leadership and serve requests. During a network partition where two nodes are isolated from the third, the two nodes form a majority (2 out of 3) and can continue to serve requests, while the isolated third node loses quorum and stops serving requests to prevent split-brain. This behavior is enforced by the Raft consensus algorithm, which requires a majority for any write or read operations to ensure consistency.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
The two isolated nodes continue to serve requests, the third stops
Why this is correct
The two nodes have quorum; the isolated third does not.
- ✗
All three nodes automatically rejoin after partition
Why it's wrong here
Raft requires manual intervention to recover.
- ✗
All three nodes continue to serve requests
Why it's wrong here
The isolated node cannot serve writes without quorum.
- ✗
The two isolated nodes stop serving requests
Why it's wrong here
They can form quorum and continue.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This VA-003 practice question is part of Courseiva's free HashiCorp 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 VA-003 exam.