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CISA Practice Question: A multinational corporation operates an…
A multinational corporation operates an e-commerce platform hosted in a private cloud environment. The platform consists of web servers, application servers, and a database cluster. The database cluster uses synchronous replication across two data centers (Primary and DR) located 500 km apart. The recovery time objective (RTO) for the platform is 2 hours, and the recovery point objective (RPO) is 15 minutes. During a recent disaster simulation, the primary data center lost power completely. The IT team initiated failover to the DR site. However, the failover process took 3 hours due to a misconfiguration in the DNS failover scripts, and the database was found to be inconsistent because the replication link was broken 30 minutes before the power loss. The team had to restore from a backup that was 4 hours old. After the incident, management requests a review of the disaster recovery plan. Which of the following is the BEST course of action to address the issues identified?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates focus on the technical symptom (DNS failover delay) and choose a quick fix like automated DNS failover (Option D), while ignoring the more critical database inconsistency issue that requires a comprehensive test to validate the entire DR plan.
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
✓
Conduct a full-scale disaster recovery test including DNS failover and database consistency checks
The incident revealed failures in DNS failover scripts (causing RTO breach) and database consistency checks (causing RPO breach). A full-scale test that includes DNS failover and database consistency validation is the only option that directly addresses both root causes, ensuring the DR plan meets the stated RTO of 2 hours and RPO of 15 minutes. Without such a test, the organization cannot verify that the failover process and data integrity mechanisms work as intended under realistic conditions.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the synchronous replication distance limit to ensure link stability over 500 km
Why it's wrong here
The link failure was due to an outage, not distance; synchronous replication over long distances can introduce latency and is not the root cause.
- ✓
Conduct a full-scale disaster recovery test including DNS failover and database consistency checks
Why this is correct
A comprehensive test would identify both the DNS script error and the replication link vulnerability, allowing corrective actions.
- ✗
Switch to asynchronous replication to avoid data loss during link failures
Why it's wrong here
Asynchronous replication may increase RPO and does not guarantee consistency; it also does not address the DNS failover issue.
- ✗
Implement automated DNS failover with health checks and reduce TTL values to 60 seconds
Why it's wrong here
This addresses the DNS delay but does not solve the database inconsistency from the replication link failure.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CISA practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISACA 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 CISA exam.