CISA Practice Question: Information Systems Operations and Business Resilience
This CISA practice question tests your understanding of information systems operations and business resilience. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
During an incident response exercise, the IT team discovers that the failover to the disaster recovery (DR) site failed because the DR site's storage area network (SAN) was not zoned correctly for the replicated data. Which of the following controls would BEST prevent this issue?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "best"
Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Conducting regular disaster recovery testing including full failover
Option D is correct because regular disaster recovery testing that includes a full failover is the only control that directly validates that the DR site's SAN zoning is correctly configured to accept replicated data. Without such testing, misconfigurations like incorrect zone sets or missing WWPN (World Wide Port Name) mappings in the SAN fabric remain undetected until an actual failover is attempted. This aligns with the CISA emphasis on testing recovery procedures to ensure business continuity.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Maintaining a configuration management database (CMDB)
Why it's wrong here
CMDB documents configurations but does not prevent misconfiguration.
✗
Implementing a change management process for SAN configurations
Why it's wrong here
Change management helps but does not guarantee correct zoning; testing is more direct.
✗
Using automated replication monitoring tools
Why it's wrong here
Monitoring tools alert on replication failures but do not prevent zoning issues.
✓
Conducting regular disaster recovery testing including full failover
Why this is correct
Regular testing validates that all components work together, including SAN zoning.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often choose 'implementing a change management process' (Option B) because they assume process controls prevent misconfigurations, but they overlook that change management does not validate the actual technical correctness of the configuration—only testing (Option D) can confirm that the DR site's SAN zoning works under failover conditions.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
SAN zoning operates at the Fibre Channel fabric level, using either soft zoning (based on WWPN) or hard zoning (based on port IDs). A misconfiguration in the DR site's zone set—such as omitting the replication target's WWPN or assigning it to the wrong zone—can cause the replicated data to be silently dropped or rejected by the target storage array. During a full failover test, the IT team would initiate a real-time switchover, forcing the SAN fabric to validate the zone configuration; if the zoning is incorrect, the failover fails immediately, exposing the issue. Real-world scenarios often involve multi-site replication using synchronous or asynchronous protocols (e.g., SRDF, TrueCopy, or MetroCluster), where zoning errors can lead to split-brain conditions or data corruption if not caught by testing.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A practitioner preparing for the CISA exam encounters this exact type of scenario on the job. The correct answer here is not the most general option — it is the best answer for the specific constraint described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Real exam questions reward reading the full scenario before eliminating options, because the constraint defines which answer fits.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Information Systems Operations and Business Resilience — This question tests Information Systems Operations and Business Resilience — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Conducting regular disaster recovery testing including full failover — Option D is correct because regular disaster recovery testing that includes a full failover is the only control that directly validates that the DR site's SAN zoning is correctly configured to accept replicated data. Without such testing, misconfigurations like incorrect zone sets or missing WWPN (World Wide Port Name) mappings in the SAN fabric remain undetected until an actual failover is attempted. This aligns with the CISA emphasis on testing recovery procedures to ensure business continuity.
What should I do if I get this CISA question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "best". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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