ISC Contingency Management Practice Question
Your organization uses a 'Hot Site' with hardware-level replication. During a disaster, the primary site becomes unavailable, but the failover fails due to a 'Split-Brain' scenario. What is the fundamental cause of this?
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
✓
Loss of the heartbeat connection/quorum service.
Split-brain happens when both sites think they are the primary due to loss of the quorum or heartbeat mechanism.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Mismatched firmware versions between servers.
Why it's wrong here
This could cause compatibility issues but not specifically the logic of a split-brain scenario.
- ✗
Inadequate storage capacity for incoming logs.
Why it's wrong here
This affects write performance, not the clustering logic.
- ✓
Loss of the heartbeat connection/quorum service.
Why this is correct
Without a heartbeat or quorum, both nodes may independently assume they are the master, causing data divergence.
- ✗
Insufficient cooling at the hot site.
Why it's wrong here
This would cause a hardware failure, not a split-brain logic failure.
About these practice questions
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed August 2026 · checked against the official (ISC)² exam blueprint
This ISC practice question is part of Courseiva's free (ISC)² 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 ISC exam.