AZ-802 Manage Storage and File Services Practice Question
A company has a two-node Windows Server 2022 cluster running Storage Spaces Direct (S2D). They need to ensure the highest possible availability for their storage pool, allowing it to survive both a disk failure and a simultaneous node failure. Which resiliency setting must be applied to the virtual disks?
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
✓
Nested resiliency
Storage Spaces Direct requires specific resiliency configurations for small clusters to maintain availability. Nested resiliency is a feature introduced for two-node clusters that provides data redundancy both within a single node and across the two nodes. This ensures that even if one node is offline for maintenance and a drive fails in the remaining node, the data remains accessible.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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Three-way mirroring
Why it's wrong here
Three-way mirroring requires a minimum of five nodes to be fully functional and compliant with best practices for fault tolerance. It writes three copies of data to different nodes, which is physically impossible in a two-node cluster. Using this setting in an undersized cluster would lead to configuration errors or immediate health status warnings.
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Two-way mirroring
Why it's wrong here
Two-way mirroring provides basic redundancy by keeping two copies of data, one on each node. While this allows the cluster to survive the loss of one drive or one node, it cannot survive both simultaneously. If a node is down, the remaining node has no secondary copy, making it vulnerable to any further disk failures.
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Nested resiliency
Why this is correct
Nested resiliency is specifically engineered for two-node clusters to provide local and remote parity or mirroring. By combining RAID-1 across nodes with an additional layer of RAID-1 or RAID-5 within each node, the system survives a node failure and a drive failure. This provides the highest level of uptime for small-scale hyperconverged infrastructure deployments.
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Dual parity
Why it's wrong here
Dual parity requires a minimum of four nodes in a Storage Spaces Direct cluster to distribute parity blocks effectively across the storage pool. It is designed to survive two simultaneous drive failures across the cluster but does not provide the specific local-and-remote protection needed for two-node clusters. Attempting to use this on two nodes is unsupported.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Microsoft exam blueprint
This AZ-802 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft 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 AZ-802 exam.