SNOW-CSA Database Administration and CMDB Practice Question
A company is implementing ServiceNow CMDB and wants to ensure that all CIs in the 'Production' environment are backed up daily. What is the best practice to achieve this?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse CMDB-specific data management (like exporting records) with instance-level backup, or assume that a field or table-level setting can control backup behavior, when ServiceNow's backup is an all-or-nothing instance feature.
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
✓
Configure the instance's automatic daily backup
ServiceNow instances have a built-in automatic daily backup feature that captures the entire instance, including all CMDB records and CIs, regardless of environment. This ensures that production CIs are backed up daily without requiring manual configuration or selective exports, aligning with best practices for data protection and disaster recovery.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Set the 'cmdb_ci' table's 'Backup' field to true
Why it's wrong here
There is no such field; backup is managed at instance level.
- ✗
Use the 'Export to XML' feature every night for production CIs
Why it's wrong here
Manual exports are not automated backups and can miss changes.
- ✓
Configure the instance's automatic daily backup
Why this is correct
ServiceNow provides automatic daily backups of the entire instance.
- ✗
Create a scheduled data export for only production CMDB records
Why it's wrong here
ServiceNow does not support selective backups; full instance backup is recommended.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 504 original SNOW-CSA practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SNOW-CSA practice question is part of Courseiva's free ServiceNow 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 SNOW-CSA exam.