Practice Test Geeks(CSA) Certified System Administrator Practice Test
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Backup and Disaster Recovery Flashcards

7 cards from real CSA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.

Read the first 7 Backup and Disaster Recovery flashcards as text

  1. A ransomware attack encrypts all files on a file server including mapped network drives. Which backup configuration would best protect against this threat?

    Answer: Backups stored on immutable (WORM) or air-gapped media inaccessible to the compromised system

    Immutable or air-gapped backups cannot be altered or deleted by ransomware since the infected system has no write access to them.

  2. What is the primary advantage of a 'warm site' compared to a 'cold site' in disaster recovery?

    Answer: It has pre-installed hardware and connectivity, requiring only data restoration to become operational

    A warm site has hardware and network infrastructure ready but requires data restoration, giving a middle ground between cost and recovery speed.

  3. Which technology allows backup software to create a consistent backup of open files and databases on Windows systems without interrupting access?

    Answer: Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)

    VSS coordinates with applications to create point-in-time shadow copies of volumes, enabling consistent backups of open and in-use files.

  4. An organization replicates data asynchronously to a DR site 500 miles away. After a sudden outage, they find they lost the last 45 minutes of transactions. What does this 45-minute gap represent?

    Answer: The actual recovery point, which must be compared against the defined RPO

    The 45-minute data gap is the actual recovery point achieved; if the RPO allows only 15 minutes of loss, the SLA was violated.

  5. What is 'grandfather-father-son' (GFS) backup rotation?

    Answer: A media rotation strategy using daily, weekly, and monthly backup sets

    GFS rotation uses daily (son), weekly (father), and monthly (grandfather) tape sets to balance retention depth with media costs.

  6. Which statement best describes 'continuous data protection' (CDP)?

    Answer: Capturing every write operation in real time, enabling restore to any point in time

    CDP records every change at the block or file level continuously, allowing recovery to virtually any point in time with near-zero RPO.

  7. An administrator must ensure that backup tapes stored offsite cannot be read if stolen. Which control directly addresses this threat?

    Answer: Tape encryption using AES-256 before transport

    Encrypting backup tapes with strong encryption ensures that stolen media is unreadable without the decryption key.