Chapter 11 - Business Continuity and Computer Support

Question 1

CompTIA Troubleshooting Methodology

Answer 1

1. Identify the problem
2. Research knowledge base/Internet
3. Establish a theory of probable cause
4. Test the theory to determine the cause
5. Establish a plan of action to resolve the problem
6. Implement the solution or escalate as necessary
7. Verify full system functionality
8. Document findings/lessons learned

Question 2

Identify the Problem

Answer 2

• Gather Information
• Duplicate the problem, if possible
• Question users/ Identify symptoms
• Determine if anything has changed
• Approach multiple problems individually

Question 3

Research Knowledge Base

Answer 3

• Pull from the experience of those who have come before you

Question 4

Establish and Test Theories

Answer 4

• Question the obvious
• Consider multiple approaches
• Test the theory

Question 5

Establish a Plan of Action

Answer 5

• Decide if you will repair, replace, or ignore the problem
• Identify the potential side effects of your plan

Question 6

Implement The Solution

Answer 6

• want to cause as little disruption to the systems in place and their users as possible

Question 7

Verify Full System Functionality

Answer 7

• verify the system as a whole continues to function properly
• Prevent the recurrence of an issue
• User education, by changing a process, or by using an alternate software or equipment provider

Question 8

Document Findings

Answer 8

• Document the symptoms, your actions, your outcomes, and any lessons learned
• Knowledge bases evolve and grow over time as issues are experienced

Question 9

Business Continuity

Answer 9

a proactive approach to ensure that essential business functions persist during and after any unforeseen events

Question 10

Fault Tolerance

Answer 10

the ability of a system to continue operation without interruption even when one or more of its components fail

Question 11

Redundancy

Answer 11

the duplication of critical components of functions to increase reliability and prevent system failure. It ensures that backup options are available in case of primary component’s malfunction

• avoiding a single point of failure in a network’s configuration, you are ensuring that a network is redundant

Question 12

Failover

Answer 12

the automatic process where, in the event of a failure, the system switches to a redundant or standby system

Question 13

Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)

Answer 13

a device designed to provide immediate and uninterrupted emergency power to connected equipment when the main power source is lost

• Seamless Transition

Question 14

Generator

Answer 14

a device that transforms mechanical energy, often derived from fuel sources like diesel or gas, into electrical energy

• long-term solution

Question 15

Data Replication

Answer 15

the process of copying data from one location to another, ensuring that both locations maintain the same up-to-date information

Question 16

Redundant
Array of Independent Disks (RAID)

Answer 16

a technology used to combine multiple hard drives into a single unit to improve data reliability, performance, or both

Question 17

Disaster Recovery

Answer 17

is the administrative function of protecting people and resources while restoring a failed network or device as quickly as possible

1. Data Restoration
2. Data Prioritization
3. Restoring Access

Question 18

Data Restoration

Answer 18

• three common methods to storing data

1. Locally stored data
2. Network attached storage
3. Cloud stored data

Question 19

Data Prioritization

Answer 19

the idea that an organization’s IT environment creates data through many different channels, thus it is important to create a hierarchy of data to ensure the most valuable data is backed up before all else.

1. Data center environment (Computer room and server room)
2. Hardware (networks, servers, desktop, and wireless device)
3. Software (email, Office Productivity Application)
4. Data (Clients’ data, Employee Files, Accessibility

Question 20

RAID O (Striping)

Answer 20

splits and disperses data across hard drives for improved performance

Question 21

RAID 1 (Mirroring)

Answer 21

Duplicates Data across hard drives

• It uses mirroring to provide some protection and sometimes increases data speed.

Question 22

RAID 5 (Striping with Parity)

Answer 22

Splits data across hard drives, while utilizing parity to detect errors and rebuild damaged files

• It provides increased performance and can survive the loss of a member disk.
• Requires at least three 3 disks (2 for data and 1 for parity).

Question 23

Full Backup

Answer 23

creates and stores a copy of all data

Question 24

Daily Backup

Answer 24

Only creates a backup of data changed within a 24-hour period.

Question 25

Differential Backup

Answer 25

Only creates a backup of data that has changed since the last backupI

Question 26

Incremental Backup

Answer 26

Only creates a copy of, and stores what has changed since any type of previous backup.

Question 27

Power surge

Answer 27

temporary but gradual sudden increase in of voltage on a power line

Question 28

Power Spike

Answer 28

very short pulses of energy on a power line that contain very high voltages

Question 29

Blackout

Answer 29

completes loss of power

Question 30

Brownout

Answer 30

reduced amount of power

Question 31

Contingency Plan

Answer 31

key when implementing business continuity

Question 32

Network Redundancy

Answer 32

For a server to work, it must be connected to the other computers on the network. There are two main ways to provide fault tolerance for a server:

• Install multiple NICs in the server. If one card fails, the others take over.
• Allow multiple paths between the server and the computers on the network.

Question 33

Site Redundancy

Answer 33

provides a complete duplicate of the computers and data at a location away from the main computer systems.

• The main site and the redundant site are connected by high-speed data lines
  that allow the data created at the main site to be duplicated at the remote site in real- or near-real time.

Question 34

Power Redundancy

Answer 34

Computers need a constant supply of electricity to work. To protect against data or service loss from power outages, it’s important to have redundant power.

• If power is coming in from the wall, the computer uses that
  power. However, if the power from the wall shuts off, the computer immediately switches to battery
  power.

Question 35

Bare Metal Backup

Answer 35

backs up the entire computer including
the operating system without requiring software to be reinstalled.

Question 36

Full disk image

Answer 36

System backups begin by capturing a full image of a disk at a certain point in
time.

Question 37

Incremental Backups

Answer 37

To capture the files that do change, include only files that have been added or modified since the last backup.

Question 38

System restoration

Answer 38

If a system fails, users can restore system files by using the last full backup and then all incremental backups since that point in time.

Question 39

Full backups

Answer 39

backup all data at specific points in time.

Question 40

Differential backups

Answer 40

include only the data that has changed since the last full backup.

Question 41

Transaction log backups

Answer 41

allow administrators to restore a database to a particular moment in time by rolling back transactions and preserving database integrity.

Question 42

Replication

Answer 42

is a mirror copy of the database saved on a separate host.

• When a transaction is made to the database, it is saved to the master and the replica.

Question 43

Read-only copies

Answer 43

a database are made through snapshots.

• Read-only backups are often used when the data in the database no longer needs to be updated.
• These can be used to store data
  for historical purposes or to recover from a serious error where other transaction rollbacks have failed.

Question 44

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Answer 44

integrates business operations and manages the flow of data between various departments.

• It does not focus on mitigating vulnerabilities in systems that support critical workflow and resources.

Question 45

Business Impact Analysis

Answer 45

identifies critical business functions that need to be performed during disasters and other times of disrupted operations.

Question 46

Striping

Answer 46

is the process of storing consecutive segments of data across different storage devices; it enables better throughput and performance.

Question 47

Parity

Answer 47

is a calculated value that’s used to restore data from the other drives if one of the drives in the set fails.