220-1102 Question 701
Single answerBackup rotation schemesA small accounting firm keeps seven daily backup tapes labeled Monday through Sunday and two additional tapes labeled Month-End A and Month-End B. A technician is asked to improve the firm's ability to recover files that were deleted weeks ago, while keeping media costs low and avoiding a complicated backup process for the office manager. Which backup rotation scheme BEST matches these requirements?
- A
Use a grandfather-father-son rotation, keeping daily backups, weekly backups, and alternating month-end backups
- B
Use a single full backup tape every day and overwrite it each night
- C
Use RAID 1 on the file server instead of backup tapes
- D
Use only incremental backups on the same tape until the tape is full, then start over
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The best answer is the grandfather-father-son rotation scheme because it is a standard backup rotation method that provides multiple restore points across different time periods without excessive complexity. Daily media covers short-term recovery, weekly media provides another layer of retention, and monthly media preserves longer-term recovery points for files that may not be discovered as missing until much later. This approach is commonly referenced in backup best practices because it balances usability, retention, and cost. A+ candidates should recognize that backup rotation is about maintaining multiple generations of backups, while technologies like RAID address availability and redundancy rather than point-in-time data recovery.
- A. Correct.
Correct. A grandfather-father-son (GFS) rotation is designed to balance recovery flexibility, simplicity, and media cost. In practice, the 'son' set is typically daily backups, the 'father' set is weekly backups, and the 'grandfather' set is monthly backups retained longer. This fits the scenario because it improves the ability to recover files deleted weeks ago without requiring an overly complex process.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Reusing a single full backup tape every day provides only the most recent recovery point. If a file was deleted or corrupted several days or weeks earlier and the issue was not noticed immediately, earlier versions would be unavailable. Although simple, this approach does not meet the requirement for longer recovery history.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. RAID 1 provides redundancy for disk failure, not historical versioning or backup retention. If a user deletes a file or ransomware encrypts data, the mirrored copy reflects the same change. This is a common misconception: fault tolerance is not the same as a backup rotation scheme.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Incremental backups can reduce backup time and storage use, but using the same tape repeatedly until it is full creates poor retention structure and can complicate restores. It also does not provide a clear rotation plan for daily, weekly, and monthly recovery points. This choice may seem cost-effective, but it does not address the firm's need for practical long-term recovery.