Question

Difficulty: HardResilience, High Availability, and Redundancy

A senior security architect is auditing an enterprise data center infrastructure to eliminate single points of failure (SPOFs) and ensure compliance with strict uptime service level agreements (SLAs). Match each hardware or operational redundancy mechanism to its corresponding technical implementation objective.

  • Multipathing (MPIO)Maintains redundant block-level I/O paths between host HBAs and SAN storage arrays without incurring remote latency
  • Dual Power Supplies with Independent PDU FeedsMitigates single-point-of-failure electrical breaker trips and rack-level power distribution unit disruptions
  • NIC Teaming (802.3ad LACP)Aggregates physical Ethernet interfaces for load balancing and switch port failover at Layer 2
  • Asynchronous Multi-Site Storage ReplicationProtects infrastructure against regional disasters over WAN links while accommodating non-zero Recovery Point Objectives (RPO)

Answer

Multipathing (MPIO) matches maintaining redundant block-level I/O paths between host HBAs and SAN storage; Dual Power Supplies with Independent PDU Feeds matches mitigating electrical breaker trips and rack-level PDU disruptions; NIC Teaming (802.3ad LACP) matches aggregating physical Ethernet interfaces for Layer 2 failover; Asynchronous Multi-Site Storage Replication matches regional disaster protection over WAN links with non-zero RPO.
Each architectural control fulfills a distinct redundancy layer (storage I/O, electrical infrastructure, network interface aggregation, or disaster recovery site replication) without overlapping scope.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze storage path redundancy requirements.
Multipathing (MPIO) provides host-to-SAN fault tolerance across redundant controllers and Fibre Channel/iSCSI paths.
MPIO operates at the block storage driver layer rather than standard network link aggregation.
2
Evaluate electrical fault tolerance controls.
Dual power supplies plugged into separate PDUs isolate electrical component failures.
Decoupling electrical circuits guarantees continuous host operation if a circuit or PDU encounters a fault.
3
Examine network link-layer resilience mechanisms.
NIC Teaming (802.3ad LACP) binds interface cards for switch port failover and link load distribution.
LACP aggregates physical Ethernet links to eliminate single cable or port failures.
4
Determine geographic site replication parameters.
Asynchronous replication allows multi-site protection across long distances without application latency degradation.
Because network latency over WAN prohibits zero-RPO synchronous commits, asynchronous transfer allows local writes to complete immediately.

Key Concept

Infrastructure Resilience and Redundancy Controls
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