Administering Windows Server Hybrid Core Infrastructure (AZ-800) Practice

What is the primary purpose of a Failover Cluster?

1. Load balancing

2. Data backup

3. High availability

4. Data archiving

The correct answer is: High availability

The primary purpose of a Failover Cluster is to ensure high availability for applications and services. A Failover Cluster is a group of independent computers that work together to increase the availability of applications and services. This is achieved by monitoring the health of the nodes in the cluster and providing redundancy; if one node fails, another node can take over its workload seamlessly, thereby minimizing downtime and maintaining service continuity. High availability in a Failover Cluster ensures that critical applications remain operational even in the event of hardware or software failures. This capability is particularly important for businesses that rely on continuous access to their services and data. The system automatically detects faults and transitions operations to a failed cluster node to a healthy one, making it a robust solution for enterprise environments. The other options, such as load balancing, data backup, and data archiving, do not encompass the primary function of a Failover Cluster. While load balancing involves distributing workloads across multiple resources to optimize performance, it does not inherently provide redundancy or failover capabilities. Similarly, data backup is focused on creating copies of data for recovery purposes, and data archiving refers to the storage of inactive data for long-term retention, neither of which ensure real-time availability in the event of a system failure.