High availability configuration in GCP - Cheat Sheet & Quick Revision

Recall & Review

beginner

What does high availability mean in cloud infrastructure?

High availability means making sure a service or system stays up and running almost all the time, even if some parts fail. It’s like having backup plans so users don’t notice problems.

beginner

Name a common GCP service used to achieve high availability for web applications.

Google Cloud Load Balancing is commonly used. It spreads user traffic across multiple servers in different zones to avoid downtime if one server or zone fails.

beginner

Why is deploying resources in multiple zones important for high availability?

Multiple zones mean if one zone has a problem (like power loss), other zones keep working. This reduces the chance of total service failure.

intermediate

What role does health checking play in high availability?

Health checks monitor if servers are working well. If a server fails, traffic is sent to healthy servers only, keeping the service available.

intermediate

Explain the difference between regional and zonal resources in GCP for high availability.

Zonal resources exist in one zone only, so if that zone fails, the resource is unavailable. Regional resources span multiple zones, so they keep working even if one zone fails.

Which GCP service helps distribute traffic to multiple instances for high availability?

A Cloud Storage

B Cloud Functions

C Cloud Load Balancing

D Cloud Pub/Sub

Cloud Load Balancing spreads traffic across instances to keep services available.

Deploying resources in multiple zones helps to:

A Reduce latency by using only one zone

B Increase availability by avoiding single points of failure

C Save costs by using fewer resources

D Make backups faster

Multiple zones prevent total failure if one zone goes down.

What does a health check do in a high availability setup?

A Monitors server status and routes traffic away from unhealthy servers

B Deletes unhealthy servers automatically

C Creates new servers on demand

D Encrypts data between servers

Health checks monitor and help route traffic only to healthy servers.

Which type of GCP resource is more resilient to zone failures?

A Zonal resource

B Single-instance resource

C Temporary resource

D Regional resource

Regional resources span multiple zones, so they handle zone failures better.

High availability aims to:

A Keep services running with minimal downtime

B Make services faster only

C Make services cheaper

D Limit user access

High availability focuses on keeping services up and running reliably.

Describe how you would design a high availability setup for a web app on GCP.

Think about spreading resources and checking their health.

Explain why health checks are important in a high availability configuration.

Consider how the system knows which servers to use.