CompTIA CASP+ Practice Test

What is the primary goal of adding a new host to create a cluster in a virtualized environment?

1. Improve network latency

2. Reduce hardware costs

3. Increased customer data availability

4. Enhance application performance

The correct answer is: Increased customer data availability

Adding a new host to create a cluster in a virtualized environment primarily aims to increase customer data availability. When a cluster is formed, it allows for the distribution of workloads and resources across multiple hosts. This redundancy ensures that if one host fails, the workloads can be automatically redistributed to other functioning hosts, thus maintaining continuous access to data and applications. This high availability is crucial for business continuity and can minimize downtime, which is a significant concern for organizations that rely on constant access to their systems and data. Furthermore, clustering often incorporates features such as load balancing and failover, which further enhance the resilience of the infrastructure. While improving network latency, reducing hardware costs, and enhancing application performance can be benefits associated with clustering, the most direct impact of adding a new host is to ensure that there are enough resources and redundancy in place to keep customer data consistently available, even in case of hardware failures or maintenance.