Which vSphere component provides continuous availability for mission-critical virtual machines so users experience no loss of data and no interruption in service during a host failure?

Konstantin H.Mar 21, 2026

The answer is A, vSphere Fault Tolerance. The key phrase in that question is "no loss of data and no interruption in service," and that combination rules out every other option immediately. FT uses vLockstep to keep a shadow VM running in perfect synchronization on a secondary host, mirroring every CPU instruction in real time, so if the primary host dies the secondary continues execution without so much as a dropped packet. vSphere HA is the distractor that trips people here, because HA does protect against host failure, but it does so by restarting the VM on another host, which means the guest goes down and comes back up, so you have both data loss risk and a service interruption. Replication gives you a recovery point but still requires a failover action and carries an RPO greater than zero. vMotion is a live migration feature with no failure-protection function at all. When the exam uses the language "no loss of data, no interruption," think FT every time.

Ingrid P.Jun 26, 2026

The answer is A, vSphere Fault Tolerance. This is the one concept on this exam where you need to be precise about the wording, because the distractor here is vSphere HA, which restarts VMs after a host failure but does involve downtime and potential data loss during the restart window. FT works by keeping a secondary VM running in lockstep with the primary on a separate host, so if the primary host dies, the secondary takes over instantly with no interruption and no data loss at all. vSphere Replication is RPO-based and explicitly involves a recovery point, meaning data loss is baked in by design, and vMotion is a live migration tool, not a failure protection mechanism. For your deck, I would make two cards out of this topic. One card should ask what mechanism provides zero RPO and zero RTO for VMs during a host failure, answer FT. The second card should ask how FT differs from HA, and the answer should nail the key distinction: HA restarts, FT never stops. The exam loves to test whether you can separate "no downtime" from "minimal downtime," so drilling that contrast at a 1-day then 3-day then 7-day interval will lock it in before test day.

Fatima Z.Jun 24, 2026

Lots of folks trip on this one because vSphere HA sounds like the hero, but HA just restarts your VM on another host after a failure, meaning you DO lose a few minutes and maybe some data, so the trick word in this question is "no interruption" and "no loss of data," which points straight to Fault Tolerance, where a live shadow VM runs in lockstep and takes over instantly. The answer is A, vSphere Fault Tolerance, no contest.

Henrike J.Jun 26, 2026

FT is correct, it runs a lockstep shadow VM that keeps zero RPO and zero RTO.

Dervla O.Apr 6, 2026

I almost went with C because HA is the first thing that comes to mind for host failures, but HA restarts VMs after a failure, meaning there is a brief outage and potential data loss. FT runs a live shadow VM in lockstep, so the failover is instantaneous and zero data is lost, which is exactly what "no loss of data and no interruption in service" is telling you in the stem.

Samuel O.Mar 26, 2026

I kept second-guessing myself and almost went with C because HA is the one everybody talks about in the context of host failures, but then I remembered HA just restarts the VM on another host, which means there is a gap in service and potential data loss. Fault Tolerance is the one that keeps a shadow VM running in lockstep so the failover is completely transparent, zero downtime, zero data loss, which is exactly what "no interruption in service" is pointing at.

Imani T.Jun 26, 2026

The wording "no loss of data" is the phrase that kills the HA and vMotion options right there, because HA will restart VMs after a host failure which means you absolutely have downtime and potential data loss in that window. Fault Tolerance is the right call here since it keeps a live shadow VM running in lockstep so when the primary host dies the secondary just keeps going without so much as a dropped packet.

Luis F.Apr 11, 2026

Fault Tolerance is the one you want here because it keeps a live shadow VM running in lockstep on a second host, so if the primary host dies the secondary just keeps going with zero downtime and zero data loss. HA is close but it actually restarts the VM after a failure, which means there is a brief outage, so do you understand why that distinction matters for "mission-critical" wording in the question?

Yelena W.Apr 25, 2026

Saw this exact question, zero hesitation: FT keeps a live lockstep shadow VM, no data loss period.