The correct answer is D. The continuity of operations policy. CompTIA DataSys+ emphasizes that when an unexpected system failure occurs—especially during critical activities such as database migrations—the primary concern is restoring services, minimizing downtime, and ensuring data availability. The continuity of operations policy (often aligned with business continuity and disaster recovery planning) provides documented guidance on how to respond to system outages and operational disruptions.
A continuity of operations policy outlines procedures, roles, and responsibilities for maintaining or rapidly restoring essential systems after an incident. This includes steps for failover, rollback procedures, recovery prioritization, communication protocols, and escalation paths. During a migration-related crash, administrators rely on this policy to determine whether to restore from backups, revert to a previous database version, activate standby systems, or follow defined recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs). DataSys+ highlights these policies as critical for ensuring predictable and coordinated responses during system failures.
Option A, the data retention policy, focuses on how long data must be stored and when it can be archived or deleted. It does not provide operational guidance for handling system crashes. Option B, the access control policy, governs authentication and authorization rules and is unrelated to recovery actions. Option C, the database compliance policy, addresses regulatory and audit requirements but does not define technical recovery procedures during an outage.
CompTIA DataSys+ clearly distinguishes governance and security policies from operational resilience policies. When a database crashes during a migration, the administrator’s priority is service restoration and data integrity, both of which are addressed by continuity of operations planning.
Therefore, the systems administrator should refer to the continuity of operations policy, making option D the correct and fully verified answer.
