An engineer must deploy a Cisco HyperFlex system at two data centers. For redundancy reasons, the setup must achieve data protection in case of an entire site failure. The data must be available on both sites at all times to keep the recovery time objective to a minimum. Which Cisco HyperFlex deployment model meets these requirements?

The Cisco HyperFlex stretched cluster deployment model is specifically designed to meet the requirements of site-level fault tolerance with a minimal recovery time objective (RTO). A stretched cluster extends a single HyperFlex cluster across two geographically separate data centers, maintaining synchronous replication of data between the sites. If one entire site fails, vSphere High Availability (HA) automatically restarts the virtual machines on the surviving site, providing continuous data availability and near-instantaneous recovery.

A. ROBO cluster: A Remote Office/Branch Office (ROBO) cluster is designed for small, remote deployments and does not provide synchronous, site-level disaster recovery capabilities.
C. edge with four nodes or more: A Cisco HyperFlex Edge cluster is a small-footprint solution for edge computing locations and is not designed to be stretched between two data centers for site failure protection.
D. standard with eight nodes: A standard HyperFlex cluster resides in a single data center. While two standard clusters could be used with asynchronous replication, this would not meet the "data available at all times" and minimal RTO requirements.

1. Cisco. (2023). Cisco HyperFlex Systems Stretched Cluster Guide, Release 5.5. "Introduction to Cisco HyperFlex Stretched Cluster," Page 7. States, "A stretched cluster is a Cisco HyperFlex Systems solution that provides high availability and disaster recovery... In the event of a site-wide failure, the virtual machines running on the failed site are automatically restarted on the surviving site."

2. Cisco. (2020). Cisco HyperFlex HX Data Platform White Paper. Section: "Cisco HyperFlex Stretched Clusters." Explains that stretched clusters "provide an ideal active-active data center solution" by synchronously replicating data and allowing for zero RPO and near-zero RTO in the event of a site failure.