The fundamental prerequisite for restoring any IT environment, including IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation (CP4BA), is the existence of a complete and consistent backup. The restoration process rebuilds the deployment using this backed-up data, which includes critical stateful information from databases (like Db2, Oracle) and data from persistent volumes (PVs) used by various CP4BA components. Without this backed-up data, there is no source from which to recover the system's state, making restoration impossible.

A. Multi-zone synchronized data: This describes a high-availability or disaster recovery architecture, not a universal prerequisite for restoration. A restore might be needed even in a single-zone deployment.

C. Restored snapshot: A "restored snapshot" is the outcome of a recovery action, not the preparation for it. The prerequisite is having the snapshot (a form of backup) available to be restored.

D. Updated YAML files: Restoration typically aims to return to a previous known-good state. Using updated YAML files would alter the configuration and is more aligned with an upgrade or modification, not a direct restoration.

1. IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation Documentation - Overview of backup and restore: "To be able to restore a Cloud Pak for Business Automation deployment

you must back up the databases and the persistent volume claims (PVCs) that are used by the components." This statement confirms that having backed-up data is the essential preparation.

Source: IBM. (2023). Overview of backup and restore. IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation 23.0.2 Documentation. Section: Administering > Backing up

restoring

and migrating.

2. IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation Documentation - Preparing to back up and restore: This section details the specific actions needed before a backup can be taken

which is the necessary preliminary step for any future restoration. It emphasizes identifying and preparing all data sources (databases

PVs) for the backup process.

Source: IBM. (2023). Preparing to back up and restore. IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation 23.0.2 Documentation. Section: Administering > Backing up

restoring

and migrating.

3. IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation Documentation - Restoring your environment: The entire procedure for restoration begins with the assumption that backups of databases and persistent volumes are available. The initial steps are explicitly "Restore the databases" and "Restore the persistent volumes".

Source: IBM. (2023). Restoring your environment. IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation 23.0.2 Documentation. Section: Administering > Backing up

restoring

and migrating.