What metric indicates how long it should take to repair a failed component in a system?

Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) is a crucial metric used in the context of system reliability and maintenance. It specifically measures the average time required to repair a failed component and restore it to operational status. This metric is critical for understanding the efficiency of the maintenance process and the overall resilience of a system.

Using MTTR allows organizations to assess their response times to incidents and make improvements where necessary. By analyzing MTTR data, teams can identify bottlenecks in their repair processes, strategize on reducing downtime, and enhance their incident response strategies. This metric also plays a vital role in Service Level Agreements (SLAs), helping organizations set clear expectations regarding system availability and impact on operations.

Other options presented do not pertain to the measure of repair time. While layered defenses refer to security strategies that involve multiple protective measures, the management plane relates to administration and control of the IT environment, and masking is a data obfuscation technique. Thus, MTTR clearly stands out as the relevant metric for this context, as it directly relates to the time taken to repair system failures.