A system, comprising: a plurality of computing nodes, respectively comprising at least one processor and a memory that together implement a control plane for a data store; the control plane, configured to: obtain, by a monitoring component, a data generation identifier for each of a primary instance replica and a secondary instance replica, wherein the primary instance replica and the secondary instance replica are located in different data zones; detect, by the monitoring component, a loss of communication in at least one direction between the monitoring component and the primary instance replica or the secondary instance replica, or in at least one direction between the primary instance replica and the secondary instance replica; and in response to the detection of the loss of communication in at least one direction, perform a particular type of failover operation or recovery process, wherein the particular type of failover operation or recovery process is determined based at least in part on a nature of the detected loss of communication and the respective data generation identifier for the primary instance replica and the secondary instance replica. a plurality of computing nodes, respectively comprising at least one processor and a memory that together implement a control plane for a data store; the control plane, configured to: obtain, by a monitoring component, a data generation identifier for each of a primary instance replica and a secondary instance replica, wherein the primary instance replica and the secondary instance replica are located in different data zones; detect, by the monitoring component, a loss of communication in at least one direction between the monitoring component and the primary instance replica or the secondary instance replica, or in at least one direction between the primary instance replica and the secondary instance replica; and in response to the detection of the loss of communication in at least one direction, perform a particular type of failover operation or recovery process, wherein the particular type of failover operation or recovery process is determined based at least in part on a nature of the detected loss of communication and the respective data generation identifier for the primary instance replica and the secondary instance replica. obtain, by a monitoring component, a data generation identifier for each of a primary instance replica and a secondary instance replica, wherein the primary instance replica and the secondary instance replica are located in different data zones; detect, by the monitoring component, a loss of communication in at least one direction between the monitoring component and the primary instance replica or the secondary instance replica, or in at least one direction between the primary instance replica and the secondary instance replica; and in response to the detection of the loss of communication in at least one direction, perform a particular type of failover operation or recovery process, wherein the particular type of failover operation or recovery process is determined based at least in part on a nature of the detected loss of communication and the respective data generation identifier for the primary instance replica and the secondary instance replica.