Exam AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate SAA-C02 All Questions

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Exam AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate SAA-C02 topic 1 question 121 discussion

Exam question from Amazon's AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate SAA-C02

Question #: 121
Topic #: 1

[All AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate SAA-C02 Questions]

A company running an on-premises application is migrating the application to AWS to increase its elasticity and availability. The current architecture uses a
Microsoft SQL Server database with heavy read activity. The company wants to explore alternate database options and migrate database engines, if needed.
Every 4 hours, the development team does a full copy of the production database to populate a test database. During this period, users experience latency.
What should a solutions architect recommend as replacement database?

A. Use Amazon Aurora with Multi-AZ Aurora Replicas and restore from mysqldump for the test database.
B. Use Amazon Aurora with Multi-AZ Aurora Replicas and restore snapshots from Amazon RDS for the test database.
C. Use Amazon RDS for MySQL with a Multi-AZ deployment and read replicas, and use the standby instance for the test database.
D. Use Amazon RDS for SQL Server with a Multi-AZ deployment and read replicas, and restore snapshots from RDS for the test database.

Show Suggested Answer

Suggested Answer: D 🗳️

by Paitan at Aug. 11, 2020, 6:19 a.m.

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Khushb004

Highly Voted 3 years, 9 months ago

B is the correct answer. Points to be noted in Q: 1. Question itself states " What should a solution architect recommend as replacement database?" 2. " users experience latency" when backup is taken from SQL Server. This means an alternate DB needs to be considered. Migrating to Aurora will eliminate this latency. For SQL Server, I/O activity is suspended briefly during backup - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_CreateSnapshot.html 3. Elasticity, availability, replicas - everything is provided by Aurora

upvoted 74 times

noahsark

3 years, 8 months ago

for B, anyone here actually migrated a Microsoft SQL to Aurora in Production?

upvoted 1 times

ahaz

2 years, 10 months ago

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/patterns/migrate-a-microsoft-sql-server-database-to-aurora-mysql-by-using-aws-dms-and-aws-sct.html

upvoted 1 times

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robertomartinez

3 years, 8 months ago

yes, emphasis on the need for impact-less snapshots : only aurora provides this!

upvoted 2 times

noahsark

3 years, 7 months ago

The I/O suspension typically lasts about one minute. You can avoid the I/O suspension if the source DB instance is a Multi-AZ deployment, because in that case the snapshot is taken from the secondary DB instance. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_ReadRepl.html

upvoted 2 times

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primeprince

3 years, 4 months ago

the question talks about a replacement database! B is the correct answer

upvoted 3 times

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noahsark

3 years, 8 months ago

D: The I/O suspension typically lasts about one minute. You can avoid the I/O suspension if the source DB instance is a Multi-AZ deployment, because in that case the snapshot is taken from the secondary DB instance. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_ReadRepl.html

upvoted 5 times

smyndlo

3 years, 7 months ago

Answer is B...because Multi-AZ read replicas are in RDS for SQL Server. See below The following aren't supported on Amazon RDS for SQL Server: Creating a read replica in a different AWS Region (a cross-Region read replica) Backup retention of read replicas Point-in-time recovery from read replicas Manual snapshots of read replicas Multi-AZ read replicas Creating read replicas of read replicas Synchronization of user logins to read replicas https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/SQLServer.ReadReplicas.html

upvoted 5 times

gargaditya

3 years, 7 months ago

They have not said that the Multi AZ node is a read replica as per option D.

upvoted 1 times

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sgupta_22

Highly Voted 3 years, 9 months ago

Amazon RDS for SQL Server has started to support READ Replicas, so Answer D is correct. https://aws.amazon.com/rds/features/read-replicas/

upvoted 37 times

sgupta_22

3 years, 9 months ago

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/database/using-in-region-read-replicas-in-amazon-rds-for-sql-server/#:~:text=Amazon%20RDS%20for%20SQL%20Server%20now%20supports%20in%2DRegion%20read,are%20available%20for%20Enterprise%20Edition.

upvoted 3 times

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Aldrin26

3 years, 8 months ago

It now supports Read Replicas for SQL Server however the question stated that they want to explore alternative database

upvoted 4 times

noahsark

3 years, 7 months ago

if needed.

upvoted 2 times

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Lucky_

3 years, 7 months ago

For SQL Server, I/O activity is suspended briefly during backup for Multi-AZ deployments but not in Aurora. We need to satisfy all the conditions. Correct answer B.

upvoted 3 times

Lucky_

3 years, 7 months ago

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_CreateSnapshot.html B is Correct.

upvoted 3 times

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slackbot

Most Recent 2 years ago

Selected Answer: D

wait, B suggest they are already using RDS. the question does not say that. so why use both RDS and Aurora. So either A or D. I would go with D

upvoted 1 times

borisgor

7 months, 2 weeks ago

From SQL server to Aurora is possible, no need to have RDS. Aurora always stands for better performance than RDS.

upvoted 1 times

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BECAUSE

2 years ago

Selected Answer: D

D is the answer

upvoted 1 times

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C_M_M

2 years, 2 months ago

If money is not a concern, Always chose Aurora over RDS for a job both can do. RDS can do all the jobs Aurora can do and even more, yet Amazon still built Aurora- that tells you everything. Option B is the best for this job with "heavy read" operation, cost is not a concern, willing to change DB.

upvoted 1 times

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BABU97

2 years, 3 months ago

even chatGPT agrees with B For heavy read activity, Amazon Aurora is a good option as it provides high performance and scalability. It is also compatible with Microsoft SQL Server, so it can be easily migrated. Aurora is a fully managed, MySQL and PostgreSQL compatible, relational database engine that combines the speed and availability of high-end commercial databases with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open source databases. To reduce the latency experienced by users during the database copy process, the architect could recommend implementing a database snapshot, which is a point-in-time copy of the database. This can be done without impacting the performance of the production database, and the copy can be used for testing purposes. Alternatively, a read replica can be used to offload read traffic from the production database while maintaining a copy of the data.

upvoted 1 times

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Sachin032

2 years, 4 months ago

Selected Answer: D

Changing database engine is not easier options so better to find option with existing DB engine . D is the right option

upvoted 1 times

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qax2022

2 years, 9 months ago

Selected Answer: D

not 100% sure about b, "The company wants to explore alternate database options ", means I can use arura to change the type of database to mysql or posgres?

upvoted 1 times

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komik_101

2 years, 10 months ago

non-technical explanation: Amazon can't say, my db is better Microsoft DB. or Oracle DB. if they say?, Microsoft will be angry :D . that is why I will select "D"

upvoted 1 times

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ahaz

2 years, 10 months ago

Selected Answer: B

The question is asking for a replacement to decrease the latency and to boost availability. It also says that changing the database engine is an option. Aurora is the best choice in that sense. One might argue that the current DB is SQL server and it is not compatible, I would say that it is possible to migrate the SQL server to Aurora by using DMS and SCT. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/patterns/migrate-a-microsoft-sql-server-database-to-aurora-mysql-by-using-aws-dms-and-aws-sct.html

upvoted 1 times

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