SAP-C02 Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization — 30 Questions

Question 1

A company is planning to modernize a legacy Java application that runs on a single on-premises server. The application uses a proprietary file-based storage system. The company wants to migrate to AWS with the following goals: reduce operational overhead, improve availability, and minimize code changes. Which TWO strategies should the company use? (Choose two.)

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) to migrate the application server to Amazon EC2. AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) enables lift-and-shift of the application server to Amazon EC2 with minimal code changes, reducing operational overhead. Amazon EFS provides a managed NFS file system that can replace the proprietary file-based storage without code modifications, improving availability. Option D (RDS) is incorrect because migrating file-based data to a relational database would require significant application changes, contradicting the goal of minimizing code changes.

Answer

Migrate the proprietary storage to Amazon S3

Answer

Migrate the proprietary storage to Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL

Answer

Refactor the application into microservices and deploy on Amazon EKS

Question 2

A company is migrating a 2 TB Oracle database to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL. The database has frequent write operations and the migration must have minimal downtime. The team uses AWS DMS for ongoing replication. After the initial full load, the target Aurora instance becomes unresponsive during ongoing replication. What is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The number of logical replication slots on the Aurora PostgreSQL instance exceeds the maximum supported.. The most likely cause is that the number of logical replication slots on the Aurora PostgreSQL instance exceeds the maximum supported. While AWS DMS itself does not create replication slots on the target Aurora instance, multiple DMS tasks or other replication processes can create slots on the target. Aurora PostgreSQL has a default limit of 1 slot for Aurora Serverless v1 or a configurable limit for provisioned instances. Exceeding this limit can cause resource contention and make the instance unresponsive during ongoing replication.

Answer

The DMS task is configured to replicate DDL changes, which are not supported for Oracle to Aurora PostgreSQL.

Answer

The DMS task is using full LOB mode, which is not supported with ongoing replication.

Answer

The target Aurora instance's storage is full and cannot accept new writes.

Question 3

A company is planning to migrate a legacy application to AWS. The application requires a fixed IP address that clients whitelist. The company wants to achieve high availability across two Availability Zones. Which architecture should they use?

Accepted Answer

Network Load Balancer (NLB) with Elastic IPs attached to each subnet. (NLB with Elastic IPs) is correct because NLB supports static IP addresses via Elastic IPs attached per subnet, enabling fixed IP whitelisting across AZs. Option A (AWS Global Accelerator with ALB) provides two static IPs from Global Accelerator but adds complexity and cost; the ALB itself uses a DNS name. Option C (Classic Load Balancer) does not support Elastic IPs per AZ effectively, using a DNS name instead. Option D (ALB) provides only a DNS name, not fixed IPs.

Answer

AWS Global Accelerator with Application Load Balancer

Answer

Classic Load Balancer with Elastic IPs

Answer

Application Load Balancer (ALB) with EC2 instances

Question 4

A company is migrating an e-commerce website to AWS. The website has a MySQL database. The company wants to automate the migration of the database schema and data. Which AWS service should they use?

Accepted Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS). (AWS Database Migration Service) is correct because it automates data migration and can convert schema using SCT. Option A (AWS Glue) is for ETL, not database migration. Option C (AWS Data Pipeline) is for data processing. Option D (AWS Schema Conversion Tool) converts schema but does not migrate data.

Answer

AWS Glue

Answer

AWS Data Pipeline

Answer

AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT)

Question 5

A company is planning to migrate its on-premises Oracle database to Amazon RDS for Oracle. The database is 2 TB in size and the company has a high-speed network connection to AWS. Which AWS service should the company use to migrate the database with minimal downtime?

Accepted Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS). AWS DMS supports Oracle to RDS for Oracle migration with ongoing replication for minimal downtime. Option A is incorrect because S3 Transfer Acceleration is used for accelerating uploads to S3, not for database migration. Option C is incorrect because Snowball Edge is for offline data transfer and not suitable for databases with minimal downtime. Option D is incorrect because AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) is used for schema conversion, not data migration.

Answer

Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration

Answer

AWS Snowball Edge

Answer

AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT)

Question 6

A company is migrating a large Oracle database to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL. The migration must have minimal downtime and support ongoing replication. Which THREE steps should the company take?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with change data capture (CDC) to replicate ongoing changes.. AWS DMS can perform live migration from Oracle to Aurora PostgreSQL with minimal downtime using change data capture (CDC). Option D is correct because the AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) is used to convert the Oracle schema to a PostgreSQL-compatible schema before migration. The unlabeled first option is correct because provisioning sufficient compute and storage for the Aurora PostgreSQL instance ensures it can handle the migration load without performance issues. Option B is wrong because AWS SCT is for schema conversion, not data migration. Option C is wrong because converting the entire database first defeats the purpose of using DMS for minimal downtime; DMS handles the data type conversion automatically. Option E is wrong because taking the source offline would cause downtime, which contradicts the requirement for minimal downtime.

Answer

Use AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) to perform the data migration.

Answer

Convert the Oracle database to PostgreSQL first, then use AWS DMS for a homogeneous migration.

Answer

Take the source Oracle database offline to ensure data consistency during the migration.

Question 7

A company is modernizing a legacy application by refactoring it into microservices. The application uses a monolithic database. The company wants to adopt a microservices architecture with independent data stores. What pattern should the company use?

Accepted Answer

Database per Service. The Database per Service pattern ensures that each microservice owns its own data, promoting loose coupling and allowing independent scaling and technology choices. Option A is incorrect because a data lake with Amazon S3 is designed for analytics and large-scale storage, not for transactional microservices data stores. Option B is incorrect because a centralized database with an API layer still creates a single point of coupling and does not give each service its own data store. Option D is incorrect because a shared database with read replicas still uses a single database schema, which tightly couples the services.

Answer

Data lake with Amazon S3

Answer

Centralized database with an API layer

Answer

Shared database with read replicas

Question 8

A company is deploying a web application using the above CloudFormation template. The template fails to create the Auto Scaling group. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The LaunchConfiguration resource type is incorrect.. The launch configuration uses the wrong resource type (AWS::AutoScaling::AutoScalingGroup) instead of AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration. Option A is wrong because t2.micro is a valid instance type. Option B is wrong because MinSize=2 is valid and does not need to be less than DesiredCapacity; in fact, DesiredCapacity must be between MinSize and MaxSize. Option D is wrong because AvailabilityZones can be specified by names (e.g., us-east-1a) and are valid.

Answer

The instance type t2.micro is not supported in us-east-1.

Answer

The MinSize value must be less than the DesiredCapacity.

Answer

The AvailabilityZones list is invalid because it uses names instead of zone IDs.

Question 9

Refer to the exhibit. A company is using AWS Migration Hub to track database migration tasks. The migration task for 'app-server-01' has failed. The progress update stream is 'DMS'. Which AWS service is most likely responsible for the migration failure?

Accepted Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS). The progress update stream 'DMS' indicates that the task is associated with AWS Database Migration Service (DMS). DMS is used for database migrations. AWS Application Migration Service (CloudEndure) would use a different stream. Server Migration Service (SMS) is deprecated. CloudEndure and SMS are for server migration, not database.

Answer

AWS Application Migration Service (CloudEndure)

Answer

AWS Server Migration Service (SMS)

Answer

AWS CloudEndure Migration

Question 10

A company is migrating a critical application to AWS using the 7 Rs migration strategy. The application is tightly coupled with legacy infrastructure and has compliance requirements that prevent any code changes. The migration must be completed in 3 months. Which strategy is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Rehost using AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) and Amazon EC2.. Rehosting (lift-and-shift) using AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) and EC2 meets the no-code-change requirement and can be completed within 3 months. Option A is wrong because retaining the application on-premises does not migrate it to AWS, failing the migration goal. Option C is wrong because replatforming to Amazon RDS would likely require code changes (e.g., database drivers, queries), violating the no-code-change constraint. Option D is wrong because refactoring into microservices requires significant code changes and is too time-consuming for the 3-month timeline.

Answer

Retain the application on-premises and use AWS Storage Gateway for backup.

Answer

Replatform to use Amazon RDS for MySQL.

Answer

Refactor into microservices on Amazon ECS.

Question 11

A company is migrating a legacy Oracle database to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL. The migration must minimize downtime and support ongoing replication. Which AWS service should the company use?

Accepted Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with change data capture (CDC). B is correct because AWS DMS with ongoing replication (CDC) can migrate data with minimal downtime. A is wrong because AWS DataSync is designed for file-based data transfers, not database replication. C is wrong because AWS Direct Connect provides a dedicated network connection but does not handle database migration or replication. D is wrong because the AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) only converts schema and code, not the actual data.

Answer

AWS DataSync

Answer

AWS Direct Connect

Answer

AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT)

Question 12

A company is migrating a legacy Java application to AWS. The application currently runs on a single on-premises server and uses a MySQL database. The company wants to modernize the application by decoupling components and improving scalability. Which THREE steps should the architect include in the migration plan?

Accepted Answer

Place an Application Load Balancer in front of the application. Migrating the database to Amazon RDS for MySQL reduces operational overhead and provides high availability. Placing an Application Load Balancer in front of the application distributes traffic across multiple instances, improving scalability. Refactoring the application into microservices and deploying on Amazon ECS with Fargate enables decoupling of components, independent scaling, and reduces infrastructure management. These three steps together modernize the application and improve scalability. Option A (rewriting to NoSQL in a single migration step) is too risky because it changes both the database technology and requires significant application code changes. Option D (deploying on a single larger EC2 instance) does not improve scalability as it remains a single point of failure and cannot scale horizontally.

Answer

Rewrite the application to use a NoSQL database in a single migration step

Answer

Deploy the application on a single larger EC2 instance

Question 13

A company is migrating its on-premises file server to AWS. The file server contains 5 TB of data and is accessed by hundreds of users. The company wants a fully managed file storage solution that supports SMB protocol. Which AWS service should the architect consider?

Accepted Answer

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server. The two services that meet the requirements are Amazon FSx for Windows File Server and AWS Storage Gateway File Gateway. Amazon FSx for Windows File Server is a fully managed native Windows file system that supports the SMB protocol, making it ideal for migrating on-premises file servers. AWS Storage Gateway File Gateway is also a fully managed service that provides SMB file access to data stored in Amazon S3, and it can be used for file server migration. Amazon FSx for Lustre is designed for high-performance computing and does not support SMB. Amazon S3 is object storage, not file storage. Amazon EFS supports NFS, not SMB.

Answer

Amazon FSx for Lustre

Answer

Amazon S3

Answer

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)

Question 14

During an on-premises to AWS migration using AWS MGN (Application Migration Service), the replication is stuck at 99% for the last few GB. The source server is a Linux database server with a large InnoDB redo log. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

Continuous writes to the database redo logs preventing final sync. AWS MGN uses changed block tracking (CBT) to replicate changed blocks. Large InnoDB redo logs are continuously written, causing constant changes and preventing final sync. Option A (High disk I/O) can slow replication but would not cause a stall at exactly 99%. Option B (source server reboot) is not required after agent installation and would reset replication, not stall at 99%. Option C (insufficient network bandwidth) would affect all stages, not just final sync. Therefore, continuous writes to the redo logs (Option D) is the most likely cause.

Answer

High disk I/O on the source server

Answer

The source server needs reboot after MGN agent installation

Answer

Insufficient network bandwidth between source and AWS

Question 15

A company is planning to migrate a 50 TB Oracle database to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL. The company requires minimal downtime and wants to use AWS DMS for the migration. The source database is currently running on a dedicated server with high transaction volume. The network bandwidth between on-premises and AWS is 1 Gbps. What additional step should the company take to accelerate the migration and reduce downtime?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Snowball to transfer an initial full load of the database to Amazon S3, then use AWS DMS for ongoing replication. For a 50 TB Oracle database migration to Aurora PostgreSQL with a 1 Gbps network link, using AWS DMS alone for the full load would take many days due to bandwidth limitations. AWS Snowball can be used to transfer an initial full load of the database to Amazon S3, bypassing the network bottleneck. After the data is loaded into Aurora PostgreSQL, AWS DMS can be used for ongoing Change Data Capture (CDC) replication to apply changes that occurred during the initial load, minimizing downtime. This approach accelerates the migration by handling the bulk data transfer offline while using DMS only for the incremental changes.

Answer

Migrate the database in smaller batches by moving individual schemas sequentially

Answer

Use AWS DMS with a single task and disable validation to speed up the process

Answer

Increase the network bandwidth to 10 Gbps for the duration of the migration

Question 16

A company is migrating a large on-premises Oracle database to Amazon RDS for Oracle. The database is 2 TB in size and has a 24/7 uptime requirement. The company plans to use AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) for continuous replication with minimal downtime. The source database is Oracle 11g running on Linux. During the full load phase, AWS DMS reports high latency and the replication slows down significantly. The source database CPU utilization is at 100% during the migration. The company needs to minimize the impact on production workload. What should the company do to improve the migration performance and reduce impact on the source database?

Accepted Answer

Set up an Oracle read replica and use it as the source for AWS DMS. Using a read replica as the source for AWS DMS offloads the load from the primary database, reducing impact on production. Option A (using CDC only) still requires an initial full load to synchronize the target, so it does not address the full load bottleneck. Option B (increasing the DMS replication instance size) may not help if the source database itself is the bottleneck, as indicated by the 100% CPU usage. Option C (reducing parallel load threads) would decrease source CPU usage but would also slow down the migration, prolonging the window of impact; a read replica is a better solution.

Answer

Use AWS DMS change data capture (CDC) only, without full load, to reduce the load

Answer

Increase the size of the DMS replication instance to handle more load

Answer

Reduce the number of parallel load threads in the DMS task to decrease source CPU usage

Question 17

A company is migrating a stateful application that maintains session state in memory on a single server. The migration target is a highly available architecture on AWS. Which design should be used to preserve session state without modifying the application?

Accepted Answer

Use an Application Load Balancer with sticky sessions.. Using an Application Load Balancer with sticky sessions ensures that requests from a user are sent to the same target, preserving the in-memory session state without requiring any application code changes. Option A (DynamoDB) would require modifying the application to store and retrieve session data from the database. Option C (Network Load Balancer with cross-zone load balancing) does not provide session affinity, so requests may be distributed across different instances, breaking session state. Option D (ElastiCache) also requires code changes to read and write session data to the cache.

Answer

Use Amazon DynamoDB to store session state.

Answer

Use a Network Load Balancer with cross-zone load balancing.

Answer

Use Amazon ElastiCache to store session state externally.

Question 18

A company is migrating a legacy on-premises web application to AWS. The application consists of a stateless web tier and a stateful application tier that stores session data in memory. The company wants to achieve high availability and elasticity. The migration must minimize code changes. The solutions architect proposes using an Application Load Balancer (ALB) with sticky sessions and an Auto Scaling group for the web tier. For the application tier, they plan to use an ALB with sticky sessions and an Auto Scaling group. During testing, users report that they are unexpectedly logged out and lose session data. The application logs show that requests from the same user are being sent to different instances. Which change should the solutions architect make to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Verify that the ALB stickiness configuration is enabled and the cookie duration is appropriate.. Sticky sessions rely on the ALB cookie. If the cookie is not set or the duration is too short, the load balancer cannot maintain session affinity. Checking the ALB stickiness configuration ensures that the duration and cookie settings are correct. Option A is wrong because disabling sticky sessions and using NLB would not solve the problem; NLB does not support application-level stickiness without code changes. Option B is wrong because migrating session state to ElastiCache would require significant code changes, which the company wants to minimize. Option D is wrong because cross-zone load balancing does not affect session stickiness.

Answer

Disable sticky sessions and use a Network Load Balancer instead.

Answer

Migrate session state to Amazon ElastiCache for Redis.

Answer

Disable cross-zone load balancing on the ALB.

Question 19

A company wants to migrate a legacy monolithic application to AWS with minimal changes. The application currently runs on a single on-premises server with a Microsoft SQL Server database. The company wants to use AWS managed services to reduce operational overhead. Which combination of services should the company use to meet these requirements?

Accepted Answer

AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) to Amazon EC2, and AWS DMS to Amazon RDS for SQL Server. AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) enables lift-and-shift migration of the on-premises server to Amazon EC2 with minimal changes, while AWS DMS can migrate the Microsoft SQL Server database to Amazon RDS for SQL Server, a fully managed service that reduces operational overhead. This combination meets the requirement of minimal application changes and leverages AWS managed services for the database.

Answer

AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) to Amazon EC2, and AWS DMS to Amazon DynamoDB

Answer

AWS Server Migration Service (SMS) to Amazon EC2, and AWS DMS to Amazon RDS for SQL Server

Answer

AWS CloudFormation to provision EC2 instances, and AWS DMS to Amazon RDS for SQL Server

Question 20

A company is migrating a large-scale, stateful application to AWS. The application maintains session state in memory on the current on-premises servers. The company needs a solution that preserves session state during migration and minimizes latency for users worldwide. Which strategy should the company use?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Global Accelerator to gradually shift traffic, and use Amazon ElastiCache for Redis to centralize session state. AWS Global Accelerator allows you to gradually shift traffic from on-premises to AWS using endpoint weights, minimizing disruption during migration. Amazon ElastiCache for Redis provides a centralized, in-memory session store that preserves session state across the migration, ensuring low-latency access for users worldwide by leveraging Global Accelerator's anycast IP and AWS edge locations.

Answer

Use Amazon Route 53 weighted routing to shift traffic to new EC2 instances, and store session state in Amazon S3

Answer

Use AWS CloudFront to cache static content, and use Amazon DynamoDB for session state

Answer

Use AWS Global Accelerator to shift traffic, and deploy AWS WAF to protect the application