SOA-C02 Practice Test 26 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company is designing a disaster recovery strategy for its AWS environment. The primary Region is us-east-1, and the secondary Region is us-west-2. The application uses Amazon RDS for MySQL, Amazon S3 for static assets, and EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group. The RTO is 30 minutes, and the RPO is 15 minutes. Which TWO actions should the SysOps administrator take to meet these requirements? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Configure a cross-Region read replica for the RDS instance in us-west-2.. Options A and D are correct. A cross-Region read replica in us-west-2 can be promoted to a primary in case of disaster, providing an RPO of seconds and RTO of minutes. S3 cross-Region replication ensures assets are available in the secondary Region with minimal RPO. Option B is incorrect because EBS snapshots are incremental and copying a snapshot would not meet RPO of 15 minutes if done daily. Option C is incorrect because AMI backups are for EC2 instances, not for database recovery. Option E is incorrect because a single RDS instance does not provide cross-Region failover.

Answer

Deploy a single RDS instance in us-west-2 as a standby.

Answer

Create AMI backups of EC2 instances every hour and copy to us-west-2.

Answer

Take daily EBS snapshots and copy them to us-west-2.

Question 2

A company uses Amazon Route 53 for DNS and wants to ensure that its web application is highly available across two AWS Regions. The application runs behind an Application Load Balancer in each Region. Which routing policy should be used?

Accepted Answer

Failover routing policy. Option D is correct because the failover routing policy allows you to configure an active-passive setup with health checks, routing traffic to the secondary Region only if the primary fails. Option A is wrong because weighted routing distributes traffic based on weights, not for failover. Option B is wrong because latency-based routing routes based on lowest latency, not failover. Option C is wrong because geolocation routing routes based on user location, not for failover.

Answer

Weighted routing policy

Answer

Geolocation routing policy

Answer

Latency routing policy

Question 3

A SysOps administrator is designing a disaster recovery plan for a web application. The application runs on EC2 instances in a single Availability Zone. What is the FIRST step to improve availability?

Accepted Answer

Deploy EC2 instances in at least two Availability Zones.. Option B is correct because distributing instances across multiple AZs is the most fundamental step to protect against AZ failure. Option A is wrong because while Multi-AZ RDS helps, the compute layer remains a single point of failure. Option C is wrong because it does not address compute availability. Option D is wrong because it does not protect against an AZ outage.

Answer

Use an Application Load Balancer to distribute traffic.

Answer

Enable Multi-AZ for the RDS database.

Answer

Create an Amazon CloudFront distribution for the application.

Question 4

A company is designing a highly available web application on AWS. The application runs on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. Which configuration ensures that the application remains available if an entire AWS Availability Zone fails?

Accepted Answer

Launch EC2 instances in at least two different Availability Zones.. Option C is correct because deploying EC2 instances across multiple Availability Zones ensures that if one AZ fails, the load balancer can route traffic to instances in the other AZ. Option A is wrong because multiple subnets in the same AZ do not protect against AZ failure. Option B is wrong because multiple VPCs add complexity but do not inherently provide AZ redundancy. Option D is wrong because a larger instance type does not address AZ failure.

Answer

Deploy EC2 instances in multiple subnets of the same Availability Zone.

Answer

Use a larger EC2 instance type to handle the load.

Answer

Use EC2 instances in multiple AWS Regions.

Question 5

A company runs a stateless web application on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The application is deployed in an Auto Scaling group with a minimum of 2 and maximum of 10 instances. During a traffic spike, the Auto Scaling group launches new instances, but the new instances are immediately marked as unhealthy by the ALB and terminated. What could be the cause? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

The health check path is misconfigured.. Options B and D are correct. If the health check path is incorrect, the ALB marks instances as unhealthy. If the security group does not allow traffic from the ALB, the health check fails. Option A is wrong because a missing IAM role does not cause health check failures. Option C is wrong because insufficient capacity would prevent launch, not cause health check failures. Option E is wrong because a larger instance would not cause health check failures.

Answer

The Auto Scaling group does not have sufficient capacity in the target AZ.

Answer

The instances do not have the required IAM role to register with the ALB.

Answer

The instances are launched with a larger instance type than expected.

Question 6

A company wants to ensure that its S3 bucket is accessible only from a VPC. Which configuration should the SysOps Administrator implement?

Accepted Answer

Create an S3 VPC endpoint and attach a bucket policy that restricts access to that endpoint.. Option B is correct because S3 bucket policies can restrict access to a specific VPC or VPC endpoint. Option A is wrong because it does not restrict to a VPC. Option C is wrong because it grants public access. Option D is wrong because S3 does not support security group associations.

Answer

Configure a bucket policy that allows access from the public internet.

Answer

Make the bucket public and rely on IAM roles.

Answer

Attach a security group to the S3 bucket.

Question 7

A SysOps administrator is responsible for an Auto Scaling group that runs a critical application. The administrator wants to ensure that the application can recover from an AZ failure. Which THREE steps should the administrator take? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Place subnets in each Availability Zone used by the Auto Scaling group.. Options A, B, and D are correct. Launching instances in multiple AZs ensures that if one AZ fails, instances in other AZs continue. Distributing subnets across AZs is necessary for that. Using an ALB in multiple AZs distributes traffic. Option C is incorrect because a single subnet in one AZ does not provide AZ-level redundancy. Option E is incorrect because using only one AZ defeats the purpose.

Answer

Use EC2 instances in a single Availability Zone to reduce latency.

Answer

Use a single subnet in one Availability Zone to simplify network design.

Question 8

A company runs a critical application on an EC2 instance backed by Amazon EBS. To protect against data loss, the company wants to create a backup strategy that allows for point-in-time recovery. Which solution should be used?

Accepted Answer

Create automated EBS snapshots.. Option B is correct because Amazon EBS snapshots provide point-in-time backups of EBS volumes, stored in S3. Option A is wrong because S3 lifecycle policies do not back up EBS volumes. Option C is wrong because AMIs include snapshots but are not the primary backup mechanism for data. Option D is wrong because EFS is a file system, not a backup service.

Answer

Configure an S3 Lifecycle policy to move data to Glacier.

Answer

Create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) of the instance.

Answer

Use Amazon EFS to store data.

Question 9

A company's critical application uses an EBS-backed EC2 instance. They want to back up the instance daily with a retention policy of 30 days. What is the MOST efficient way to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) to schedule EBS snapshots with a 30-day retention.. Option C is correct because Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager can automate EBS snapshots with retention rules. Option A is wrong because AMI backups include additional metadata and are heavier; also DLM supports snapshots only. Option B is wrong because AWS Backup can handle this but DLM is more lightweight for EBS-only backups. Option D is wrong because creating snapshots manually via Lambda is less reliable and more complex.

Answer

Use AWS Backup to schedule EBS snapshots and set the retention policy.

Answer

Schedule a Lambda function to create an EBS snapshot daily and delete snapshots older than 30 days.

Answer

Create an AMI daily using AWS Backup and set the retention to 30 days.

Question 10

A SysOps administrator needs to implement a backup strategy for an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL database. The database is 500 GB and experiences heavy write traffic. Which solution provides the most cost-effective backup with the least impact on database performance?

Accepted Answer

Enable automated backups with a retention period of 7 days.. Option B is correct because automated backups are enabled by default with minimal performance impact and include transaction logs for point-in-time recovery. Option A is wrong because manual snapshots require a brief I/O suspension and are less automated. Option C is wrong because read replicas are for read scaling, not backups. Option D is wrong because exporting to S3 via AWS DMS incurs additional cost and complexity.

Answer

Create a Multi-AZ deployment and use the standby for backups.

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service to continuously replicate data to an S3 bucket.

Answer

Take manual DB snapshots daily during off-peak hours.

Question 11

Refer to the exhibit. A SysOps administrator ran the commands shown. What is the state of the EC2 instance?

Accepted Answer

The instance is running but has a system impairment.. Option C is correct because the system status check indicates impaired reachability, which means the instance is running but not reachable. The instance state shows running, so it is not stopped or terminated. The impairment is due to a system issue, not an instance-specific issue like memory pressure (which would be instance status check).

Answer

The instance is running and healthy.

Answer

The instance is terminated.

Answer

The instance is stopped.

Question 12

A company is using AWS CloudFormation to manage its infrastructure. The SysOps Administrator needs to ensure that updates to a critical stack do not accidentally replace the database. Which feature should be used?

Accepted Answer

Define a stack policy that denies updates to the database resource.. Option C is correct because a stack policy can protect specific resources from being updated or replaced during a stack update. Option A is wrong because change sets allow preview but do not prevent replacement. Option B is wrong because it does not prevent updates. Option D is wrong because drift detection identifies changes but does not prevent them.

Answer

Use drift detection to identify changes.

Answer

Enable termination protection on the stack.

Answer

Use a change set to review the updates before executing them.

Question 13

A company runs a web application on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The instances are in an Auto Scaling group across three Availability Zones. To improve reliability, the company wants to ensure that if an entire Availability Zone fails, the application remains available. Which configuration should be implemented?

Accepted Answer

Configure the Auto Scaling group to launch instances in three Availability Zones.. Option A is correct because distributing the Auto Scaling group across three Availability Zones ensures that the application can tolerate the failure of one zone. Option B is wrong because using a single AZ would not survive an AZ failure. Option C is wrong because a Network Load Balancer does not inherently provide better zone resilience. Option D is wrong because removing the load balancer would remove a critical component for distributing traffic.

Answer

Remove the load balancer and use Route 53 weighted routing to distribute traffic.

Answer

Launch all instances in a single Availability Zone to reduce latency.

Answer

Use a Network Load Balancer instead of an Application Load Balancer.

Question 14

A company runs a web application on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The instances are in an Auto Scaling group. The SysOps administrator wants to ensure that the application can handle a sudden increase in traffic without downtime. Which THREE actions should be taken?

Accepted Answer

Configure the Auto Scaling group to launch instances in multiple Availability Zones.. Options B, C, and E are correct. Configuring the Auto Scaling group with a dynamic scaling policy (Option B) allows it to scale based on demand. Placing instances in multiple Availability Zones (Option C) provides high availability. Configuring a target tracking scaling policy based on ALB RequestCountPerTarget (Option E) ensures the group scales based on traffic. Option A (scheduled scaling) is not reactive. Option D (spot instances) can be interrupted, causing potential downtime.

Answer

Configure a scheduled scaling policy to add instances during known peak hours.

Answer

Use Spot Instances to reduce costs.

Question 15

An application uploads files to an S3 bucket. The SysOps administrator needs to ensure that the files are automatically replicated to another bucket in a different AWS Region for disaster recovery. Which action should be taken?

Accepted Answer

Enable Cross-Region Replication on the source bucket.. Option C is correct because S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) automatically replicates objects to a destination bucket in another region. Option A is wrong because versioning alone does not replicate data. Option B is wrong because lifecycle policies only manage storage tiers, not replication. Option D is wrong because S3 Transfer Acceleration speeds up uploads but does not replicate.

Answer

Use S3 Transfer Acceleration for faster uploads.

Answer

Enable versioning on the source bucket.

Answer

Configure a lifecycle policy to transition objects to Glacier.