This DEA-C01 practice question tests your understanding of data store management. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company is migrating an on-premises MongoDB database to Amazon DocumentDB. The migration must have minimal downtime. Which service should be used to perform the migration?
AWS Glue
Why wrong: Glue is an ETL service, not optimized for live database migration.
AWS DataSync
Why wrong: DataSync is for moving data between on-premises storage and AWS storage services.
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
DMS supports MongoDB to DocumentDB migration with minimal downtime using change data capture.
Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration
Why wrong: S3 Transfer Acceleration speeds up uploads to S3, not database migration.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) is the correct choice because it supports continuous replication from MongoDB to Amazon DocumentDB using change data capture (CDC), enabling near-zero downtime migrations. DMS can perform a full load of existing data and then apply ongoing changes from the source MongoDB oplog, keeping the target DocumentDB synchronized until the cutover.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
AWS Glue
Why it's wrong here
Glue is an ETL service, not optimized for live database migration.
AWS DataSync
Why it's wrong here
DataSync is for moving data between on-premises storage and AWS storage services.
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
Why this is correct
DMS supports MongoDB to DocumentDB migration with minimal downtime using change data capture.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration
Why it's wrong here
S3 Transfer Acceleration speeds up uploads to S3, not database migration.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates may confuse AWS DMS with AWS DataSync or AWS Glue, assuming any 'migration' or 'data transfer' service can handle live database replication, but only DMS provides the necessary CDC engine for heterogeneous database migrations with minimal downtime.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, AWS DMS for MongoDB to DocumentDB uses the MongoDB oplog (capped collection) to capture insert, update, and delete operations in real time. The DMS replication instance reads the oplog, transforms the BSON documents to the JSON-like format used by DocumentDB, and applies them to the target. A key subtlety is that DocumentDB does not support MongoDB's unique index on the _id field in the same way, so DMS may require special handling for sharded clusters or secondary indexes during migration.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
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FAQ
Data Store Management — This question tests Data Store Management — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) — AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) is the correct choice because it supports continuous replication from MongoDB to Amazon DocumentDB using change data capture (CDC), enabling near-zero downtime migrations. DMS can perform a full load of existing data and then apply ongoing changes from the source MongoDB oplog, keeping the target DocumentDB synchronized until the cutover.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
This DEA-C01 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the DEA-C01 exam.
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