DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company is migrating an on-premises MongoDB database to Amazon DocumentDB. The data engineer needs to ensure minimal downtime during migration. Which AWS service should be used to facilitate the migration?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse AWS Glue's ETL capabilities with database migration, overlooking that DMS is the only service purpose-built for live database migrations with minimal downtime and CDC support.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
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) supports continuous replication from MongoDB to Amazon DocumentDB using change data capture (CDC), enabling near-zero downtime migration. DMS can perform a full load followed by ongoing replication to keep the target synchronized until cutover.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
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
AWS Glue performs ETL and schema transformation between data stores, not continuous change-data-capture replication, so it cannot keep the MongoDB source and DocumentDB target synchronised with minimal downtime. It is tempting because Glue handles bulk data movement and transformation, which suits one-off batch migrations where downtime is acceptable.
- ✗
AWS Snowball
Why it's wrong here
AWS Snowball ships physical storage appliances for bulk offline data transfer, which cannot replicate a live MongoDB change stream, so cutover downtime would be substantial. It is tempting for very large datasets with poor connectivity, where offline seeding plus change capture is the accepted pattern.
- ✓
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
Why this is correct
AWS Database Migration Service replicates ongoing changes from the on-premises MongoDB source to Amazon DocumentDB using change data capture, enabling near-zero-downtime cutover. Continuous replication keeps the target synchronised until you switch applications over, directly satisfying the stem's minimal-downtime constraint.
- ✗
Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration
Why it's wrong here
S3 Transfer Acceleration speeds uploads to S3 buckets over AWS edge locations; it does not read MongoDB or write to DocumentDB, so it cannot perform the migration. It is tempting for accelerating large object transfers, but the source is a live database requiring continuous replication.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.