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 its on-premises Oracle database to Amazon RDS for Oracle. The database is 2 TB in size and has a 24-hour maintenance window. The migration must have minimal downtime. Which AWS service should be used for the migration?
Amazon RDS native backup and restore
Why wrong: Native backup and restore requires downtime.
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
DMS supports minimal downtime migrations.
Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration
Why wrong: S3 Transfer Acceleration is for uploading to S3, not database migration.
AWS Snowball Edge
Why wrong: Snowball is for offline data transfer, which involves downtime.
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 heterogeneous migrations (Oracle to RDS for Oracle) with minimal downtime using ongoing replication via Oracle LogMiner or binary reader. DMS can perform a full load of the 2 TB database and then continuously replicate changes from the source to the target during the 24-hour maintenance window, allowing a final cutover with only seconds of downtime.
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.
Amazon RDS native backup and restore
Why it's wrong here
Native backup and restore requires downtime.
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
Why this is correct
DMS supports minimal downtime migrations.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration
Why it's wrong here
S3 Transfer Acceleration is for uploading to S3, not database migration.
AWS Snowball Edge
Why it's wrong here
Snowball is for offline data transfer, which involves downtime.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AWS Snowball Edge for any large data migration, but Snowball is designed for offline transfers where downtime is acceptable, not for minimal-downtime online migrations that require continuous replication.
Detailed technical explanation
DMS uses a replication instance to connect to the source Oracle database via Oracle LogMiner or binary reader (for Oracle 11g and later) to capture changes in near real-time. The full load phase reads the source table data in parallel using configurable maxFullLoadSubTasks, and once the full load completes, DMS applies cached changes from the ongoing replication to keep the target RDS instance synchronized. For a 2 TB database, DMS can leverage multiple parallel tasks and a large replication instance (e.g., dms.r5.4xlarge) to complete the full load within the 24-hour window, while the ongoing replication ensures a final cutover with minimal downtime.
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 heterogeneous migrations (Oracle to RDS for Oracle) with minimal downtime using ongoing replication via Oracle LogMiner or binary reader. DMS can perform a full load of the 2 TB database and then continuously replicate changes from the source to the target during the 24-hour maintenance window, allowing a final cutover with only seconds of downtime.
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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