DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company is using Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL and wants to minimize downtime during a major version upgrade. Which approach best meets this requirement?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume an in-place upgrade (Option A) is the simplest and fastest method, but they overlook the fact that major version upgrades in RDS PostgreSQL require a longer downtime window due to the need for a database restart and potential compatibility checks, making the read replica promotion strategy the superior choice for minimizing downtime.
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
✓
Create a read replica of the current instance, upgrade the replica, and then promote it to primary.
Creating a read replica, upgrading it to the new major version, and then promoting it to primary minimizes downtime by allowing the replica to be upgraded while the original instance remains operational. The promotion process is fast, typically taking only a few seconds to redirect traffic, and avoids the longer downtime associated with in-place upgrades or full data migrations.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Perform an in-place upgrade using the AWS Management Console.
Why it's wrong here
In-place upgrades cause downtime during the process.
- ✗
Modify the DB instance class to a larger size to handle the upgrade.
Why it's wrong here
Changing instance class does not upgrade the major version.
- ✓
Create a read replica of the current instance, upgrade the replica, and then promote it to primary.
Why this is correct
This minimizes downtime by switching over after upgrade.
- ✗
Use pg_dump and pg_restore to migrate data to a new upgraded instance.
Why it's wrong here
Manual dump and restore incurs significant downtime.
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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.