DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company runs a critical transactional database on Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL. They need to achieve high availability with automatic failover to a different AWS Region in case of a regional outage. Which solution meets these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse Multi-AZ (which is intra-Region) with cross-Region disaster recovery, or assume that a cross-Region Read Replica provides automatic failover, when in fact it requires manual intervention and does not meet the 'automatic failover' requirement.
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
✓
Use Amazon Aurora Global Database with a primary cluster in one Region and a secondary in another.
Amazon Aurora Global Database is designed for cross-Region disaster recovery, replicating data with a typical latency of under one second and providing automatic failover from the primary Region to a secondary Region. This meets the requirement of high availability with automatic failover during a regional outage, unlike standard RDS options which lack built-in cross-Region automatic failover.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Create a cross-Region Read Replica and promote it during a disaster.
Why it's wrong here
Promoting a Read Replica is a manual process, not automatic failover.
- ✗
Take daily automated snapshots and restore them in another Region.
Why it's wrong here
Snapshot restore is not automated and takes time, leading to significant downtime.
- ✗
Deploy the RDS instance in a Multi-AZ configuration.
Why it's wrong here
Multi-AZ provides high availability within a single Region, not across Regions.
- ✓
Use Amazon Aurora Global Database with a primary cluster in one Region and a secondary in another.
Why this is correct
Aurora Global Database supports automatic failover across Regions with RPO of 1 second.
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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.