DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A data engineer is designing a disaster recovery plan for an Amazon RDS for MySQL database. The database must have a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of less than 5 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of less than 30 minutes. Which TWO actions should the engineer take to meet these requirements?
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
✓
Enable automated backups with a 1-day retention period and point-in-time recovery.
Options A and B are correct. Multi-AZ deployment (B) provides automatic failover to a standby in a different Availability Zone, meeting the RTO of less than 30 minutes. Automated backups with point-in-time recovery (A) allow recovery to any point within the retention period, enabling an RPO of less than 5 minutes. Option C is wrong because automated backups have a minimum retention of 1 day; you cannot set a 5-minute retention. Option D is wrong because a cross-Region read replica requires manual promotion and does not provide automatic failover, resulting in higher RTO. Option E is wrong because a single-AZ instance without Multi-AZ does not provide automatic failover, leading to RTO exceeding 30 minutes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Enable automated backups with a 1-day retention period and point-in-time recovery.
Why this is correct
Automated backups with point-in-time recovery allow restoring to any point within the retention period, achieving RPO of 5 minutes.
- ✓
Enable Multi-AZ deployment.
Why this is correct
Multi-AZ provides automatic failover to a standby instance in a different Availability Zone, meeting RTO.
- ✗
Enable automated backups with a 5-minute retention period.
Why it's wrong here
Automated backups are for point-in-time recovery, but they do not provide automatic failover; combined with Multi-AZ, they help with RPO but not alone.
- ✗
Create a cross-Region read replica.
Why it's wrong here
Cross-Region read replicas require manual promotion in a disaster, which may exceed RTO.
- ✗
Use a single-AZ instance with a standby in another Region.
Why it's wrong here
Single-AZ does not provide automatic failover; a standby in another Region would require manual promotion.
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JA
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.