DBS-C01 Deployment and Migration Practice Question
A company is migrating a 2 TB Oracle database to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL. They need to minimize downtime. Which AWS service should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse AWS SCT (schema conversion) with DMS (data migration), assuming SCT handles the actual data transfer, or they overestimate Snowball's suitability for minimizing downtime when the database is still being actively written to.
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 DMS can perform a live migration from Oracle to Aurora PostgreSQL with minimal downtime by continuously replicating ongoing changes from the source database to the target using Change Data Capture (CDC). For a 2 TB database, DMS supports full-load plus CDC, allowing the source to remain operational during the initial load and then switching over with only a brief outage to apply final changes.
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 Database Migration Service (DMS)
Why this is correct
DMS supports heterogeneous migrations and ongoing replication to minimize downtime.
- ✗
AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT)
Why it's wrong here
SCT converts schema but does not migrate data.
- ✗
AWS Data Pipeline
Why it's wrong here
Data Pipeline is not designed for database migration.
- ✗
AWS Snowball
Why it's wrong here
Snowball is for offline data transfer, not for ongoing replication.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DBS-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 DBS-C01 exam.