DBS-C01 Deployment and Migration Practice Question
A company is migrating a 500 GB PostgreSQL database from on-premises to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL. The migration must have a recovery point objective (RPO) of less than 5 minutes and a recovery time objective (RTO) of less than 30 minutes. Which migration strategy should the company use?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume pg_basebackup or pg_dump can meet low RPO/RTO by combining with manual log shipping, but they overlook that these methods lack built-in continuous replication and automated failover, which are essential for the stated recovery objectives.
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 AWS DMS with full load and ongoing replication.
AWS DMS with full load and ongoing replication is the correct strategy because it supports continuous change data capture (CDC) from the on-premises PostgreSQL source to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL, enabling an RPO of less than 5 minutes. The full load phase migrates the initial 500 GB, and ongoing replication keeps the target synchronized with minimal lag, while Aurora’s automated failover and fast recovery help achieve an RTO under 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.
- ✗
Create a read replica of the on-premises database and promote it.
Why it's wrong here
Creating a read replica of an on-premises PostgreSQL database directly into Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL is not a natively supported migration path. Aurora's architecture does not allow it to function as a direct read replica target for an on-premises source that can then be promoted to become the primary Aurora instance, thus failing to meet the RPO/RTO requirements for this specific cross-platform migration. This strategy is tempting because promoting a read replica offers low RPO/RTO, and it would be a correct approach for migrations or upgrades *within* compatible PostgreSQL environments, such as between AWS RDS PostgreSQL instances.
- ✓
Use AWS DMS with full load and ongoing replication.
Why this is correct
Ongoing replication achieves low RPO.
- ✗
Take a full backup using pg_basebackup and restore to Aurora.
Why it's wrong here
Full backup RPO is hours.
- ✗
Use pg_dump to export the database and import into Aurora.
Why it's wrong here
pg_dump RPO is the time of the dump.
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