DBS-C01 Deployment and Migration Practice Question
A company is planning to migrate a MongoDB database to Amazon DocumentDB. The database has several sharded collections. Which migration strategy should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers assume a simple dump-and-restore (Option D) is sufficient for sharded collections, overlooking the need for minimal downtime and ongoing replication that AWS DMS provides.
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 MongoDB as source and DocumentDB as target, enabling ongoing replication.
AWS DMS supports MongoDB as a source and Amazon DocumentDB as a target, and it can perform ongoing replication (change data capture) to keep the target synchronized with the source during migration. This is essential for sharded MongoDB collections because it minimizes downtime by allowing the source to remain operational while data is migrated and changes are continuously applied.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Set up MongoDB replica set to replicate directly to DocumentDB.
Why it's wrong here
DocumentDB does not support native replication from MongoDB.
- ✓
Use AWS DMS with MongoDB as source and DocumentDB as target, enabling ongoing replication.
Why this is correct
DMS supports homogeneous migration with minimal downtime.
- ✗
Use AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) to convert the schema, then manually migrate data.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) is not suitable here because Amazon DocumentDB does not natively support sharding, a core architectural feature of the source MongoDB database. SCT focuses on converting database schemas and code between different database engines, such as Oracle to PostgreSQL, but it lacks the capability to re-architect a sharded database into a single-cluster design. This option is tempting as SCT is a recognised tool for schema migration, and it would be the correct choice for heterogeneous migrations requiring dialect translation and object conversion, like moving from a proprietary relational database to Amazon Aurora.
- ✗
Export data using mongodump and import using mongorestore.
Why it's wrong here
Does not handle sharding well and causes downtime.
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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.