DBS-C01 Management and Operations Practice Question
A company runs a critical application on Amazon RDS for MySQL with Multi-AZ deployment. The application performs frequent writes. The DB instance's CPU utilization is consistently above 80%, and the write latency is high. The company wants to improve write performance without changing the application code. Which solution is MOST effective?
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
✓
Migrate the database to Amazon Aurora MySQL.
Migrating to Amazon Aurora MySQL is the most effective solution because Aurora uses a distributed, SSD-backed storage system with a separate log writer process that reduces write latency. Increasing the DB instance class (Option C) can improve CPU capacity but does not address the underlying storage write latency as effectively as Aurora. Adding a read replica (Option B) offloads read traffic but does not improve write performance. Enabling Multi-AZ with synchronous replication (Option A) is already in place and can increase write latency due to synchronous replication; it does not solve the high CPU utilization issue.
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 Multi-AZ with synchronous replication to a standby instance.
Why it's wrong here
Enabling Multi-AZ with synchronous replication is already configured. Synchronous replication can add write latency, so it does not help improve write performance.
- ✗
Add a read replica to offload read traffic.
Why it's wrong here
Adding a read replica offloads read traffic but does not help with write performance or high CPU utilization from writes.
- ✗
Increase the DB instance class to a larger size with more vCPUs.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing the DB instance class provides more CPU and memory, which may help with CPU utilization but does not address the write latency issue as effectively as Aurora's optimized storage.
- ✓
Migrate the database to Amazon Aurora MySQL.
Why this is correct
Amazon Aurora MySQL uses a distributed storage system with a separate log writer, reducing write latency and improving overall write performance. It also handles high CPU utilization better due to its efficient architecture.
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