DBS-C01 Monitoring and Troubleshooting Practice Question
A company uses Amazon DynamoDB with global tables. During a regional failure, the application in the secondary region experiences higher latency and throttling. The DynamoDB table's WriteCapacityUnits are set to 10000 in both regions. Which action should be taken to reduce throttling during failover?
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 DynamoDB auto scaling for write capacity in both regions
Enabling DynamoDB auto scaling allows the table to dynamically adjust write capacity based on actual traffic, which helps reduce throttling during failover when secondary region traffic increases. Option A is incorrect because switching to on-demand capacity mode may reduce throttling but is more expensive and not the most direct fix for capacity limits; auto scaling provides a more cost-effective solution. Option C is incorrect because disabling global tables would stop cross-region replication, defeating the purpose of multi-region disaster recovery. Option D is incorrect because increasing write capacity of only the secondary region to 20000 may lead to over-provisioning and cost, while auto scaling provides a more efficient and automated solution to handle varying load.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Switch the table to on-demand capacity mode
Why it's wrong here
Switching to on-demand capacity mode may reduce throttling but is more expensive and does not directly address the capacity limits during failover; auto scaling is a better solution.
- ✓
Enable DynamoDB auto scaling for write capacity in both regions
Why this is correct
Enabling DynamoDB auto scaling dynamically adjusts write capacity based on actual traffic, helping reduce throttling during failover when secondary region traffic increases.
- ✗
Disable global tables and use application-level replication
Why it's wrong here
Disabling global tables stops cross-region replication, defeating the purpose of multi-region disaster recovery and is not recommended.
- ✗
Increase the write capacity of the secondary region to 20000
Why it's wrong here
Increasing the write capacity of the secondary region to 20000 is incorrect because DynamoDB global tables are active-active, meaning writes can originate from any region and are asynchronously replicated. During a regional failure, the application's write traffic shifts to the secondary region, causing its local write capacity to be overwhelmed and leading to throttling. This action would directly address the throttling by providing more capacity for the increased local write load. It is tempting because it correctly identifies the need for increased write capacity in the region now handling the primary write workload during failover.
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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.