DBS-C01 Deployment and Migration Practice Question
A company wants to migrate an on-premises MySQL database to Amazon RDS for MySQL with minimal downtime. The database is 500 GB and has moderate write activity. Which approach is MOST suitable?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse AWS Server Migration Service (SMS) as a database migration tool or assume that creating a read replica from an on-premises database is possible, when in fact read replicas are an Amazon RDS-specific feature that requires the source to be an RDS instance, not an on-premises server.
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 Database Migration Service (DMS) with a full load and ongoing replication.
AWS DMS with full load and ongoing replication is the most suitable approach because it supports continuous change data capture (CDC) from the on-premises MySQL source to the Amazon RDS target, enabling minimal downtime. The full load transfers the initial 500 GB dataset, while ongoing replication applies incremental changes until cutover, meeting the requirement for minimal downtime with moderate write activity.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with a full load and ongoing replication.
Why this is correct
DMS supports ongoing replication to minimize downtime.
- ✗
Use mysqldump to export the database, then import into RDS.
Why it's wrong here
Requires downtime; does not capture ongoing changes.
- ✗
Use AWS Server Migration Service (SMS) to migrate the database server.
Why it's wrong here
SMS is for server migration, not database migration.
- ✗
Create a read replica of the on-premises database and promote it to RDS.
Why it's wrong here
RDS cannot create read replicas of external databases.
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