DBS-C01 Monitoring and Troubleshooting Practice Question
A development team is using Amazon RDS for MySQL with read replicas to offload reporting queries. They notice that the read replica is consistently lagging behind the primary by several seconds. The primary handles 5000 writes per second. Which action would most likely reduce replica lag?
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
✓
Increase the instance size of the read replica.
Increasing the instance size of the read replica provides more CPU and memory resources, allowing it to apply changes from the binary log faster, thereby reducing replica lag. Option A is incorrect because increasing 'max_connections' on the primary does not affect the replica's ability to apply changes; it only allows more connections to the primary. Option C is incorrect because disabling binary logging on the primary would break replication entirely, as the replica relies on the binary log to receive changes. Option D is incorrect because converting the primary to Multi-AZ improves availability and failover but does not directly reduce replication lag on the read replica.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the 'max_connections' parameter on the primary instance.
Why it's wrong here
Max connections does not affect replica lag.
- ✓
Increase the instance size of the read replica.
Why this is correct
A larger replica can apply changes more quickly, reducing lag.
- ✗
Disable binary logging on the primary instance to reduce I/O.
Why it's wrong here
Binary logging is required for replication; disabling it would stop replication.
- ✗
Convert the primary instance to a Multi-AZ deployment.
Why it's wrong here
Multi-AZ does not reduce replica lag.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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