DBS-C01 Management and Operations Practice Question
A financial services company runs a production Amazon Aurora MySQL database cluster (1 writer, 2 readers) in us-east-1. The database stores critical trading data. The company's disaster recovery policy requires an RPO of 5 seconds and an RTO of 1 minute for a regional failure. The current setup does not include any cross-region replication. The database is 5 TB in size. The operations team needs to implement a solution that meets the DR requirements with minimal cost and operational overhead. Which solution should the team implement?
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
✓
Deploy an Aurora Global Database with a secondary cluster in us-west-2. Configure the secondary cluster as a failover target.
Aurora Global Database provides replication across regions with typical RPO of seconds and RTO of minutes. It is the most appropriate solution for low RPO/RTO with minimal overhead. Option B is correct. Option A (automated backups) have an RPO of 5 minutes, which exceeds the required 5 seconds. Option C (DMS) adds cost and complexity. Option D (cross-Region read replicas) can have replication lag exceeding 5 seconds.
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 automated backups and configure cross-Region snapshot copy. Use point-in-time recovery in the secondary region.
Why it's wrong here
Automated backups and cross-Region snapshot copy have an RPO of 5 minutes, which exceeds the required 5 seconds.
- ✓
Deploy an Aurora Global Database with a secondary cluster in us-west-2. Configure the secondary cluster as a failover target.
Why this is correct
Aurora Global Database provides replication across regions with typical RPO of seconds and RTO of minutes. It is the most appropriate solution for low RPO/RTO with minimal overhead.
- ✗
Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to continuously replicate changes to an Aurora cluster in us-west-2.
Why it's wrong here
Using AWS DMS to continuously replicate changes adds cost and complexity compared to the native replication offered by Aurora Global Database.
- ✗
Create cross-Region read replicas in us-west-2 and set up a replication channel. In disaster, promote a replica.
Why it's wrong here
Cross-Region read replicas can have replication lag that exceeds 5 seconds, making it unsuitable for the required RPO.
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1 more way this is tested on DBS-C01
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company is designing a disaster recovery strategy for an Amazon Aurora MySQL database with a recovery point objective (RPO) of 1 second and a recovery time objective (RTO) of 1 minute. Which TWO solutions meet these requirements? (Choose TWO.)
easy- A.Use a Multi-AZ DB cluster deployment.
- B.Take manual snapshots every hour and copy to another region.
- C.Enable automated backups and perform point-in-time recovery in another region.
- ✓ D.Deploy an Aurora Global Database with a secondary region.
- ✓ E.Configure cross-Region read replicas and promote in disaster.
Why D: (Aurora Global Database) provides cross-region replication with an RPO of typically less than 1 second and RTO of approximately 1 minute, meeting the requirements. Option E (cross-Region read replicas) can be promoted to a standalone primary in under a minute, and replication lag is sub-second, achieving RPO of 1 second. Option A (Multi-AZ DB cluster) is confined to a single region and does not provide DR across regions. Option B (manual snapshots every hour) results in an RPO of up to 1 hour, far exceeding the 1-second requirement. Option C (automated backups) has a default backup interval of 5 minutes, resulting in an RPO of at least 5 minutes, and point-in-time recovery typically takes longer than 1 minute.
JA
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.