DOP-C02 Resilient Cloud Solutions Practice Question
A company is implementing a disaster recovery strategy for its Amazon Aurora MySQL database. The primary database is in us-west-2. The company requires an RPO of less than 1 minute and an RTO of less than 5 minutes. Which solution meets these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse a cross-Region read replica (Option A) with Aurora Global Database, assuming both provide similar failover speed, but the read replica's promotion process is slower and less reliable for meeting strict RTO/RPO targets.
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 Amazon Aurora Global Database with a secondary Region cluster.
Amazon Aurora Global Database is designed for low-latency cross-Region replication with a typical RPO of 1 second and RTO of 1 minute or less, meeting the <1 minute RPO and <5 minute RTO requirements. It uses a dedicated storage-level replication channel that keeps the secondary cluster fully synchronized without impacting primary performance, and failover involves promoting the secondary cluster to primary in under a minute.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Create a cross-Region read replica in the secondary Region and promote it during failover.
Why it's wrong here
A cross-Region read replica uses asynchronous replication from the primary to the secondary Region, so replication lag commonly fluctuates and can exceed the required 1-minute RPO, especially under heavy write load. During failover, you must stop replication, wait for any pending transactions to apply, and then promote the replica, which often takes several minutes or longer to complete. As a result, this approach does not guarantee the sub-minute data loss or the 5-minute recovery time objective.
- ✗
Use automated backups and restore to a new DB instance in the secondary Region.
Why it's wrong here
Automated backups capture changes with a maximum recovery point of about 5 minutes, which is already worse than the required 1-minute RPO, and they are stored in the same Region. To restore in the secondary Region, you first have to copy the backup across Regions, then perform a restore operation that can take hours for a large database. This makes the recovery time objective far too long for a disaster recovery plan needing fast failover.
- ✓
Use Amazon Aurora Global Database with a secondary Region cluster.
Why this is correct
Aurora Global Database replicates data from the primary Region to a secondary cluster using a dedicated storage-based replication channel with typical latency under one second, ensuring an RPO of under one minute. Failover can be initiated either manually or automatically, and a promoted secondary cluster becomes available in minutes without the need to restore from a backup or apply transaction logs. This is the only option that inherently satisfies both the 1-minute RPO and a recovery time objective measured in minutes.
- ✗
Take manual snapshots of the DB instance and copy them to the secondary Region every hour.
Why it's wrong here
Taking manual snapshots every hour means a snapshot is at most one hour old, so you can lose up to an hour of committed transactions, which violates the 1-minute RPO. Copying each snapshot to the secondary Region takes additional time, and restoring from a snapshot to a new DB instance is a lengthy operation, often taking hours. Even with a recent snapshot, failover requires the entire restore process, making both the recovery point and recovery time unacceptable.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DOP-C02 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 DOP-C02 exam.