DOP-C02 Security and Compliance Practice Question
A company is using Amazon RDS for MySQL and needs to encrypt the database at rest. Which action should be taken to enable encryption?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is believing RDS supports in-place encryption via 'Modify' — it does not; encryption must be set at creation or via snapshot restore.
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 encryption when creating the DB instance
Amazon RDS encryption at rest can only be enabled at the time the DB instance is created — you cannot enable it on an existing unencrypted instance. The correct action is therefore to enable encryption during creation (via the console, CLI, or API using the 'StorageEncrypted' parameter). Once enabled, RDS uses AWS KMS to encrypt the underlying storage, automated backups, read replicas, and snapshots.
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 read replica with encryption enabled
Why it's wrong here
A read replica does not have an independent encryption setting; it always mirrors the storage encryption state of the source DB instance. If the source is unencrypted, the replica will also be unencrypted, and there is no option to enable encryption on the replica at creation or afterward. To achieve encryption this way, you would first need to encrypt the source itself, which is only possible during initial source creation.
- ✗
Use AWS Secrets Manager to encrypt the data
Why it's wrong here
AWS Secrets Manager is a credential and secret management service, not a data-at-rest encryption engine. It can securely store database passwords and connection secrets, but it does not encrypt the actual content of RDS tables or the underlying storage volumes. Database-level encryption must be handled natively by RDS using KMS or with application-level encryption before data is written to the database.
- ✓
Enable encryption when creating the DB instance
Why this is correct
Amazon RDS supports encryption at rest only as an attribute that is set during the initial Create DB instance operation. When you provision the instance, you choose to enable encryption and optionally select a customer-managed KMS key; this setting is permanently attached to that instance. If you skip this option at launch, you cannot enable it later—you must migrate data to a newly created encrypted instance.
- ✗
Modify the existing DB instance and enable encryption
Why it's wrong here
Modifying an existing DB instance through the ModifyDBInstance API or the console can change parameters, storage class, or instance size, but it cannot enable encryption at rest because encryption is not a mutable attribute. The RDS service does not support adding encryption to an already-provisioned instance. The supported path is to create an encrypted snapshot copy and restore it as a new encrypted DB instance, then redirect applications to the new endpoint.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This DOP-C02 question is part of Courseiva's 1,298-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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.