DOP-C02 Incident and Event Response Practice Question
A company uses Amazon RDS for MySQL with Multi-AZ deployment. The primary DB instance fails, and automatic failover does not occur within the expected 1-2 minutes. The DevOps team needs to quickly restore database availability. What should the team do first?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume they can directly access or promote the standby instance (Option C), but RDS does not expose the standby as a connectable endpoint, and the only manual failover mechanism is the reboot with failover option.
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
✓
Reboot the DB instance with failover selected.
When automatic failover does not occur within the expected 1-2 minutes, the fastest way to manually trigger a failover is to reboot the DB instance with the 'Reboot with Failover' option selected. This forces the RDS service to promote the standby replica to the new primary, restoring database availability without waiting for the automated health check to complete. Option D is correct because it directly initiates the failover process, leveraging the existing Multi-AZ setup.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Restore the latest automated snapshot to a new DB instance.
Why it's wrong here
Restoring the latest automated snapshot creates a new DB instance from a point-in-time backup, which can take 15 minutes or longer depending on database size. This operation does not leverage the existing Multi-AZ standby, so it does not provide a quick failover and is intended for disaster recovery, not for shifting the primary role to the standby.
- ✗
Modify the DB instance to change the Multi-AZ setting to enable automatic failover.
Why it's wrong here
Since the instance is already Multi-AZ, modifying the Multi-AZ setting to 'enable automatic failover' is not a supported action; automatic failover is a built-in feature. Even if you changed from Single-AZ to Multi-AZ, the modification would apply during a maintenance window and would not immediately promote a standby, so it cannot resolve an ongoing availability issue.
- ✗
Connect to the standby instance directly and promote it to primary.
Why it's wrong here
In a Multi-AZ deployment, the standby instance resides in a different Availability Zone but is not directly accessible; it has no endpoint and cannot be connected to or promoted manually. Amazon RDS only permits failover through automatic detection or a reboot with failover, so manually promoting the standby is not possible.
- ✓
Reboot the DB instance with failover selected.
Why this is correct
Rebooting the DB instance with the 'Reboot with failover' option selected forces a synchronous failover to the standby instance, typically completing in 60-120 seconds. This is the fastest method to manually initiate a failover while preserving existing data, as the standby is already in sync and becomes the new primary.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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