ANS-C01 Network Design Practice Question
A company is designing a disaster recovery solution that requires replicating data from an on-premises database to an Amazon RDS instance in a different AWS region. The data transfer must be encrypted in transit and should not traverse the public internet. Which approach meets these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often assume a Direct Connect public VIF (Option A) provides encryption because it is a private circuit, but it does not encrypt the payload; only a VPN overlay or dedicated encrypted transport (e.g., MACsec) satisfies the encryption requirement.
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
✓
Establish an AWS Site-to-Site VPN over an AWS Direct Connect connection
An AWS Site-to-Site VPN over an AWS Direct Connect connection provides encrypted IPsec tunnels for data in transit while keeping traffic entirely within the private network, avoiding the public internet. The Direct Connect private VIF establishes a dedicated private link to AWS, and the VPN overlay adds encryption, meeting both requirements for an on-premises to RDS cross-region replication scenario.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use an AWS Direct Connect connection with public VIF
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect; Direct Connect with public VIF does not encrypt traffic.
- ✓
Establish an AWS Site-to-Site VPN over an AWS Direct Connect connection
Why this is correct
Correct; this provides encryption and uses a private connection.
- ✗
Establish an AWS Site-to-Site VPN over the internet
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect; the VPN uses the public internet.
- ✗
Use VPC Peering between the on-premises network and the RDS VPC
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect; VPC Peering is not supported between on-premises and VPC.
Quick reference
VPN Protocol Comparison
| Protocol | Port | Encryption | Authentication | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IKEv2 / IPsec | UDP 500 / 4500 | AES-256 | Certificates / PSK | Site-to-site & remote access |
| SSL / TLS VPN | TCP 443 | TLS 1.3 | Certificates / MFA | Clientless remote access |
| L2TP / IPsec | UDP 1701 | AES (IPsec) | PSK / Certificates | Legacy remote access |
| WireGuard | UDP 51820 | ChaCha20 | Public keys | Modern high-performance VPN |
| PPTP | TCP 1723 | MPPE (weak) | MS-CHAPv2 | Legacy — avoid in production |
PPTP is considered insecure. IKEv2/IPsec and SSL VPN are the current recommended options.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This ANS-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 ANS-C01 exam.