Question 1easymultiple choice
Full question →easymultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A team needs a relational database solution that can automatically fail over to a standby instance if the primary database becomes unavailable. They want the standby to be located in a different Availability Zone. Which RDS/Aurora configuration best satisfies this requirement?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Distractor review
Single-AZ DB deployment and rely on manual snapshot restore during failures.
Single-AZ deployments do not provide an always-on standby in another AZ. Manual snapshot restore is a recovery process that requires intervention and is typically not an automatic failover to an AZ-level standby.
B
Best answer
Multi-AZ deployment with an automatically managed standby in a different Availability Zone and automatic failover.
RDS/Aurora Multi-AZ deployments maintain a standby instance in a separate AZ. When configured for Multi-AZ, RDS/Aurora can perform automatic failover to the standby, meeting both the “different AZ” and “automatic failover” requirements.
C
Distractor review
Enable read replicas only, and promote a replica manually when the primary fails.
Read replicas are for scaling reads and do not provide the same high-availability failover behavior as Multi-AZ deployments. Manual promotion adds recovery time and does not meet the automatic failover requirement.
D
Distractor review
Enable point-in-time recovery (PITR) without configuring any Multi-AZ standby.
PITR helps recover from logical mistakes (for example, accidental writes/deletes) by restoring data to an earlier time, but it does not provide an automatically available standby in another AZ for failover.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
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More questions from this exam
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Question 2
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Question 3
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Question 5
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SAA-C03 question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Multi-AZ deployment with an automatically managed standby in a different Availability Zone and automatic failover. — The requirement combines two capabilities: (1) a standby in a different Availability Zone and (2) automatic failover when the primary is unavailable. RDS and Aurora Multi-AZ deployments are designed for exactly this pattern: they maintain a standby in another AZ and manage failover automatically, reducing downtime compared with manual restore or read replica promotion. PITR and read replicas address different goals (recovery from mistakes and read scaling, respectively). Option A fails both the standby-in-another-AZ and automatic-failover requirements. Option C provides replicas but not Multi-AZ-style automatic HA failover. Option D provides recovery from errors at the data level but not HA failover between AZs.
What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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