SAA-C03 Design Resilient Architectures Practice Question
This SAA-C03 practice question tests your understanding of design resilient architectures. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. A key principle to apply: eFS is a regional service, providing high availability across multiple AZs.. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A warehouse integration service must use shared file storage across Linux EC2 instances in multiple Availability Zones. The storage must remain available during an AZ failure. Which service should be used? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Amazon EFS with mount targets in multiple Availability Zones
Amazon EFS provides a fully managed, POSIX-compliant NFSv4.1 shared file system that can be mounted concurrently across multiple Linux EC2 instances. By deploying mount targets in multiple Availability Zones, the file system remains accessible even if one AZ fails, satisfying the high-availability requirement without any custom scripts.
Key principle: EFS is a regional service, providing high availability across multiple AZs.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✓
Amazon EFS with mount targets in multiple Availability Zones
Why this is correct
EFS is regional file storage and supports mount targets across AZs.
Related concept
EFS is a regional service, providing high availability across multiple AZs.
✗
S3 mounted as a POSIX file system without a file gateway
Why it's wrong here
S3 is object storage and does not provide native POSIX shared file semantics.
✗
Instance store volumes
Why it's wrong here
Instance store is ephemeral and tied to a single instance.
✗
An EBS volume attached to all instances
Why it's wrong here
A standard EBS volume is zonal and cannot be attached broadly as shared file storage.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may confuse EBS Multi-Attach (which has strict limitations and requires cluster-aware file systems) with a true shared file system, or assume that S3 with a FUSE mount is a viable POSIX alternative without considering the operational overhead and lack of native consistency.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
EFS uses NFSv4.1 protocol with a distributed data plane that replicates data across multiple AZs within a region. When an AZ fails, the EFS mount targets in the remaining AZs continue to serve requests transparently, as the file system metadata and data are stored redundantly across the region. The Bursting Throughput mode allows EFS to scale I/O automatically based on accumulated credits, which is critical for warehouse workloads with variable access patterns.
KKey Concepts to Remember
EFS is a regional service, providing high availability across multiple AZs.
EFS supports the NFSv4 protocol for mounting on Linux EC2 instances.
EFS automatically scales storage capacity up and down as needed.
EFS offers different performance modes (General Purpose, Max I/O) and throughput modes (Bursting, Provisioned).
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
EFS is a regional service, providing high availability across multiple AZs.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Review eFS is a regional service, providing high availability across multiple AZs., then practise related SAA-C03 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.
Design Resilient Architectures — This question tests Design Resilient Architectures — EFS is a regional service, providing high availability across multiple AZs..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Amazon EFS with mount targets in multiple Availability Zones — Amazon EFS provides a fully managed, POSIX-compliant NFSv4.1 shared file system that can be mounted concurrently across multiple Linux EC2 instances. By deploying mount targets in multiple Availability Zones, the file system remains accessible even if one AZ fails, satisfying the high-availability requirement without any custom scripts.
What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 question wrong?
Review eFS is a regional service, providing high availability across multiple AZs., then practise related SAA-C03 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.
What is the key concept behind this question?
EFS is a regional service, providing high availability across multiple AZs.
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Question Discussion
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