SAP-C02 Instance Store Practice Question
A company has a legacy application that runs on an EC2 instance with a single EBS volume. The application stores temporary data on a second EBS volume that is attached to the instance. The company wants to improve durability of the temporary data without increasing costs significantly. What should the company do?
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
✓
Use Amazon S3 for temporary data storage.
Using Amazon S3 for temporary data storage improves durability because S3 offers 99.999999999% durability, far exceeding the durability of a single EBS volume or instance store. It is cost-effective as you pay only for the storage used, with no upfront investment or additional volume costs. Although S3 is object storage, it is suitable for temporary data that does not require block-level access. Option A is incorrect because increasing IOPS does not improve durability. Option C is incorrect because adding EBS volumes and RAID 1 mirroring increases costs significantly due to additional volume charges. Option D is incorrect because moving to instance store reduces durability, as instance store is ephemeral and data is lost on instance stop/termination.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the IOPS of the current EBS volume to improve performance.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing IOPS improves performance but not durability.
- ✓
Use Amazon S3 for temporary data storage.
Why this is correct
S3 provides high durability at low cost, making it ideal for improving durability of temporary data without significant cost increase.
- ✗
Add additional EBS volumes and set up RAID 1 for mirroring.
Why it's wrong here
RAID 1 mirroring improves durability but requires additional EBS volumes, increasing costs significantly.
- ✗
Move the temporary data to an instance store volume if the instance type supports it.
Why it's wrong here
Instance store is ephemeral and does not provide durability; data is lost when the instance is stopped or terminated.
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
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SAP-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 SAP-C02 exam.