SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is deploying a new web application on AWS that requires a highly available and scalable architecture. The application consists of a stateless web tier and a stateful database tier. The web tier runs on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The database tier uses Amazon Aurora MySQL. The company expects variable traffic patterns and wants to automatically scale the web tier based on CPU utilization. Additionally, the company wants to ensure that the database can handle increased read traffic without manual intervention. Which combination of actions should the company take?
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 an Auto Scaling group with a target tracking scaling policy based on CPU utilization. Enable Aurora Auto Scaling to add read replicas based on CPU or connections.
It uses an Auto Scaling group with a target tracking scaling policy based on CPU utilization to automatically scale the web tier, and enables Aurora Auto Scaling to add read replicas based on CPU or connections, which meets the requirements for both web and database scaling. Option B is incorrect because Amazon SQS is a message queue service and does not scale the database or handle read traffic for Aurora. Option C is incorrect because DynamoDB is a NoSQL database, not the specified Aurora MySQL database, and its auto scaling does not apply. Option D is incorrect because ElastiCache is a caching service, not the database tier, and its auto scaling does not address read scaling for Aurora.
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 Auto Scaling group with a target tracking scaling policy based on CPU utilization. Enable Aurora Auto Scaling to add read replicas based on CPU or connections.
Why this is correct
Auto Scaling scales web tier; Aurora Auto Scaling scales read capacity automatically.
- ✗
Use an Auto Scaling group with a target tracking scaling policy based on CPU utilization. Use Amazon SQS to queue read requests during peak traffic.
Why it's wrong here
SQS does not help with read scaling; it decouples work.
- ✗
Use an Auto Scaling group with a simple scaling policy based on CPU utilization. Use DynamoDB Auto Scaling for the database.
Why it's wrong here
The database is Aurora MySQL, not DynamoDB.
- ✗
Use an Auto Scaling group with a step scaling policy based on CPU utilization. Use ElastiCache Auto Scaling to add cache nodes for read traffic.
Why it's wrong here
ElastiCache caches data but does not serve as the primary database.
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