SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a disaster recovery solution for a critical application that runs on EC2 instances in a single AWS Region. The application uses a custom AMI that is updated weekly. The recovery point objective (RPO) is 15 minutes, and the recovery time objective (RTO) is 4 hours. The solution must minimize cost while meeting these objectives. Which approach should be used?
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 EC2 Image Builder to create an updated AMI weekly and replicate it to another Region, then launch instances from the replicated AMI in the DR Region.
EC2 Image Builder automates weekly AMI creation and replication to another Region, ensuring a recent AMI is available for quick instance launch (meeting the 4-hour RTO). For the 15-minute RPO, the DR strategy relies on complementary data replication mechanisms (e.g., database or storage replication) which are more cost-effective than full server replication. Option A is the most efficient approach for the AMI component, while Options C and B are either unnecessarily costly or misaligned, and Option D is manual and error-prone.
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 EC2 Image Builder to create an updated AMI weekly and replicate it to another Region, then launch instances from the replicated AMI in the DR Region.
Why this is correct
EC2 Image Builder automates AMI creation and replication, meeting RPO with scheduled builds and RTO by launching instances from the replicated AMI.
- ✗
Use Amazon S3 cross-region replication to copy the application data to a bucket in another Region.
Why it's wrong here
S3 replication does not replicate the EC2 instance configuration or AMI.
- ✗
Use AWS CloudEndure Disaster Recovery for continuous replication of the entire server.
Why it's wrong here
CloudEndure provides continuous replication but is more expensive than a periodic AMI-based solution.
- ✗
Manually create an AMI of the instance every week and copy it to another region using the AWS Management Console.
Why it's wrong here
Manual process is error-prone and does not guarantee the 15-minute RPO.
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.