Multi-Region DR for RDS MySQL: Achieving RPO 5 Seconds and RTO 1 Minute
A company is designing a disaster recovery solution for a critical database using Amazon RDS Multi-AZ. However, they also need to protect against regional failures. Which additional AWS service should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse Multi-AZ (which is high availability within a region) with cross-region disaster recovery, assuming Multi-AZ alone provides regional protection.
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
✓
RDS Cross-Region Read Replicas
RDS Multi-AZ provides high availability within a single region by synchronously replicating data to a standby instance in a different Availability Zone. To protect against a regional failure, you need a cross-region disaster recovery solution. RDS Cross-Region Read Replicas asynchronously replicate data to a different AWS Region, allowing you to promote the replica to a standalone primary database in the event of a regional outage.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
RDS Multi-AZ in the same region
Why it's wrong here
Multi-AZ replicates synchronously to a standby in a second Availability Zone within one region, so a regional outage takes down both primary and standby. It is tempting because Multi-AZ already provides automatic failover, and would be the right answer if the requirement were only Availability Zone resilience rather than regional survival.
- ✓
RDS Cross-Region Read Replicas
Why this is correct
RDS Cross-Region Read Replicas asynchronously copy data to a different Region, providing a standalone database that can be promoted during a regional outage. This satisfies the protection-against-regional-failures constraint that Multi-AZ, confined to one Region, cannot address.
- ✗
Amazon S3
Why it's wrong here
Amazon S3 stores backups but cannot serve as a live database replica, so it provides no regional failover for RDS. It is tempting because S3 is durable, cross-region replication is straightforward, and it would be correct for protecting exported snapshots or static content rather than the running database.
- ✗
AWS Database Migration Service
Why it's wrong here
DMS migrates or replicates data between engines and endpoints on a schedule you configure; it does not provide a standby database that can be promoted during a regional failure. It is tempting because DMS performs continuous replication, and would be correct for ongoing migration or heterogeneous data movement, not disaster recovery failover.
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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.