SAP-C02 Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS) Practice Question
A company is migrating a critical application to AWS and needs to ensure it meets a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 15 minutes and a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 5 minutes. The application runs on EC2 with an EBS volume. Which configuration should the company use?
⚠ Common exam trap
SAP-C02 often tests the distinction between HA (Multi-AZ, Auto Scaling) and DR (Elastic Disaster Recovery, pilot light, warm standby) — candidates pick Multi-AZ or warm standby because they sound resilient, but only DRS meets the specific 5-minute RPO with continuous replication.
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
✓
EC2 instance with Elastic Disaster Recovery service.
AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (DRS) continuously replicates source servers (including EC2 and on-premises) to a staging area in AWS with sub-second RPO, and can launch recovery instances in minutes, meeting both the 5-minute RPO and 15-minute RTO. It supports point-in-time recovery and automated drills, making it the purpose-built DR service for these targets.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Multi-AZ deployment with synchronous replication between two instances.
Why it's wrong here
Multi-AZ synchronous replication across two instances gives an RPO near zero, not 5 minutes, and fails to meet the stated objective. It is tempting because synchronous replication maximises durability, so it would be correct if the requirement demanded zero data loss rather than a 5-minute RPO.
- ✗
Single EC2 instance with EBS snapshots every 5 minutes.
Why it's wrong here
Snapshots every 5 minutes meet the RPO, but restoring a snapshot to a new EBS volume and booting an instance takes far longer than 15 minutes, so the RTO fails. Snapshots suit backup and point-in-time recovery, not rapid failover; a warm standby with replicated data would satisfy both targets.
- ✗
Two EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group with a warm standby.
Why it's wrong here
A warm standby in an Auto Scaling group still requires minutes to scale and boot, and EBS replication is not continuous, so it cannot meet a 5-minute RPO. It is tempting because warm standby suits cost-sensitive DR, and would be correct for looser RTO/RPO targets.
- ✓
EC2 instance with Elastic Disaster Recovery service.
Why this is correct
AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery continuously replicates block-level data to a staging area, achieving RPOs of seconds and typical RTOs under 15 minutes. This satisfies both constraints directly: the 5-minute RPO via continuous replication and the 15-minute RTO through automated launch of recovery instances with attached EBS volumes.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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.