SAP-C02 Practice Question: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
A company is migrating a large on-premises Oracle database to Amazon RDS for Oracle. The database is 2 TB in size and has a 24/7 uptime requirement. The company plans to use AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) for continuous replication with minimal downtime. The source database is Oracle 11g running on Linux. During the full load phase, AWS DMS reports high latency and the replication slows down significantly. The source database CPU utilization is at 100% during the migration. The company needs to minimize the impact on production workload. What should the company do to improve the migration performance and reduce impact on the source database?
⚠ Common exam trap
SAP-C02 often tests the misconception that scaling the DMS replication instance or tuning DMS task parallelism fixes source-side bottlenecks, when the real fix is offloading reads to a replica or standby.
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
✓
Set up an Oracle read replica and use it as the source for AWS DMS
The source Oracle 11g database is at 100% CPU during the full load, meaning the DMS full-load threads are competing with production workload on the same host. Offloading the DMS read workload to an Oracle read replica (via Oracle Active Data Guard or a manually maintained standby) isolates the migration reads from the primary, preserving production performance while still allowing DMS to perform full load plus CDC against the replica. This is the standard AWS-recommended pattern for minimizing source impact on large Oracle migrations.
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 AWS DMS change data capture (CDC) only, without full load, to reduce the load
Why it's wrong here
Using CDC only without full load still requires an initial full load to populate the target database, so it does not resolve the high latency during the full load phase. Additionally, the source CPU would still be under heavy load during that initial load.
- ✗
Increase the size of the DMS replication instance to handle more load
Why it's wrong here
Increasing the size of the DMS replication instance improves the processing capacity of DMS, but the bottleneck is the source database (100% CPU). Unless the replication instance is undersized, increasing it further won't alleviate the source CPU pressure.
- ✗
Reduce the number of parallel load threads in the DMS task to decrease source CPU usage
Why it's wrong here
Reducing the number of parallel load threads can decrease CPU usage on the source, but it will slow down the migration and extend the full load duration. This may not be ideal for minimizing impact and could prolong the exposure.
- ✓
Set up an Oracle read replica and use it as the source for AWS DMS
Why this is correct
Setting up an Oracle read replica and using it as the source for AWS DMS offloads the replication overhead from the primary database, eliminating the CPU bottleneck and allowing the migration to proceed with minimal impact on the production workload.
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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.