SAP-C02 Practice Question: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
A company is migrating a large-scale Hadoop cluster to Amazon EMR. The migration plan includes moving data from HDFS to Amazon S3. The company wants to minimize costs and ensure data durability. Which approach should the company use?
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 Apache DistCp to copy data from HDFS to S3.
B is correct because DistCp is designed for efficient HDFS-to-S3 transfers, and S3's 99.999999999% durability meets requirements. A is wrong because VPN and rsync are not optimized for large-scale data transfer to S3. C is wrong because Snowball Edge adds latency and is not necessary for data already in the cluster. D is wrong because AWS DMS is for databases, not file systems.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Set up a VPN connection and use rsync to copy data to S3.
Why it's wrong here
rsync over a VPN copies files to S3 as objects but cannot preserve HDFS block locality or parallelise across the cluster, and egress plus VPN costs exceed AWS's native tooling. It is tempting because rsync suits incremental file synchronisation between servers; here AWS DataSync or S3 DistCp is the migration mechanism.
- ✓
Use Apache DistCp to copy data from HDFS to S3.
Why this is correct
Apache DistCp is purpose-built for parallel, distributed copying between HDFS and Amazon S3, preserving data integrity across the large-scale Hadoop dataset. S3 provides eleven nines of durability with lower storage cost than HDFS on persistent EMR clusters, satisfying both the cost and durability constraints.
- ✗
Use AWS Snowball Edge to physically transfer data from the cluster.
Why it's wrong here
Snowball Edge suits offline transfer where network bandwidth is inadequate; for an existing cluster already able to reach AWS, it adds shipping cost and delay without improving S3 durability. It would be correct for migrating petabytes from a disconnected data centre with constrained connectivity.
- ✗
Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to migrate the data to S3.
Why it's wrong here
DMS replicates relational and database workloads, not arbitrary HDFS file data, so it cannot move the cluster's files into S3. It is tempting because DMS is the standard AWS migration service, and it would be correct for migrating an on-premises Oracle or MySQL database to Amazon RDS.
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
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