SAP-C02 Practice Question: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
A company is migrating a legacy application to AWS using the rehost (lift-and-shift) strategy. The application uses a proprietary database that is not supported by Amazon RDS. The company wants to automate the migration of multiple servers and minimize downtime. Which AWS service should be used to automate the server migration?
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
✓
AWS Application Migration Service (AWS MGN).
AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) automates lift-and-shift with minimal downtime. Option A is wrong because AWS CloudFormation is for infrastructure provisioning, not migration. Option C is wrong because AWS Server Migration Service (SMS) is older and less automated compared to MGN. Option D is wrong because AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) is for databases, not servers.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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AWS CloudFormation to recreate the server configuration.
Why it's wrong here
CloudFormation provisions infrastructure from templates; it does not discover or replicate running source servers, so it cannot automate the multi-server migration or cut over with minimal downtime. It is tempting because it codifies target infrastructure, which suits rebuilding environments as code rather than rehosting existing machines.
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AWS Application Migration Service (AWS MGN).
Why this is correct
AWS Application Migration Service performs block-level replication of source servers into AWS, automating lift-and-shift for multiple machines with continuous replication that minimises cutover downtime. This satisfies both the rehost strategy and the unsupported proprietary database constraint, since the database travels with the server rather than needing RDS compatibility.
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AWS Server Migration Service (SMS).
Why it's wrong here
AWS Server Migration Service was closed to new customers; AWS Application Migration Service is the current agent-based service that replicates source servers continuously and automates cutover. SMS is tempting because it historically performed exactly this rehost automation, so it would have been correct before its deprecation.
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AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) for the database and manual server migration.
Why it's wrong here
DMS replicates data between supported database engines and performs no server-level replication, so the servers still need manual migration, contradicting the automation requirement. It is tempting because DMS handles heterogeneous database moves, which would be correct if only the proprietary database's data needed migrating.
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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.