SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company runs a stateful web application on a single Amazon EC2 instance. The application writes data to a locally attached instance store volume. The company wants to improve the durability of the data without modifying the application. The data must survive an instance stop/start and be available if the instance is terminated and relaunched. What should a solutions architect recommend?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that instance store data persists after a stop/start, when in fact instance store is ephemeral and data is lost on stop or termination.
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
✓
Move the data to an Amazon EBS volume with the DeleteOnTermination flag set to false.
Amazon EBS volumes are durable, persistent block storage that can be detached from one instance and attached to another. Setting DeleteOnTermination to false ensures the volume remains after instance termination. The application can continue to write to the same mount point, so no code changes are needed. This provides the required data durability across instance stop/start and termination.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable termination protection on the EC2 instance.
Why it's wrong here
Termination protection prevents accidental termination but does not protect the data on instance store volumes. If the instance is stopped or terminated (after disabling protection), the instance store data is lost. It also does not help if the instance fails. This does not meet the durability requirement for the data itself.
- ✓
Move the data to an Amazon EBS volume with the DeleteOnTermination flag set to false.
Why this is correct
EBS volumes provide persistent block storage that is replicated within an Availability Zone. By setting DeleteOnTermination to false, the volume persists even if the instance is terminated. The volume can be reattached to a new instance. This ensures data durability across instance stop/start and termination, without application changes.
- ✗
Create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) of the instance after each data change.
Why it's wrong here
Creating an AMI captures the instance store data only if the instance is rebooted or stopped, but it is a manual, time-consuming process. It does not provide continuous durability and would result in data loss between AMI creations. Also, the application would need to be modified to trigger AMI creation, which is not desired.
- ✗
Use an Auto Scaling group with a launch template that includes the instance store volume.
Why it's wrong here
Instance store volumes are ephemeral and are not preserved when an instance is terminated. An Auto Scaling group would launch new instances with empty instance store volumes, resulting in data loss. This approach does not provide data durability and would not meet the requirement to preserve data across instance termination.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This SAP-C02 question is part of Courseiva's 984-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.