SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A company uses AWS CloudFormation to deploy a multi-tier application. The deployment includes an Application Load Balancer, Auto Scaling group, and Amazon RDS database. The company wants to ensure that updates to the database do not cause downtime. Which TWO strategies should the company use? (Choose two.)
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 AWS CloudFormation with a blue/green deployment strategy for the database.
CloudFormation can use a blue/green deployment strategy, which creates a new database environment (green) alongside the existing one (blue). Traffic is switched after the new environment is ready, minimizing downtime. Option E is correct because taking a database snapshot before updates provides a rollback mechanism in case the update fails. Option A is wrong: Multi-AZ provides high availability and automatic failover but does not eliminate downtime during updates—it simply recovers quickly after an outage. Option B is wrong: Directly updating the CloudFormation stack without creating a new database may cause downtime if the database must be replaced or modified in place. Option D is wrong: A read replica serves only read traffic; it cannot handle write traffic during database updates, so it does not prevent downtime for write operations.
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 Multi-AZ on the RDS instance to allow failover during updates.
Why it's wrong here
Multi-AZ provides high availability but not zero-downtime updates.
- ✗
Update the CloudFormation stack directly without creating a new database.
Why it's wrong here
Direct updates may cause downtime.
- ✓
Use AWS CloudFormation with a blue/green deployment strategy for the database.
Why this is correct
Blue/green allows you to create a new database and switch traffic.
- ✗
Use a read replica to serve traffic during the update.
Why it's wrong here
Read replicas are for read traffic, not for write updates.
- ✓
Use a database snapshot to restore the database if the update fails.
Why this is correct
Snapshots provide a rollback mechanism.
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