SAP-C02 Multi-AZ deployment Practice Question
A company wants to implement a cost-effective disaster recovery strategy for a production Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL database. The solution must provide a recovery point objective (RPO) of less than 5 minutes and a recovery time objective (RTO) of less than 15 minutes. Which strategies meet these requirements? (Choose THREE.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates may dismiss manual snapshots (option C) as incapable of meeting sub-5-minute RPO, but if snapshots are taken every 5 minutes, they can achieve that RPO. Additionally, cross-Region read replicas (option E) are often mistaken for asynchronous replication with higher RPO, but when used for DR, they can provide RPO of seconds and RTO of minutes. Multi-AZ (option B) is sometimes confused with cross-Region replication; Multi-AZ is for high availability within a Region and does not protect against Region failure, but it does meet the RPO/RTO requirements.
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
✓
Deploy the database in a Multi-AZ configuration.
Multi-AZ deployments provide synchronous replication to a standby in a different Availability Zone, achieving an RPO near zero and RTO typically under 2 minutes, meeting the requirements. Option C is correct because manual snapshots can be copied to another Region, and while snapshots themselves are not continuous, they can be taken frequently (e.g., every few minutes) to meet a 5-minute RPO, and the RTO can be under 15 minutes when restoring from a snapshot in the same Region or by promoting a read replica. Option E is correct because a cross-Region read replica provides asynchronous replication with an RPO typically under 1 second and can be promoted to a standalone database within minutes, meeting both RPO and RTO. Option A is incorrect because automated backups are point-in-time, but the RPO is typically up to 5 minutes (backup window) and RTO is longer due to restore time, often exceeding 15 minutes. Option D is incorrect because DMS continuous replication is a viable DR strategy, but it is not as cost-effective as the other options and introduces additional complexity; also, the requirement specifically asks for strategies involving Amazon RDS features, and DMS is a separate service.
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 automated backups with point-in-time recovery.
Why it's wrong here
Point-in-time recovery is limited to the same region and RTO can be >15 minutes.
- ✓
Deploy the database in a Multi-AZ configuration.
Why this is correct
Multi-AZ provides automatic failover to a standby in another AZ, meeting RTO <1 minute, but does not protect against region failure.
- ✓
Take manual snapshots and copy them to another Region.
Why this is correct
Manual snapshots can be restored in another Region, but RPO may be >5 minutes depending on snapshot frequency.
- ✗
Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for continuous replication to a target in another Region.
Why it's wrong here
DMS is for migrations, not for disaster recovery, and adds latency.
- ✓
Create a cross-Region read replica in a different Region.
Why this is correct
A cross-Region read replica can be promoted to a standalone database, meeting RTO and RPO.
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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.