SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company wants to migrate an on-premises relational database to Amazon RDS for MySQL with minimal downtime. The database is 500 GB in size. Which AWS service should be used for the initial data load and ongoing replication?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse the one-time bulk transfer capability of Snowball or S3 with the need for ongoing replication, failing to recognize that minimal downtime requires a continuous change capture mechanism like DMS CDC, not just an initial data load.
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 Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication.
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication is the correct choice because it supports both a full load of the 500 GB database and continuous change data capture (CDC) using the MySQL binary log (binlog) to replicate ongoing changes with minimal downtime. DMS can perform the initial load while the source remains operational, then switch to CDC to keep the target in sync until cutover.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use AWS Snowball to transfer the database files to RDS.
Why it's wrong here
Snowball ships physical storage for bulk offline transfer, providing no ongoing replication channel, so changes made during shipping would be lost. It suits terabyte-to-petabyte migrations where downtime is acceptable. Minimal-downtime migration requires continuous change capture, which AWS DMS provides.
- ✗
Use an RDS read replica from the on-premises database.
Why it's wrong here
RDS read replicas replicate from another RDS or Aurora instance, not from an on-premises MySQL server, so this topology cannot be created. It suits scaling reads within AWS. Migrating from on-premises with ongoing change replication requires AWS DMS.
- ✓
Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication.
Why this is correct
AWS DMS performs the initial full load and then continuous change data capture from the source MySQL binary logs, replicating ongoing changes to RDS for MySQL. This keeps the target synchronised until cutover, satisfying the minimal-downtime constraint for the 500 GB database.
- ✗
Export the database to Amazon S3 and import into RDS.
Why it's wrong here
Exporting to S3 and importing gives a one-time snapshot load with no mechanism to replicate subsequent changes, so writes during the cutover window are lost. It suits static datasets or full re-imports where downtime is tolerable. Continuous replication requires AWS DMS.
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