The three actions to improve high availability for a single EC2 instance are placing the instance behind an Application Load Balancer, using Auto Scaling across multiple Availability Zones, and implementing a Multi-AZ RDS database. This combination works because a single EC2 instance is a single point of failure; distributing compute across multiple AZs with Auto Scaling ensures that if one AZ fails, another instance takes over, while the ALB routes traffic only to healthy instances, and Multi-AZ RDS provides a synchronous standby replica for database durability. On the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional SAP-C02 exam, this scenario tests your ability to decouple compute, storage, and database layers to eliminate single points of failure—a common trap is thinking a single EBS volume or instance store alone provides high availability, but they lack cross-AZ redundancy. Remember the memory tip: “ALB + ASG across AZs + Multi-AZ RDS” forms the three-legged stool of high availability for a legacy single-instance migration.
SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
This SAP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of continuous improvement for existing solutions. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company is migrating a legacy application to AWS. The application runs on a single EC2 instance and uses an attached EBS volume for data storage. The company wants to improve high availability. Which THREE actions should the company take? (Choose three.)
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Migrate the database to Amazon RDS with Multi-AZ deployment.
Option A is correct because Multi-AZ RDS provides database high availability. Option B is correct because Auto Scaling across multiple AZs provides compute high availability. Option C is correct because an ALB distributes traffic across healthy instances. Option D is wrong because a single EBS volume is not highly available. Option E is wrong because storing data only on the instance store is not durable.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✓
Migrate the database to Amazon RDS with Multi-AZ deployment.
Why this is correct
Multi-AZ provides automatic failover for the database.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use an EBS volume with higher IOPS to improve performance.
Why it's wrong here
Performance improvement does not provide high availability.
✗
Store data on the instance store instead of EBS to reduce latency.
Why it's wrong here
Instance store is ephemeral and not highly available.
✓
Place the EC2 instance in an Auto Scaling group that spans multiple Availability Zones.
Why this is correct
Auto Scaling across AZs provides high availability for compute.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Place the EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer.
Why this is correct
ALB distributes traffic and performs health checks.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
→Underline the problem statement mentally.
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which SAP-C02 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions — This question tests Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Migrate the database to Amazon RDS with Multi-AZ deployment. — Option A is correct because Multi-AZ RDS provides database high availability. Option B is correct because Auto Scaling across multiple AZs provides compute high availability. Option C is correct because an ALB distributes traffic across healthy instances. Option D is wrong because a single EBS volume is not highly available. Option E is wrong because storing data only on the instance store is not durable.
What should I do if I get this SAP-C02 question wrong?
Identify which SAP-C02 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company has a legacy monolithic application running on a single EC2 instance. The application stores customer data in an attached EBS volume. The company wants to modernize the application to improve scalability and availability. Which approach should a solutions architect recommend?
hard
A.Use a larger EC2 instance with enhanced networking.
B.Configure multiple EC2 instances to share the same EBS volume using Multi-Attach.
C.Replace the EBS volume with an Aurora RDS database.
✓ D.Refactor the application into microservices running on Amazon ECS with data stored in Amazon S3.
Why D: Option D is correct because migrating to a containerized, stateless application decouples storage and allows scaling. Option A is wrong because a larger instance still has a single point of failure. Option B is wrong because RDS is for databases, not for application data stored in files. Option C is wrong because a Multi-Attach EBS volume has limited support and multiple instances writing to the same volume can cause data corruption.
Variation 2. A company has a legacy application that runs on a single EC2 instance. The application stores data on an attached EBS volume. The company wants to improve availability and reduce the recovery time objective (RTO) in case of instance failure. What should the company do?
hard
✓ A.Create an Auto Scaling group with a minimum of 2 instances across multiple Availability Zones and use a load balancer.
B.Take frequent EBS snapshots and automate the creation of a new instance from the latest snapshot.
C.Configure the EBS volume as a Multi-Attach volume and attach it to a standby instance.
D.Convert the instance to an AMI and launch a new instance from that AMI in a different Availability Zone.
Why A: Option D is correct because AMI-backed instances launch from a stored AMI, and data on instance store is ephemeral; the application should store data on EBS. Option A is wrong because high availability requires multiple instances. Option B is wrong because Multi-Attach is for specific use cases. Option C is wrong because EBS snapshots are for backups, not quick recovery.
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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.
Question Discussion
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