PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
A company runs SAP Business Suite on AWS with an Oracle database. The database is stored on Amazon EBS volumes. The architect wants to implement a backup strategy that meets a recovery point objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a recovery time objective (RTO) of 2 hours. Which solution is the most cost-effective?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers assume a standby database (Data Guard) or continuous replication (DMS) is required for low RPO/RTO, overlooking that EBS snapshots taken every 15 minutes can achieve the same RPO at a fraction of the cost without ongoing compute overhead.
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
✓
Take EBS snapshots of the database volumes every 15 minutes and store them in Amazon S3
The most cost-effective because EBS snapshots are incremental, storing only changed blocks, and can be automated via Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager to meet a 15-minute RPO. Restoring from an EBS snapshot to a new volume typically completes within minutes, easily satisfying the 2-hour RTO, and there are no ongoing compute costs for a standby instance or replication server.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Maintain a standby Oracle database in another Availability Zone using Oracle Data Guard
Why it's wrong here
A standby database requires a second EC2 instance and licensing, which is not cost-effective compared to snapshots.
- ✗
Use Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) to back up to Amazon S3 every 15 minutes
Why it's wrong here
RMAN backups to S3 can be slower to recover from, potentially exceeding the 2-hour RTO.
- ✓
Take EBS snapshots of the database volumes every 15 minutes and store them in Amazon S3
Why this is correct
EBS snapshots are incremental and cost-effective; automation can achieve 15-minute RPO.
- ✗
Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication to a separate EC2 instance
Why it's wrong here
DMS incurs additional costs for the replication instance and target database, and is not the most cost-effective.
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