SOA-C02 Reliability and Business Continuity Practice Question
A company runs a critical application on an EC2 instance backed by Amazon EBS. To protect against data loss, the company wants to create a backup strategy that allows for point-in-time recovery. Which solution should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse AMIs (which are used for instance-level recovery and launching new instances) with EBS snapshots (which are volume-level backups designed for granular point-in-time recovery), leading them to select Option B instead of D.
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
✓
Create automated EBS snapshots.
Automated EBS snapshots provide point-in-time backups of the EBS volume, enabling granular recovery to a specific moment. Snapshots are stored in Amazon S3 and can be used to restore the volume or create new instances, directly addressing the requirement for point-in-time recovery against data loss.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure an S3 Lifecycle policy to move data to Glacier.
Why it's wrong here
An S3 Lifecycle policy defines rules for transitioning or expiring objects within an S3 bucket, such as moving them to Glacier after a period of time. EBS volume data is block storage, not individual S3 objects, so a lifecycle policy cannot directly target or move an EBS volume's contents. Even if you manually copied the volume's data to S3, the lifecycle would only manage that copy—it would not serve as an automated backup of the EBS volume itself.
- ✗
Create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) of the instance.
Why it's wrong here
An AMI is a registered machine image that packages the instance's launch permissions, root volume snapshots, and block device mappings; it is used to launch new EC2 instances with the same configuration. Creating an AMI captures a point-in-time state, but it is a manual, one-time action rather than a scheduled, ongoing backup mechanism. While an AMI includes snapshots of the attached volumes, relying on it for continuous data protection would require recreating it on every change, which is why automated EBS snapshots are the appropriate backup solution.
- ✗
Use Amazon EFS to store data.
Why it's wrong here
Amazon EFS is a scalable, shared network file system that you mount via NFS, providing persistent file storage across multiple EC2 instances. It does not back up the block-level contents of an existing EBS volume; it is an alternative storage location, not a snapshot or copy of the volume. To use EFS as backup, you would need to copy the application files there, which is not an automated or complete backup of the EBS volume, and it adds complexity without addressing the requirement for ongoing volume backups.
- ✓
Create automated EBS snapshots.
Why this is correct
Automated EBS snapshots use Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) or AWS Backup to take scheduled, point-in-time copies of your EC2 instance's volumes. Each snapshot is incremental—only the blocks that changed since the previous snapshot are stored—and snapshots are stored redundantly in S3 for high durability. By setting a regular schedule, you get an ongoing backup that can be restored to a new volume or used to rebuild the instance, making it the correct choice for protecting a critical application's data.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SOA-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 SOA-C02 exam.