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Question 258 of 1,546

Reliability and Business Continuity →hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

Quick Answer

The answer is to create a cross-Region read replica in another Region and promote it to a standalone DB instance during a disaster. This solution meets the RTO of 2 hours and RPO of 1 hour because cross-Region read replicas use MySQL’s native asynchronous replication to keep the secondary Region nearly current, typically achieving an RPO of seconds to minutes, while promotion takes only minutes, satisfying the RTO. On the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate SOA-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of cost-effective disaster recovery for RDS cross-Region disaster recovery for regional outage, where the common trap is choosing snapshot copy or DMS—both incur higher storage and transfer costs. Remember that read replicas are the cheapest option because they reuse the existing replication stream without extra data transfer fees. Memory tip: “Replica for recovery” means lower cost and faster RPO than snapshots.

SOA-C02 Reliability and Business Continuity Practice Question

This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of reliability and business continuity. Compare every option against the stated constraints before choosing — the best answer satisfies all requirements, not just the most obvious one. 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 runs a critical database workload on an Amazon RDS for MySQL DB instance with Multi-AZ deployment in the us-east-1 region. The SysOps administrator must design a disaster recovery strategy that can recover from a complete regional outage. The Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is 2 hours and the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is 1 hour. Which solution meets these requirements at the lowest cost?

Question 1hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A
Create manual snapshots of the DB instance every hour and copy them to another AWS Region.
Why wrong: Manual snapshots are taken at intervals; copying to another Region adds delay. This approach cannot guarantee an RPO of 1 hour because the snapshot schedule may miss the window, and recovery requires creating a new instance from the snapshot which can take longer than 2 hours.
B
Enable automated backups with a retention period of 35 days and restore to a different Region when needed.
Why wrong: Automated backups are stored only in the same Region. You would need to copy them manually, and the RPO is at least the backup window (usually 24 hours for automated backups), exceeding the 1-hour RPO.
C
Create a cross-Region read replica in another Region and promote it to a standalone DB instance during a disaster.
A cross-Region read replica provides continuous asynchronous replication with low lag (typically seconds). In a disaster, promoting the replica to a primary instance takes only minutes, meeting the RTO and RPO requirements with minimal cost.
D
Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to continuously replicate data to a DB instance in another Region.
Why wrong: DMS can provide continuous replication, but it adds operational complexity and cost compared to a native read replica. It also requires managing the target instance separately. The native read replica is simpler and more cost-effective.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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 a cross-Region read replica in another Region and promote it to a standalone DB instance during a disaster.

Option C is correct because a cross-Region read replica continuously replicates data from the primary RDS MySQL instance to another Region with minimal lag, typically achieving an RPO of seconds to minutes, well within the 1-hour requirement. Promoting the replica to a standalone instance during a disaster can be done in minutes, meeting the 2-hour RTO. This approach is the lowest cost among the viable options as it uses existing replication infrastructure without additional data transfer fees for snapshots or DMS replication instances.

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.

✗
Create manual snapshots of the DB instance every hour and copy them to another AWS Region.
Why it's wrong here
Manual snapshots are taken at intervals; copying to another Region adds delay. This approach cannot guarantee an RPO of 1 hour because the snapshot schedule may miss the window, and recovery requires creating a new instance from the snapshot which can take longer than 2 hours.
✗
Enable automated backups with a retention period of 35 days and restore to a different Region when needed.
Why it's wrong here
Automated backups are stored only in the same Region. You would need to copy them manually, and the RPO is at least the backup window (usually 24 hours for automated backups), exceeding the 1-hour RPO.
✓
Create a cross-Region read replica in another Region and promote it to a standalone DB instance during a disaster.
Why this is correct
A cross-Region read replica provides continuous asynchronous replication with low lag (typically seconds). In a disaster, promoting the replica to a primary instance takes only minutes, meeting the RTO and RPO requirements with minimal cost.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to continuously replicate data to a DB instance in another Region.
Why it's wrong here
DMS can provide continuous replication, but it adds operational complexity and cost compared to a native read replica. It also requires managing the target instance separately. The native read replica is simpler and more cost-effective.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates often choose Option B (automated backups) because they assume backups can be restored cross-Region, but automated backups are Region-specific and do not support cross-Region restore without additional snapshot copy configuration, which is not mentioned in the option.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

Cross-Region read replicas in RDS for MySQL use asynchronous replication based on MySQL's native binlog replication, where the replica continuously applies changes from the primary. The replication lag is typically under a minute in stable networks, but can increase under heavy write loads; monitoring the 'ReplicaLag' CloudWatch metric is critical to ensure RPO compliance. During promotion, the replica is converted to a standalone instance, which stops replication and applies any remaining binlog entries, a process that usually completes within minutes but can take longer if the lag is high.

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.

TExam Day Tips

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 startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.

What to study next

Got this wrong? Here's your next step.

Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this SOA-C02 question test?

Reliability and Business Continuity — This question tests Reliability and Business Continuity — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Create a cross-Region read replica in another Region and promote it to a standalone DB instance during a disaster. — Option C is correct because a cross-Region read replica continuously replicates data from the primary RDS MySQL instance to another Region with minimal lag, typically achieving an RPO of seconds to minutes, well within the 1-hour requirement. Promoting the replica to a standalone instance during a disaster can be done in minutes, meeting the 2-hour RTO. This approach is the lowest cost among the viable options as it uses existing replication infrastructure without additional data transfer fees for snapshots or DMS replication instances.

What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 question wrong?

Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.

What is the key concept behind this question?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

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Same concept, more angles

1 more ways this is tested on SOA-C02

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 an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance with Multi-AZ deployment in us-east-1. The SysOps administrator must design a disaster recovery strategy to recover from a regional outage. The Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is 1 hour and the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is 5 minutes. Which solution meets these requirements at the lowest cost?

hard

✓ A.Create a Read Replica in a different region and promote it during a disaster.
B.Take daily snapshots and copy them to another region.
C.Use cross-region automated backups.
D.Deploy a second Multi-AZ DB instance in another region.

Why A: A cross-region Read Replica meets the RPO of 5 minutes because replication is continuous (asynchronous) with minimal lag, and the RTO of 1 hour is achievable by promoting the replica during a disaster. This is the lowest-cost option because it uses a single standby instance in another region without the overhead of a full Multi-AZ deployment or frequent snapshot transfers.

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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.