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Reliability and Business Continuity →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

SOA-C02 Reliability and Business Continuity Practice Question

This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of reliability and business continuity. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. A key principle to apply: rDS cross-region automated backups meet RPO for database recovery.. 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 web application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group across three Availability Zones in us-east-1. The application stores data in an Amazon RDS for MySQL DB instance with Multi-AZ deployment. The SysOps administrator needs to 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 should the administrator implement?

Question 1mediummultiple choice
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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

✓

Configure cross-region automated backups for the RDS instance with a backup window. Deploy an identical infrastructure stack in a second region using AWS CloudFormation StackSets. Create an Amazon Route53 DNS failover record set with health checks to automatically fail over to the second region.

Option C is correct because it meets both the RTO of 2 hours and RPO of 1 hour. Cross-region automated backups for RDS provide an RPO of 1 hour or less by continuously backing up transaction logs to a secondary region. Deploying an identical infrastructure stack via CloudFormation StackSets ensures rapid provisioning in the secondary region, and Route53 DNS failover with health checks automates traffic redirection within the RTO window.

Key principle: RDS cross-region automated backups meet RPO for database recovery.

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 a read replica of the RDS instance in a second region. Configure an Amazon CloudFront distribution with the ALB as origin. Use Route53 failover routing policy to route traffic to the CloudFront distribution.

    Why it's wrong here

    CloudFront is for content delivery, not DR failover. Promoting a read replica requires manual steps, increasing RTO beyond 2 hours.

  • ✗

    Take daily manual snapshots of the RDS instance and copy them to a second region. Store the AWS CloudFormation template for the infrastructure in an S3 bucket with cross-region replication. In the event of a disaster, manually deploy the stack and restore the snapshot.

    Why it's wrong here

    Manual snapshots and deployments are too slow to meet the 2-hour RTO. Also daily snapshots may not meet the 1-hour RPO.

  • ✓

    Configure cross-region automated backups for the RDS instance with a backup window. Deploy an identical infrastructure stack in a second region using AWS CloudFormation StackSets. Create an Amazon Route53 DNS failover record set with health checks to automatically fail over to the second region.

    Why this is correct

    Cross-region automated backups (with a 1-hour backup window) can meet RPO. StackSets ensure consistent infrastructure deployment. Route53 failover automatically redirects traffic, meeting RTO.

    Related concept

    RDS cross-region automated backups meet RPO for database recovery.

  • ✗

    Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to continuously replicate data to a second region. Use an Application Load Balancer in the primary region and a Network Load Balancer in the secondary region. Create a Route53 weighted routing policy to distribute traffic.

    Why it's wrong here

    Weighted routing does not automatically failover; it distributes traffic based on weights. DMS adds complexity and cost. This solution does not provide automatic failover for a regional outage.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates often confuse a read replica with a Multi-AZ standby, not realizing that a cross-region read replica cannot be promoted to a primary instance for disaster recovery, and that manual snapshots cannot meet a 1-hour RPO.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

Cross-region automated backups for RDS use asynchronous replication of transaction logs to an S3 bucket in the destination region, enabling point-in-time recovery within 5 minutes of the last log write. CloudFormation StackSets allow you to deploy stacks across multiple regions from a single template, ensuring infrastructure consistency. Route53 failover routing with health checks monitors the primary region's endpoints and automatically updates DNS records to point to the secondary region when a health check fails, typically completing failover within 60 seconds.

KKey Concepts to Remember

  • RDS cross-region automated backups meet RPO for database recovery.
  • AWS CloudFormation StackSets deploy consistent infrastructure across regions.
  • Route 53 DNS failover records automatically redirect traffic based on health checks.
  • This strategy aligns with a 'pilot light' or 'warm standby' DR approach.

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

RDS cross-region automated backups meet RPO for database recovery.

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.

Review rDS cross-region automated backups meet RPO for database recovery., then practise related SOA-C02 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.

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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 — RDS cross-region automated backups meet RPO for database recovery..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Configure cross-region automated backups for the RDS instance with a backup window. Deploy an identical infrastructure stack in a second region using AWS CloudFormation StackSets. Create an Amazon Route53 DNS failover record set with health checks to automatically fail over to the second region. — Option C is correct because it meets both the RTO of 2 hours and RPO of 1 hour. Cross-region automated backups for RDS provide an RPO of 1 hour or less by continuously backing up transaction logs to a secondary region. Deploying an identical infrastructure stack via CloudFormation StackSets ensures rapid provisioning in the secondary region, and Route53 DNS failover with health checks automates traffic redirection within the RTO window.

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

Review rDS cross-region automated backups meet RPO for database recovery., then practise related SOA-C02 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.

What is the key concept behind this question?

RDS cross-region automated backups meet RPO for database recovery.

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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026

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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.