SOA-C02 Reliability and Business Continuity Practice Question
A company wants to back up its on-premises file servers to AWS for disaster recovery. The data changes frequently, and the company needs to minimize data loss. Which THREE steps should the company take? (Select THREE.)
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse S3 Transfer Acceleration or Cross-Region Replication as backup solutions, but they are data transfer or replication features, not backup services that provide point-in-time recovery and lifecycle management for on-premises data.
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
✓
Use AWS Backup to create backup plans for the Storage Gateway.
AWS Backup can create backup plans for Storage Gateway volumes and file shares, providing automated, policy-based backups to Amazon S3. This ensures consistent, scheduled backups of the on-premises data cached in the file gateway, minimizing data loss by capturing frequent changes according to the backup plan's schedule.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use AWS Backup to create backup plans for the Storage Gateway.
Why this is correct
AWS Backup natively integrates with Storage Gateway, allowing you to define backup plans that automatically create point-in-time snapshots of the gateway's data and store them in S3. This gives you a fully managed, policy-driven backup solution with retention and lifecycle rules, so you don't need to run manual backup scripts on the on-premises file servers. The snapshots are durable in S3 and can be restored quickly when needed, making this the correct way to automate backup of the gateway.
- ✗
Use S3 Transfer Acceleration for uploads.
Why it's wrong here
S3 Transfer Acceleration is a feature that speeds up object uploads by routing traffic through AWS edge locations and the private AWS network, but it only optimizes data transfer over the network. It does not capture file changes, create snapshots, schedule backups, or provide recovery points—it's a transport accelerator, not a backup mechanism. To back up on-premises file servers, you need a solution that actually stores and protects the data, and Transfer Acceleration alone cannot do that.
- ✓
Configure the file gateway to cache data locally for frequently accessed files.
Why this is correct
A file gateway maintains an on-premises cache for frequently accessed files, which improves read performance and reduces the latency of accessing hot data from on-premises users. While only a subset of files may be cached locally, the authoritative, complete dataset is continuously uploaded to S3, ensuring the cloud remains the durable backup target. Configuring the local cache is a valid part of a hybrid backup architecture because it keeps the primary file server workload performant while S3 holds the full backup, but the cache itself is not the backup.
- ✗
Set up S3 Cross-Region Replication from the backup bucket.
Why it's wrong here
S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) asynchronously copies objects from one S3 bucket to another bucket in a different AWS Region, giving you geographic redundancy for objects that already exist in S3. It cannot ingest data from on-premises file servers—it only duplicates already-backed-up S3 objects, so it cannot create the initial backup or capture changes from on-premises systems. CRR is an additional data-protection layer for existing backups, not the mechanism for backing up file servers to the cloud.
- ✓
Deploy an AWS Storage Gateway file gateway on-premises.
Why this is correct
Deploying an AWS Storage Gateway file gateway on-premises presents an SMB/NFS share that file servers can mount, and all writes to that share are converted into S3 objects, providing a durable cloud copy of the files. The gateway synchronizes changes to S3 in near-real time, keeping the backup current without manual intervention, and it supports local caching for performance. This deployment is the foundational component that connects the on-premises file environment to AWS, enabling the backup workflow described by the other correct option.
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 |
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Same concept, more angles
2 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 wants to back up its on-premises file server to AWS. The backup must be encrypted in transit and at rest. Which AWS service should the company use to meet these requirements?
easy- ✓ A.AWS Storage Gateway (File Gateway) backed by Amazon S3.
- B.Amazon EBS volumes attached to an EC2 instance acting as a file server.
- C.AWS CloudFormation to replicate the file server configuration.
- D.Amazon S3 with server-side encryption and a custom script to upload files.
Why A: AWS Storage Gateway File Gateway provides a native NFS/SMB interface that allows on-premises file servers to back up data directly to Amazon S3. It encrypts data in transit using TLS (HTTPS) and at rest using S3 server-side encryption (SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS), meeting both requirements without custom scripting or additional infrastructure.
Variation 2. A company is designing a backup strategy for its on-premises file servers to AWS. Which TWO services can be used to back up data to AWS? (Choose TWO.)
medium- ✓ A.AWS Backup
- B.AWS Snowball
- ✓ C.AWS Storage Gateway (File Gateway)
- D.Amazon EFS
- E.S3 Transfer Acceleration
Why A: AWS Backup is correct because it provides a fully managed, policy-based backup service that can centrally automate and manage backups for on-premises file servers via the AWS Backup Gateway (formerly Storage Gateway Virtual Tape Library). It integrates with AWS Storage Gateway to back up on-premises data to S3 and Glacier, supporting file-level recovery without needing custom scripts.
JA
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.