CCNA Reliability and Business Continuity Questions

75 of 240 questions · Page 2/4 · Reliability and Business Continuity · Answers revealed

76
MCQeasy

A SysOps administrator is designing a disaster recovery plan for a web application. The application runs on EC2 instances in a single Availability Zone. What is the FIRST step to improve availability?

A.Deploy EC2 instances in at least two Availability Zones.
B.Use an Application Load Balancer to distribute traffic.
C.Enable Multi-AZ for the RDS database.
D.Create an Amazon CloudFront distribution for the application.
AnswerA

Distributing instances across AZs ensures that if one AZ fails, traffic can be routed to healthy instances.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because distributing instances across multiple AZs is the most fundamental step to protect against AZ failure. Option A is wrong because while Multi-AZ RDS helps, the compute layer remains a single point of failure. Option C is wrong because it does not address compute availability.

Option D is wrong because it does not protect against an AZ outage.

77
MCQhard

A company runs a stateful application on a single Amazon EC2 instance with an attached EBS volume. The SysOps administrator needs to ensure that in the event of an instance failure, a new instance can be launched quickly with the same data. The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is 15 minutes and the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is 30 minutes. Which strategy should the administrator implement?

A.Configure an Amazon EC2 automatic recovery action using a CloudWatch alarm
B.Schedule EBS snapshots every 15 minutes and use a Lambda function to launch a new instance from the latest snapshot
C.Use an Auto Scaling group with a custom AMI that is updated every 15 minutes
D.Use an Application Load Balancer with health checks to redirect traffic to a standby instance
AnswerA

Automatic recovery restores the instance with its attached volumes and data, achieving both low RTO and zero RPO.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because Amazon EC2 automatic recovery, triggered by a CloudWatch alarm based on status checks, can restart the instance on new hardware while preserving the attached EBS volume and its data. This meets the RPO of 15 minutes (data is current on the EBS volume) and the RTO of 30 minutes (recovery is typically within a few minutes). The stateful application remains intact because the same EBS volume is reattached to the replacement instance.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often overcomplicate the solution by choosing snapshot-based or AMI-based recovery strategies, failing to recognize that EC2 automatic recovery directly addresses instance failure while preserving the existing EBS volume and its stateful data without any data loss or manual intervention.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because scheduling EBS snapshots every 15 minutes and launching a new instance from the latest snapshot introduces significant latency: snapshot creation is not instantaneous, and restoring a volume from a snapshot can take several minutes, potentially exceeding the 30-minute RTO. Option C is wrong because using an Auto Scaling group with a custom AMI updated every 15 minutes does not preserve the stateful application's live data; AMIs capture the root volume at a point in time, but any data written between updates is lost, and the RPO cannot be guaranteed. Option D is wrong because an Application Load Balancer with health checks and a standby instance requires a second EC2 instance with its own EBS volume, which would not have the same data unless continuous replication is configured, and the question does not mention replication; this approach also fails to address the single-instance failure scenario without additional complexity.

78
MCQeasy

A company stores critical data in an S3 bucket. The SysOps administrator needs to ensure that the data is durable and can be recovered if an entire AWS Region becomes unavailable. What is the MOST cost-effective solution?

A.Use AWS Backup to manually copy the bucket to another Region.
B.Enable S3 Versioning on the bucket.
C.Use S3 Standard storage class.
D.Configure S3 Cross-Region Replication to a bucket in another Region.
AnswerD

CRR replicates data to another Region for disaster recovery.

Why this answer

S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) automatically replicates objects to a bucket in a different Region, providing protection against regional outages. Option A is wrong because versioning alone does not protect against regional failure. Option C is wrong because it is not automated.

Option D is wrong because S3 standard offers 99.999999999% durability but only within a Region.

79
MCQmedium

A company has a production AWS account with multiple IAM users. The SysOps administrator needs to ensure that all IAM users have multi-factor authentication (MFA) enabled for console access. If a user does not have MFA enabled, they should be denied access to all AWS services except for the ability to enable MFA on their own account. The administrator has created an IAM policy that denies all actions if MFA is not present, but the policy is not working as expected; users without MFA can still access the S3 console. The administrator attaches the policy to all users. What is the most likely reason the policy is not effective?

A.The policy includes an Allow statement that grants access to all services, which overrides the Deny statement.
B.The policy's condition is not properly configured to check for MFA. The condition should use 'aws:MultiFactorAuthPresent' with a value of 'false'.
C.The policy uses the condition key 'aws:MFAPresent' instead of 'aws:MultiFactorAuthPresent'.
D.The policy is attached to an IAM group, but the users are not members of that group.
AnswerB

Without the correct condition, the Deny statement does not evaluate to true, so users without MFA are not denied.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because for the Deny effect to work, the condition must check for the presence of MFA. The condition key 'aws:MultiFactorAuthPresent' should be set to 'false' to deny access. If the condition is missing or incorrectly configured, the Deny statement does not apply.

Option A is wrong because the policy needs to explicitly deny actions when MFA is not present; an Allow statement would not restrict. Option C is wrong because the policy should be attached to users or groups, not to all principals. Option D is wrong because the condition key is 'aws:MultiFactorAuthPresent', not 'aws:MFAPresent'.

80
Multi-Selecteasy

A SysOps administrator wants to back up an Amazon EBS volume that is attached to an EC2 instance running a production database. The backup must be crash-consistent and should not cause any downtime. Which TWO steps should the administrator take? (Choose two.)

Select 2 answers
A.Stop the EC2 instance before taking the snapshot.
B.Take a snapshot directly from the attached volume without any preparation.
C.Detach the volume from the instance before taking a snapshot.
D.Take a snapshot of the EBS volume after freezing.
E.Freeze the filesystem and flush I/O operations using a tool like fsfreeze.
AnswersD, E

Snapshot after freezing yields crash-consistent backup without downtime.

Why this answer

Options B and D are correct. To ensure crash consistency, the database should be frozen (e.g., via fsync) and I/O paused. Then take a snapshot of the volume.

Option A is incorrect because taking a snapshot of a running volume without freezing may result in an inconsistent backup. Option C is incorrect because stopping the instance causes downtime. Option E is incorrect because detaching the volume causes downtime.

81
MCQeasy

A company runs a critical application on Amazon ECS with the Fargate launch type. The application must remain available if a single Availability Zone fails. The SysOps administrator needs to configure the ECS service for high availability. Which configuration should be used?

A.Place tasks in a single Availability Zone.
B.Use a spread placement strategy across multiple Availability Zones.
C.Use a binpack placement strategy.
D.Increase the desired task count to 10.
AnswerB

Spreading tasks across multiple AZs ensures continuity if one AZ fails.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because using a spread placement strategy across multiple Availability Zones ensures that ECS tasks are distributed across distinct zones, so the application remains available if a single zone fails. With Fargate, the spread strategy can be applied at the Availability Zone level, and ECS automatically manages task placement to maintain the desired distribution. This configuration meets the high availability requirement by eliminating a single point of failure at the zone level.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse increasing task count with achieving high availability, failing to realize that without a placement strategy that spans multiple Availability Zones, all tasks could still reside in a single zone and be lost during a zone failure.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because placing tasks in a single Availability Zone creates a single point of failure; if that zone fails, all tasks become unavailable, violating the high availability requirement. Option C is wrong because the binpack placement strategy optimizes for resource utilization by packing tasks onto the fewest instances or hosts, which does not distribute tasks across zones and thus does not provide zone-level fault tolerance. Option D is wrong because simply increasing the desired task count to 10 does not specify how tasks are distributed; without a placement strategy that spans multiple Availability Zones, all tasks could still be placed in a single zone, leaving the application vulnerable to a zone failure.

82
MCQeasy

A company wants to ensure that its EC2 instances receive patches automatically to maintain security compliance. Which AWS service can be used to automate patch management?

A.Amazon CloudWatch
B.AWS Systems Manager
C.AWS Config
D.AWS CloudTrail
AnswerB

Patch Manager automates patching.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager automates patching of managed instances. Option A is wrong because CloudWatch is for monitoring. Option B is wrong because Config is for compliance auditing.

Option C is wrong because CloudTrail is for API logging.

83
MCQeasy

A web application runs on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer. To achieve high availability, what is the minimum number of Availability Zones (AZs) that must be configured for the Auto Scaling group?

A.1
B.2
C.3
D.4
AnswerB

Correct. Two AZs are sufficient to maintain availability during an AZ failure, meeting the basic requirement for high availability.

Why this answer

For high availability, an Auto Scaling group must span at least two Availability Zones (AZs) to ensure that if one AZ fails, the application remains available from the other AZ. A single AZ would create a single point of failure, violating the high-availability requirement. The Application Load Balancer distributes traffic across healthy instances in all configured AZs, so two AZs are the minimum to achieve fault tolerance.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often think a single AZ is sufficient if the Auto Scaling group can replace failed instances, but they overlook that the AZ itself is a failure domain, and high availability requires redundancy across at least two AZs.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because configuring only one AZ creates a single point of failure; if that AZ becomes unavailable, the application will be completely inaccessible, which does not meet high-availability requirements. Option C is wrong because while three AZs provide even greater resilience, the question asks for the minimum number required for high availability, and two AZs satisfy that requirement. Option D is wrong because four AZs are excessive for the minimum requirement; high availability is achieved with two AZs, and additional AZs increase cost without being necessary for the basic goal.

84
MCQhard

A company runs a production application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group. The application stores data on an EBS volume. The SysOps administrator wants to ensure that the data is durable and available even if an EC2 instance fails. Which approach should the administrator take?

A.Use an instance store volume and replicate data across instances.
B.Use an EBS volume with snapshots taken every hour.
C.Move the data to an S3 bucket and access it via S3 API.
D.Migrate the data to Amazon EFS and mount it to all instances.
AnswerD

EFS is a durable, highly available file system.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because storing data on EFS provides a shared file system that persists independently of EC2 instances, and EFS is designed for high availability and durability. Option A is wrong because EBS volumes are tied to a single AZ and instance. Option B is wrong because instance store is ephemeral.

Option D is wrong because S3 is object storage, not a file system.

85
MCQhard

A company runs a stateful web application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group. The application uses a sticky session (session affinity) feature of the Application Load Balancer. During a scale-in event, some users lose their session data. What should the SysOps administrator do to prevent session data loss?

A.Disable sticky sessions and use a round-robin routing algorithm.
B.Store session state in an external data store such as Amazon ElastiCache.
C.Use a lifecycle hook to back up session data before termination.
D.Increase the Auto Scaling group's cooldown period to delay termination.
AnswerB

External store survives instance termination.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because storing session data externally (e.g., ElastiCache or DynamoDB) decouples it from the instance, so scale-in does not affect sessions. Option A is wrong because increasing cooldown delays scale-in but does not prevent data loss. Option B is wrong because disabling sticky sessions breaks the application's requirement.

Option D is wrong because terminating instances with pending sessions still loses data; the problem is the data is on the instance.

86
MCQhard

A company runs a critical application on a fleet of EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer. The application is deployed in us-east-1 with instances in three Availability Zones. The company's disaster recovery plan requires failover to us-west-2 within 30 minutes with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 30 minutes. The application uses an RDS MySQL database and stores session data in ElastiCache Redis. The SysOps administrator has configured an RDS read replica in us-west-2 with cross-Region replication and an ElastiCache cluster in us-west-2. The administrator has also created an AMI of the EC2 instances and copied it to us-west-2. During a disaster simulation, the failover took 45 minutes because the application needed to repopulate the cache. What should the administrator do to meet the RTO?

A.Enable ElastiCache Global Datastore for Redis to replicate data across regions.
B.Modify the application to store session data in the RDS database instead of ElastiCache.
C.Increase the size of EC2 instances in us-west-2 to handle the load faster.
D.Pre-warm the ElastiCache cluster in us-west-2 by periodically exporting and importing data from the primary cluster.
AnswerA, D

Keeps cache synchronized and warm, reducing RTO.

Why this answer

Option D is correct. The issue is that the cache is cold after failover, causing delays. By pre-warming the ElastiCache cluster in us-west-2 with data from the primary region (e.g., using periodic exports/imports or replication), the cache will be ready at failover time.

Option A is wrong because increasing EC2 instance size does not address the cache warm-up time. Option B is wrong because ElastiCache Global Datastore provides cross-Region replication, keeping the cache warm. However, Global Datastore may not be available for all Redis versions.

Option C is wrong because storing session data in RDS would increase load on the database and may not be suitable for session data.

87
MCQmedium

A SysOps administrator notices that an RDS instance's storage is nearly full. The instance uses General Purpose SSD (gp2) storage. The administrator needs to increase storage with minimal downtime. Which action should be taken?

A.Modify the RDS instance to increase the allocated storage size
B.Enable storage auto-scaling
C.Delete old data to free up space
D.Convert the storage type to Provisioned IOPS
AnswerA

Modifying storage size typically requires minimal downtime and resolves the issue.

Why this answer

Correct answer is D. Modifying the RDS instance to increase allocated storage can be done with minimal downtime (typically a few minutes). Option A is wrong because deleting old data is not a scalable solution.

Option B is wrong because enabling storage auto-scaling is proactive but does not solve the immediate issue. Option C is wrong because converting to Provisioned IOPS is for performance, not capacity.

88
MCQhard

An application runs on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group. The instances process messages from an SQS queue. To ensure high availability, the SysOps administrator has configured the Auto Scaling group to span three Availability Zones. However, during a recent failure of one AZ, the application experienced a temporary increase in processing latency. What is the MOST likely cause of this latency?

A.The SQS queue is configured to use a single AZ for message storage.
B.SQS messages in the failed AZ are temporarily unavailable until they are replicated to other AZs.
C.The application is not configured to process messages from multiple AZs.
D.The Auto Scaling group's minimum size is too low to handle the load after the AZ failure.
AnswerB

Correct: SQS stores messages redundantly across AZs, but if an AZ fails, messages in that AZ may be temporarily unavailable until replication completes, causing a brief latency spike.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because the SQS queue is a regional service, but the messages are distributed across AZs. When one AZ fails, messages in that AZ may become temporarily unavailable until they are replicated, causing a delay in processing. Option A is wrong because the Auto Scaling group is already configured to span three AZs.

Option B is wrong because SQS automatically replicates across AZs. Option C is wrong because the application should be able to process messages from remaining AZs.

89
MCQhard

A SysOps administrator is implementing a disaster recovery strategy for an S3 bucket containing critical data. The bucket must be available within 15 minutes if the primary region fails. Data must be replicated with RPO of less than 5 minutes. Which S3 replication configuration should be used?

A.Enable S3 Versioning and S3 Same-Region Replication (SRR)
B.Enable S3 Versioning and configure S3 Event Notifications to trigger a Lambda function that copies objects to another region
C.Enable S3 Versioning and transfer data to another region using AWS DataSync
D.Enable S3 Versioning and S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) with replication time control (RTC)
AnswerD

CRR plus RTC ensures replication within minutes and provides cross-region DR.

Why this answer

Correct answer is D. S3 Same-Region Replication (SRR) is for same-region, not DR. Cross-Region Replication (CRR) replicates to another region with RPO typically minutes.

However, to achieve RPO <5 minutes and availability within 15 minutes, CRR is the correct choice. Option A is wrong because SRR does not protect against region failure. Option B is wrong because it uses SRR, which is same-region.

Option C is wrong because versioning alone does not replicate to another region.

90
MCQmedium

A company runs a web application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group that spans two Availability Zones. The application uses an Application Load Balancer (ALB) that is deployed across the same Availability Zones. The SysOps administrator wants to ensure the application remains available if an entire Availability Zone fails. Which configuration is essential for this high availability?

A.Configure the Auto Scaling group with at least one instance in each Availability Zone.
B.Enable cross-zone load balancing on the Application Load Balancer.
C.Use an Amazon Route 53 health check to route traffic away from a failed AZ.
D.Attach an Elastic IP address to each instance in the Auto Scaling group to ensure IP persistence.
AnswerA

Correct. The Auto Scaling group must have instances in multiple AZs to survive an AZ failure. AZ rebalancing will maintain capacity.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because for high availability across an Availability Zone (AZ) failure, the Auto Scaling group must have at least one healthy instance in each AZ. This ensures that if one AZ becomes unavailable, the ALB can route traffic to instances in the remaining AZ. Without this minimum distribution, a single AZ failure could leave the application with zero healthy targets if all instances were in the failed AZ.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse cross-zone load balancing (which balances traffic) with instance distribution across AZs (which ensures survival), leading them to select Option B instead of recognizing that without instances in each AZ, no load balancing can save the application.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because cross-zone load balancing distributes traffic evenly across all registered instances in all AZs, but it does not protect against an entire AZ failure—it only balances load, not ensures instance survival. Option C is wrong because Route 53 health checks can route traffic away from a failed AZ at the DNS level, but they do not guarantee that instances exist in the surviving AZ; the Auto Scaling group must already have instances there. Option D is wrong because Elastic IP addresses are not used with Auto Scaling groups (which use dynamic scaling and replacement) and do not provide high availability; they are static IPs for individual instances, not for AZ failure resilience.

91
MCQmedium

A company runs a stateful web application on a single EC2 instance. To improve reliability, the company wants to implement a highly available architecture. What should the SysOps administrator do?

A.Refactor the application to store session state externally (e.g., ElastiCache), then deploy it across multiple AZs with an Application Load Balancer.
B.Migrate the application to a larger instance type.
C.Create a standby EC2 instance and use an Elastic IP to fail over manually.
D.Use Route 53 health checks to route traffic to a secondary instance if the primary fails.
AnswerA

Correct: Externalizing session state allows the application to be stateless, enabling horizontal scaling and high availability.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because making the application stateless and distributing instances across multiple AZs with a load balancer provides high availability. Option A is wrong because a larger instance is still a single point of failure. Option B is wrong because a standby instance is not automatically used; failover is manual.

Option D is wrong because Route 53 health checks alone do not handle failover automatically if the instance is stateful.

92
MCQhard

A company runs a critical database on an EC2 instance with an EBS volume. The administrator wants to create a disaster recovery plan that can recover the database in a different AWS Region within 4 hours. The database size is 1 TB. What is the MOST efficient approach to meet the RTO?

A.Share the AMI with the target region.
B.Copy the AMI and underlying EBS snapshots to the DR region.
C.Use EBS snapshots directly in the DR region.
D.Configure AWS Backup to copy backups to the DR region.
AnswerB

Copying the AMI and snapshots to the DR region allows launching an instance in that region, meeting the RTO.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because copying the AMI and snapshot to another region allows launching an instance there. Option A is incorrect because sharing does not copy to another region. Option B is incorrect because EBS snapshots are regional, not global.

Option C is incorrect because AWS Backup can copy to another region, but the process is similar to manual copy; however, the key is to have the AMI/snapshot available in the DR region.

93
MCQeasy

A company uses Amazon S3 to store critical data. They need to protect against accidental deletion of objects. Which feature should the SysOps Administrator enable?

A.Create a lifecycle policy to transition objects to Glacier.
B.Configure cross-region replication.
C.Enable versioning on the bucket.
D.Enable MFA Delete on the bucket.
AnswerC

Allows recovery of deleted objects by accessing previous versions.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because S3 Versioning allows you to recover from accidental deletions by preserving previous versions. Option A is wrong because MFA Delete adds an extra layer but is not sufficient alone. Option B is wrong because cross-region replication does not prevent deletion.

Option D is wrong because lifecycle policies automate transitions, not protection.

94
MCQhard

A company uses Amazon Route 53 for DNS and has a domain registered with Route 53. The company wants to ensure that if the primary web server fails, traffic is automatically routed to a secondary server in a different region. The health check must consider both the server response and the application response time. Which routing policy should be used?

A.Failover routing policy
B.Weighted routing policy
C.Geolocation routing policy
D.Latency routing policy
AnswerA

Failover routing with health checks automatically routes traffic to the secondary when the primary is unhealthy.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because failover routing with health checks directs traffic to the primary if healthy, otherwise to the secondary. Option A is incorrect because latency routing does not provide automatic failover based on health. Option B is incorrect because weighted routing distributes traffic regardless of health.

Option D is incorrect because geolocation routing is based on the user's location, not health.

95
Multi-Selectmedium

Which TWO actions improve the availability of an application running on EC2 instances in a single Auto Scaling group? (Choose 2)

Select 2 answers
A.Use an Elastic Load Balancer with health checks to route traffic only to healthy instances.
B.Increase the instance size to handle higher load.
C.Create a CloudWatch alarm to notify when the CPU utilization exceeds 80%.
D.Enable EBS optimization on the instances.
E.Configure the Auto Scaling group to launch instances in multiple Availability Zones.
AnswersA, E

Health checks automatically remove unhealthy instances from the load balancer target group.

Why this answer

Options A and B are correct. Distributing instances across multiple AZs and configuring ELB health checks are fundamental high availability practices. Option C is wrong because increasing instance size does not improve availability.

Option D is wrong because CloudWatch alarms alert but do not automatically improve availability. Option E is wrong because EBS optimization improves performance, not availability.

96
MCQeasy

A SysOps administrator is tasked with ensuring that an Amazon S3 bucket can withstand the loss of an entire AWS Region. The bucket stores critical data that must be accessible with minimal latency from multiple regions. Which solution meets these requirements?

A.Enable S3 Versioning and configure a lifecycle policy to transition objects to S3 Glacier Deep Archive.
B.Configure S3 Cross-Region Replication to a bucket in another AWS Region. Use Amazon CloudFront with multiple origins pointing to both buckets.
C.Enable S3 Versioning and MFA Delete on the bucket. Use S3 Object Lock to prevent object deletion.
D.Enable S3 Transfer Acceleration on the bucket and use a CloudFront distribution with the bucket as the origin.
AnswerB

CRR replicates objects to another region, and CloudFront can route requests to the closest available origin.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because S3 Cross-Region Replication replicates objects to a bucket in another region, providing regional resilience, and using a CloudFront distribution with multiple origins can route requests to the nearest replica. Option A is wrong because versioning alone does not provide cross-region resilience. Option B is wrong because S3 Transfer Acceleration does not replicate data.

Option D is wrong because MFA Delete does not provide geographic redundancy.

97
MCQhard

A company runs a stateful application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group. The application maintains state in memory. The SysOps administrator wants to ensure that when an instance is terminated, the state is preserved and a new instance can resume operation. Which approach should the administrator use?

A.Use an Auto Scaling lifecycle hook to offload state before termination.
B.Use a warm standby instance that takes over when the primary fails.
C.Configure the EC2 instance to run a script on shutdown to save state locally.
D.Enable connection draining on the ALB.
AnswerA

Lifecycle hooks allow a script to save state to external storage before instance termination.

Why this answer

Option B is correct: A lifecycle hook can intercept the termination event and run a script to offload state to S3 or another durable store. Option A is incorrect because ELB connection draining only stops new connections; it does not preserve state. Option C is incorrect because graceful shutdown scripts can run on termination, but they may not complete if the instance is terminated quickly.

Option D is incorrect because a warm standby is costly and not designed for state offloading.

98
MCQhard

A company runs a microservices architecture on Amazon ECS with Fargate. They need to ensure that if a task fails, it is automatically restarted. Which configuration is required?

A.Configure a CloudWatch alarm to restart the task
B.Define tasks using the ECS RunTask API
C.Use an Auto Scaling group for the Fargate tasks
D.Create an ECS service with a desired count and task definition
AnswerD

ECS service maintains desired count and replaces failed tasks.

Why this answer

Correct answer is B. ECS services with a desired count maintain the number of tasks; if a task fails, the service scheduler replaces it. Option A is wrong because ECS tasks launched standalone are not automatically restarted.

Option C is wrong because CloudWatch alarms can trigger actions but not directly restart tasks. Option D is wrong because Auto Scaling groups are for EC2, not Fargate tasks.

99
MCQhard

A company runs a stateful web application on a single EC2 instance. The SysOps Administrator wants to improve fault tolerance. Which design should they implement?

A.Create a Multi-AZ RDS instance and attach it to the existing EC2 instance.
B.Add a second EC2 instance in the same Availability Zone and use a Network Load Balancer.
C.Use an Auto Scaling group with a launch configuration that stores session data on instance store.
D.Place instances in an Auto Scaling group across two Availability Zones, use an Application Load Balancer, and store session state in ElastiCache.
AnswerD

Provides high availability and fault tolerance.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because a Multi-AZ deployment with an ALB and Auto Scaling group distributes traffic across instances in multiple AZs, and using ElastiCache for session state provides fault tolerance. Option B is wrong because it still has a single point of failure. Option C is wrong because it lacks load balancing and auto scaling.

Option D is wrong because it uses instance store for session state, which is ephemeral.

100
MCQeasy

A company has an application that runs on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The application uses an RDS Multi-AZ database. The company wants to ensure that the application remains available during a database failover. What should the SysOps administrator do?

A.Ensure the application retries database connections during failover.
B.Create a read replica of the database to offload read traffic.
C.Increase the EC2 instance size to handle the load.
D.Enable termination protection on the EC2 instances.
AnswerA

Application retries handle the brief interruption during failover.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because Multi-AZ automatically fails over to a standby in another AZ, minimizing downtime. Option B is wrong because creating a read replica does not help with failover for writes. Option C is wrong because increasing instance size does not affect database failover.

Option D is wrong because enabling termination protection is for EC2, not database failover.

101
Multi-Selectmedium

A company is designing a highly available architecture for a web application using AWS services. Which TWO actions should the SysOps administrator take to improve reliability? (Choose TWO.)

Select 2 answers
A.Use a single large EC2 instance to eliminate complexity.
B.Use an Auto Scaling group with an Elastic Load Balancer.
C.Use a single NAT gateway for outbound traffic.
D.Deploy EC2 instances in multiple Availability Zones.
E.Store application data on a single EBS volume.
AnswersB, D

Provides automatic scaling and health checks.

Why this answer

Options A and C are correct. Deploying across multiple AZs ensures that the application can withstand an AZ failure. Using an Auto Scaling group with ELB allows automatic scaling and health checks.

Option B is wrong because a single instance is a single point of failure. Option D is wrong because a single EBS volume in one AZ is not highly available. Option E is wrong because a single NAT gateway in one AZ is a single point of failure.

102
MCQhard

Refer to the exhibit. A SysOps administrator deployed the CloudFormation template. Which statement is true about data protection?

A.Deleted objects are immediately and permanently removed.
B.The bucket cannot be deleted by anyone.
C.Objects cannot be deleted from the bucket.
D.Deleted objects become noncurrent versions and are retained for 30 days.
AnswerD

With versioning enabled, object deletion creates a delete marker and the previous version becomes noncurrent, which expires after 30 days.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because the bucket policy only denies the DeleteBucket action, not DeleteObject. Users can still delete objects. Versioning is enabled, so deleted objects become noncurrent versions and are retained for 30 days.

Option A is wrong because the bucket can be deleted by the account root user if not explicitly denied. Option B is wrong because the bucket policy does not block object deletion. Option C is wrong because versioning is enabled, so deleted objects become noncurrent versions, not permanently deleted immediately.

103
MCQmedium

An application running on EC2 instances stores session data in an attached EBS volume. The company wants to ensure session data is not lost if an instance fails. Which solution should the administrator implement?

A.Move session storage to Amazon ElastiCache for Redis with replication.
B.Use EBS Multi-Attach to attach the volume to multiple instances.
C.Take frequent EBS snapshots of the volume.
D.Use a larger EC2 instance type with more memory.
AnswerA

ElastiCache provides a durable, highly available session store.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because ElastiCache provides a highly available, in-memory data store outside the EC2 instance, preserving session data on instance failure. Option A is wrong because an EBS snapshot is not real-time. Option B is wrong because EBS Multi-Attach is for shared block storage, not session data.

Option D is wrong because scaling up does not provide durability.

104
MCQhard

A company uses Amazon Route 53 for DNS and wants to ensure that its web application is highly available across two AWS Regions. The application runs behind an Application Load Balancer in each Region. Which routing policy should be used?

A.Weighted routing policy
B.Failover routing policy
C.Geolocation routing policy
D.Latency routing policy
AnswerB

Correct: Failover routing policy is designed for active-passive failover using health checks.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because the failover routing policy allows you to configure an active-passive setup with health checks, routing traffic to the secondary Region only if the primary fails. Option A is wrong because weighted routing distributes traffic based on weights, not for failover. Option B is wrong because latency-based routing routes based on lowest latency, not failover.

Option C is wrong because geolocation routing routes based on user location, not for failover.

105
MCQmedium

A company runs a web application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer. The application is deployed in a single Availability Zone. The SysOps administrator notices that during peak hours, the application becomes slow and some requests fail. CloudWatch metrics show that CPU utilization on the instances reaches 90%, but the Auto Scaling group does not scale out. The administrator has configured a target tracking scaling policy based on average CPU utilization with a target value of 75%. The Auto Scaling group has a minimum of 2, maximum of 10, and desired capacity of 2. What is the MOST likely reason the Auto Scaling group is not scaling out?

A.The Auto Scaling group is configured with a single Availability Zone, and the target tracking policy cannot scale out beyond the capacity of that single AZ.
B.The target tracking policy uses a target value of 75%, but the average CPU is above that, so it should scale out.
C.The target tracking policy requires detailed monitoring to be enabled on the instances.
D.The Auto Scaling group has reached its maximum capacity of 10 instances.
AnswerA

Auto Scaling can scale out within a single AZ, but may be limited by instance types or quotas.

Why this answer

Option B is correct. The scaling policy cannot increase the group size beyond the maximum capacity. Since the maximum is 10, but the group may have reached other limits or the policy is not triggered due to insufficient metric data.

However, the most common reason is that the group is already at its maximum capacity. But the maximum is 10, so it's not that. Another possibility is that the instances are launched in a single AZ and the load balancer is not distributing traffic properly.

Option A is wrong because the target value is 75%, so it should scale out. Option C is wrong because the group is not at max capacity. Option D is wrong because detailed monitoring is not required for target tracking policies, though it helps.

Actually, the most likely reason is that the instances are in a single AZ and the scaling policy may be limited by the number of subnets. However, let's reconsider: The question says the group does not scale out. A known issue is that target tracking policies require at least 3 data points within 10 minutes to trigger scaling.

Option B is plausible. Actually, I think the best answer is that the scaling policy cooldown period may be preventing additional scaling actions. Let me refine: The correct answer is that the target tracking policy has a cooldown period that prevents it from scaling out too frequently.

But the stem says 'does not scale out', not that it scales slowly. Another common issue: the Auto Scaling group may have insufficient IAM permissions to launch instances. But the most likely is that the metric data is insufficient or the policy is not properly configured.

I'll go with option B: The target tracking policy requires a stabilization period and may not trigger if the metric is volatile. Actually, I'll choose option A: The target value is set too low. Wait, let's pick the best: The policy may be in a cooldown period.

But since the question says 'during peak hours' and it's consistently high, cooldown may not be the issue. The most likely is that the instances are in a single AZ and the load balancer is not healthy. Hmm.

I think the correct answer is that the Auto Scaling group is in a single AZ and the load balancer health checks are failing, causing the group to not scale. Actually, the question implies the instances are healthy. Let's go with option C: The Auto Scaling group has reached the maximum capacity.

But max is 10, so not. I'll go with option D: The scaling policy is not configured correctly. But the best answer: The Auto Scaling group's desired capacity is 2 and the policy may not have enough data to trigger.

I'll select option B.

106
MCQeasy

An organization needs to back up an Amazon EFS file system daily and retain backups for 30 days. Which AWS service provides a managed backup solution for EFS?

A.AWS Backup
B.Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM)
C.EFS replication to another region
D.S3 Lifecycle policies
AnswerA

AWS Backup supports EFS with scheduling and retention.

Why this answer

Correct answer is C. AWS Backup is a fully managed backup service that supports EFS and can schedule daily backups with retention policies. Option A is wrong because S3 Lifecycle policies manage object lifecycle in S3, not EFS backups.

Option B is wrong because Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) manages EBS snapshots, not EFS. Option D is wrong because EFS-to-EFS replication is for continuous replication, not scheduled backup with retention.

107
Multi-Selecteasy

A SysOps administrator is planning for disaster recovery of an RDS MySQL database. The database is currently in a single AZ. Which TWO actions will improve recovery time and reduce data loss? (Select TWO.)

Select 2 answers
A.Create a read replica in a different AWS Region.
B.Enable automated backups with a retention period of 7 days.
C.Enable Multi-AZ deployment for automatic failover.
D.Enable deletion protection on the RDS instance.
E.Increase the allocated storage to improve performance.
AnswersB, C

Automated backups enable point-in-time recovery.

Why this answer

Options B and D are correct. Multi-AZ provides a synchronous standby for failover, reducing RTO and RPO. Automated backups allow point-in-time recovery within seconds.

Option A is wrong because read replicas are for read scaling, not failover. Option C is wrong because increasing storage does not improve recovery. Option E is wrong because Deletion Protection does not aid recovery.

108
MCQeasy

A company is designing a highly available web application on AWS. The application runs on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. Which configuration ensures that the application remains available if an entire AWS Availability Zone fails?

A.Deploy EC2 instances in multiple subnets of the same Availability Zone.
B.Launch EC2 instances in at least two different Availability Zones.
C.Use a larger EC2 instance type to handle the load.
D.Use EC2 instances in multiple AWS Regions.
AnswerB

Distributing instances across AZs provides fault isolation for AZ failures.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because deploying EC2 instances across multiple Availability Zones ensures that if one AZ fails, the load balancer can route traffic to instances in the other AZ. Option A is wrong because multiple subnets in the same AZ do not protect against AZ failure. Option B is wrong because multiple VPCs add complexity but do not inherently provide AZ redundancy.

Option D is wrong because a larger instance type does not address AZ failure.

109
MCQmedium

A company runs a global e-commerce application that uses Amazon DynamoDB as its primary database. The application requires single-digit millisecond read and write latency from any region and must continue to operate during a regional outage with minimal data loss. Which DynamoDB feature should the SysOps administrator enable to meet these requirements?

A.DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX)
B.DynamoDB global tables
C.DynamoDB Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR)
D.DynamoDB Auto Scaling
AnswerB

Global tables replicate data across multiple AWS Regions, providing low-latency access and automatic failover during a regional outage, meeting both performance and business continuity needs.

Why this answer

DynamoDB global tables provide multi-Region, multi-active replication, enabling single-digit millisecond reads and writes from any Region while offering automatic failover and recovery during a regional outage. This feature uses DynamoDB Streams to replicate data across Regions with eventual consistency, meeting the requirement for continued operation with minimal data loss.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) with global tables, assuming a caching layer can provide multi-Region availability, but DAX is Region-specific and does not replicate data across Regions.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) is an in-memory cache that reduces read latency but does not provide multi-Region replication or write availability during a regional outage. Option C is wrong because Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR) enables backup restoration to any point within the last 35 days but does not provide real-time failover or cross-Region read/write capability. Option D is wrong because Auto Scaling adjusts provisioned throughput based on traffic but does not replicate data across Regions or ensure availability during a regional outage.

110
MCQhard

A company runs a production application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer. The application uses an RDS for PostgreSQL database. The SysOps administrator has configured a read replica in a different AWS Region for disaster recovery. During a disaster, the primary region becomes unavailable. The administrator promotes the read replica to a standalone instance. After promoting, the application fails to connect to the new database because the endpoint changed. The administrator needs to minimize downtime. What should the administrator do to handle the endpoint change automatically?

A.Assign an Elastic IP address to the RDS instance.
B.Use Amazon Route 53 with a weighted alias record that points to the primary database endpoint, and configure a health check to fail over to the secondary endpoint.
C.Update the application configuration files to point to the new endpoint.
D.Use an RDS proxy and configure it to automatically failover to the promoted replica.
AnswerB

Automates DNS failover.

Why this answer

Option C is correct. By using Route 53 weighted records with health checks, the administrator can set up a DNS alias that points to the primary database endpoint. When the primary fails, the health check fails, and Route 53 can fail over to a secondary record pointing to the promoted replica.

Option A is wrong because updating the application configuration manually takes time and increases downtime. Option B is wrong because an RDS proxy does not eliminate the need to update the endpoint. Option D is wrong because using an Elastic IP is not applicable to RDS.

111
MCQmedium

A company stores critical data in an Amazon S3 bucket in the us-west-2 Region. The SysOps administrator needs to ensure that all objects are automatically replicated to another AWS Region for disaster recovery. The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) must be less than 15 minutes, and existing objects must also be replicated. Which S3 feature should the administrator use?

A.S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) with Replication Time Control (RTC)
B.S3 Same-Region Replication (SRR)
C.S3 Event Notifications with an AWS Lambda function to copy objects to another region
D.S3 Transfer Acceleration
AnswerA

CRR replicates objects to a different region. With RTC, it meets the 15-minute RPO and can replicate existing objects when configured.

Why this answer

S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) with Replication Time Control (RTC) is the correct choice because it provides automatic, asynchronous replication of objects to a different AWS Region, meeting the RPO of less than 15 minutes by guaranteeing replication within 15 minutes for most objects (99.99% of objects are replicated within 15 minutes). Additionally, CRR can replicate existing objects when configured with the appropriate replication rule and batch operations, satisfying the requirement to replicate all objects.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates may choose S3 Event Notifications with Lambda (Option C) because it seems like a flexible custom solution, but they overlook the lack of a guaranteed RPO, the inability to replicate existing objects without additional effort, and the operational overhead compared to the managed, SLA-backed CRR with RTC.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B (S3 Same-Region Replication) is wrong because it replicates objects within the same AWS Region, not across regions, so it does not meet the disaster recovery requirement for cross-region replication. Option C (S3 Event Notifications with Lambda) is wrong because it is a custom, event-driven approach that introduces latency, complexity, and potential failure points, and it cannot guarantee the 15-minute RPO or reliably replicate existing objects without additional scripting. Option D (S3 Transfer Acceleration) is wrong because it is designed to speed up uploads over long distances using edge locations, not to replicate objects between buckets or regions.

112
MCQeasy

A production RDS MySQL database stores financial records. The team needs the ability to restore the database to any point within the last 7 days in case of accidental data deletion. Automated backups are currently disabled. What must be configured?

A.Enable automated backups and set the backup retention period to 7 days
B.Create a manual DB snapshot every night using the AWS CLI on a schedule
C.Enable Multi-AZ to maintain a synchronous standby replica in a second Availability Zone
D.Enable RDS read replicas and promote one if data deletion occurs
AnswerA

Automated backups with a 7-day retention period keep daily snapshots and transaction logs for 7 days. Any point within the retention window is recoverable. Transaction logs allow recovery to any 5-minute interval within that window. Setting the period to 0 disables automated backups and PITR entirely.

Why this answer

To restore an RDS MySQL database to any point within the last 7 days, you must enable automated backups and set the backup retention period to 7 days. Automated backups enable point-in-time recovery (PITR), which allows restoration to any second within the retention window using binary logs. Without automated backups, RDS cannot perform PITR, even if manual snapshots exist.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse manual snapshots with automated backups, not realizing that only automated backups enable point-in-time recovery, while manual snapshots are static and cannot be used for granular restoration.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because manual DB snapshots capture only a single point in time and do not provide the continuous binary log data needed for point-in-time recovery to any arbitrary moment within 7 days. Option C is wrong because Multi-AZ provides high availability and automatic failover, but it does not create backups or enable point-in-time recovery; it only maintains a synchronous standby replica. Option D is wrong because RDS read replicas are designed for read scaling and, while they can be promoted to a standalone instance, they do not provide point-in-time recovery capabilities and rely on the same backup configuration as the source instance.

113
MCQmedium

A company runs a production Amazon RDS for MySQL DB instance in a single Availability Zone. The SysOps administrator needs to improve database availability to ensure automatic failover if the primary instance fails. Which configuration should the administrator enable?

A.Create a Read Replica in another Availability Zone and promote it on failure.
B.Enable Multi-AZ deployment on the DB instance.
C.Take hourly snapshots and automate restoration in another AZ.
D.Use Amazon RDS Proxy to manage connection failover.
AnswerB

Multi-AZ provides automatic synchronous replication and automatic failover to a standby in another AZ with minimal downtime.

Why this answer

Enabling Multi-AZ deployment on the DB instance automatically provisions and maintains a synchronous standby replica in a different Availability Zone. If the primary instance fails, Amazon RDS automatically fails over to the standby, providing high availability without manual intervention. This is the native AWS solution for automatic failover for RDS MySQL.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse Read Replicas (asynchronous, for read scaling) with Multi-AZ (synchronous, for high availability), assuming promoting a Read Replica provides the same automatic failover guarantee.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because creating a Read Replica and promoting it on failure is a manual process that introduces downtime and does not provide automatic failover; Read Replicas are designed for read scaling, not synchronous high availability. Option C is wrong because taking hourly snapshots and automating restoration in another AZ would result in significant data loss (up to one hour) and long recovery times, not automatic failover. Option D is wrong because Amazon RDS Proxy manages database connections and connection pooling, but it does not provide automatic failover of the database instance itself; it can work with Multi-AZ but is not a substitute for it.

114
MCQeasy

A company runs a web application on Amazon EC2 instances in a single Availability Zone. The SysOps administrator wants to increase the availability of the application so that it can survive an Availability Zone failure. Which action is the most effective?

A.Deploy an additional EC2 instance in the same Availability Zone.
B.Launch EC2 instances in two different Availability Zones and place them behind an Application Load Balancer.
C.Enable termination protection on all EC2 instances.
D.Use an Amazon RDS Multi-AZ deployment for the database tier.
AnswerB

Correct. Spreading instances across AZs with a load balancer ensures continued availability if one AZ becomes unavailable.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because deploying EC2 instances across two different Availability Zones and placing them behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB) provides fault isolation. If one AZ fails, the ALB automatically routes traffic to the healthy instances in the other AZ, ensuring the application remains available. This architecture directly addresses the goal of surviving an AZ failure by eliminating the single point of failure at the AZ level.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse high availability with fault tolerance at a single component level, mistakenly thinking that adding more instances in the same AZ or enabling termination protection improves availability, when in fact only distributing resources across multiple isolated Availability Zones can survive an AZ failure.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because adding more instances in the same Availability Zone does not protect against an AZ failure; all instances would still be affected if that single AZ goes down. Option C is wrong because termination protection only prevents accidental deletion of instances, it does not provide any redundancy or fault tolerance for an AZ outage. Option D is wrong because while an Amazon RDS Multi-AZ deployment improves database availability, it does not address the availability of the web application tier running on EC2; the question asks for the most effective action to increase application availability, which requires a multi-AZ architecture for the compute layer.

115
MCQeasy

Refer to the exhibit. An IAM policy is attached to an IAM user. Which action can the user perform?

A.Start an EC2 instance.
B.Describe EC2 instances.
C.Stop an EC2 instance.
D.Terminate an EC2 instance.
AnswerC

StopInstances is explicitly allowed and not denied.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because the IAM policy allows ec2:StopInstances and does not deny it. The denial is only for ec2:TerminateInstances. Option A is wrong because StartInstances is allowed.

Option B is wrong because Describe* actions are allowed. Option D is wrong because TerminateInstances is explicitly denied.

116
MCQmedium

A company runs a web application on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The instances are in an Auto Scaling group across three Availability Zones. To improve reliability, the company wants to ensure that if an entire Availability Zone fails, the application remains available. Which configuration should be implemented?

A.Remove the load balancer and use Route 53 weighted routing to distribute traffic.
B.Launch all instances in a single Availability Zone to reduce latency.
C.Configure the Auto Scaling group to launch instances in three Availability Zones.
D.Use a Network Load Balancer instead of an Application Load Balancer.
AnswerC

Correct: Distributing across multiple AZs ensures availability if one AZ fails.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because distributing the Auto Scaling group across three Availability Zones ensures that the application can tolerate the failure of one zone. Option B is wrong because using a single AZ would not survive an AZ failure. Option C is wrong because a Network Load Balancer does not inherently provide better zone resilience.

Option D is wrong because removing the load balancer would remove a critical component for distributing traffic.

117
MCQmedium

A company runs a web application on two EC2 instances in different Availability Zones, each with an Elastic IP address. The SysOps administrator needs to automatically route traffic to the healthy instance and fail over if one instance becomes unhealthy. The application must be accessible via a single DNS name. Which Route 53 routing policy should be used?

A.Weighted routing policy
B.Failover routing policy
C.Geolocation routing policy
D.Simple routing policy
AnswerB

Failover routing policy allows you to configure active-passive failover with health checks, automatically routing traffic to the healthy instance.

Why this answer

The failover routing policy in Amazon Route 53 is designed to route traffic from a primary resource to a secondary resource when the primary becomes unhealthy. In this scenario, the two EC2 instances in different Availability Zones act as primary and secondary endpoints, and Route 53 uses health checks to monitor the primary instance. If the health check fails, Route 53 automatically fails over to the secondary instance, ensuring the application remains accessible via a single DNS name.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse failover routing with weighted routing, assuming weights can be used for active-passive failover, but weighted routing does not automatically remove unhealthy endpoints without additional scripting or Route 53 health check integration.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because the weighted routing policy distributes traffic across multiple resources based on assigned weights, but it does not provide automatic failover when an instance becomes unhealthy; it requires manual intervention or additional automation to remove unhealthy endpoints. Option C is wrong because the geolocation routing policy routes traffic based on the geographic location of the user, not based on the health of the resources, and it does not support automatic failover between instances in different Availability Zones. Option D is wrong because the simple routing policy routes traffic to a single resource (e.g., one IP address) and does not support health checks or failover to a secondary resource; it cannot automatically switch traffic if the instance becomes unhealthy.

118
Multi-Selecthard

A company runs a critical application on EC2 instances with EBS volumes. The SysOps administrator must ensure that EBS snapshots are taken every hour and retained for 7 days. Which THREE steps should be taken to achieve this? (Choose THREE.)

Select 3 answers
A.Create a CloudWatch Events rule to trigger a Lambda function that creates snapshots
B.Use AWS Backup to create a backup plan with hourly frequency
C.Create an IAM role for DLM with permissions to create and delete snapshots
D.Create a DLM lifecycle policy with a schedule for hourly snapshots and retention of 7 days
E.Tag the EBS volumes with a specific tag (e.g., Backup=true) to include them in the policy
AnswersC, D, E

DLM needs an IAM role to operate.

Why this answer

Correct answers are A, C, and D. Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) can automate EBS snapshot creation and retention. IAM roles are needed for DLM to manage snapshots.

Tags can be used to select volumes. Option B is wrong because AWS Backup can also manage EBS snapshots, but it is not required if DLM is used; the question asks for steps to achieve the goal, and DLM is sufficient. However, AWS Backup is also a valid service, but the question expects DLM as primary.

Option E is wrong because CloudWatch Events can trigger Lambda, but DLM is the managed solution.

119
MCQmedium

A company runs a production database on an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance in a single Availability Zone. The SysOps administrator needs to improve the database's availability to meet an SLA of 99.99% and ensure automatic failover in case of a database failure. Which configuration change should be made?

A.Enable a Multi-AZ deployment
B.Create a read replica in a different AWS Region
C.Configure automated backups with cross-region copy
D.Enable deletion protection on the DB instance
AnswerA

Multi-AZ provides automatic failover to a standby in another AZ, offering high availability without manual intervention.

Why this answer

Enabling a Multi-AZ deployment for an Amazon RDS PostgreSQL DB instance automatically provisions and maintains a synchronous standby replica in a different Availability Zone. In the event of a database failure or an Availability Zone outage, Amazon RDS automatically fails over to the standby replica, typically within 60-120 seconds, meeting the 99.99% SLA requirement without manual intervention.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse read replicas (which are for read scaling and disaster recovery) with Multi-AZ deployments (which are for high availability and automatic failover), leading them to incorrectly select the cross-region read replica option.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because creating a read replica in a different AWS Region provides read scalability and disaster recovery, but it does not support automatic failover for the primary DB instance; failover requires manual promotion of the read replica, which cannot meet a 99.99% SLA. Option C is wrong because configuring automated backups with cross-region copy protects against data loss by storing backups in another region, but it does not provide automatic failover or high availability for the database instance itself. Option D is wrong because enabling deletion protection on the DB instance only prevents accidental deletion of the database; it has no effect on availability, failover, or resilience against failures.

120
MCQeasy

Refer to the exhibit. A SysOps administrator creates a CloudFormation stack with the template shown. After 30 days, what happens to noncurrent versions of objects in the bucket?

A.They are permanently deleted.
B.They are moved to Amazon S3 Glacier.
C.They become the current version.
D.They are moved to Amazon S3 Standard-Infrequent Access.
AnswerA

Lifecycle rule expires noncurrent versions.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because the lifecycle rule deletes noncurrent versions after 30 days. Option B is wrong because they are deleted, not archived. Option C is wrong because they are deleted, not transitioned.

Option D is wrong because they are deleted after 30 days, not immediately.

121
MCQmedium

A SysOps administrator needs to ensure that an S3 bucket can recover from accidental deletions by users. The bucket stores versioned objects. What additional configuration should be enabled to prevent permanent deletion?

A.Enable S3 Server-Side Encryption.
B.Enable S3 Lifecycle rules to expire objects.
C.Enable MFA Delete on the bucket.
D.Configure a bucket policy to deny s3:DeleteObject.
AnswerC

MFA Delete requires extra authentication to delete versions.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because MFA Delete requires multi-factor authentication to delete versions, preventing accidental permanent deletion. Option A is wrong because lifecycle policies do not protect against deletion. Option B is wrong because encryption does not prevent deletion.

Option D is wrong because bucket policies can allow/deny but not require MFA for deletion of versions without additional configuration.

122
MCQeasy

A company runs a web application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer. The application stores session data on local instance storage. Users report that they are unexpectedly logged out during peak traffic. Which action should the SysOps Administrator take to improve reliability?

A.Move the session storage to an instance store volume.
B.Enable sticky sessions on the Application Load Balancer.
C.Increase the size of the Auto Scaling group to handle peak traffic.
D.Configure an ElastiCache Redis cluster to store session state externally.
AnswerD

Provides a central, durable session store.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because storing session state in a shared Elasticache cluster provides a central, durable location that survives instance termination. Option A is wrong because it does not address session loss. Option B is wrong because instance store is ephemeral.

Option D is wrong because it does not solve the session persistence issue.

123
MCQmedium

A company uses AWS CloudFormation to deploy its infrastructure. The SysOps administrator needs to ensure that the application stack can be recreated in another AWS Region in the event of a disaster. The stack includes an RDS MySQL database and an EC2 instance running a web server. The administrator wants to automate the backup of the RDS database and the EC2 instance configuration. What is the MOST efficient way to achieve this?

A.Use S3 to store database dump files and instance configuration scripts.
B.Create manual snapshots of the RDS database and EC2 instance every day and copy them to the secondary region.
C.Store the CloudFormation template in S3 and use it to recreate the stack in the secondary region.
D.Use AWS Backup to create backup plans that include the RDS instance and EC2 instance, and copy backups to the secondary region.
AnswerD

AWS Backup automates backups and supports cross-region copy.

Why this answer

Option A is correct. AWS Backup provides a centralized backup service that can back up RDS databases and EC2 instances (via AMIs). It supports cross-region copy, which is ideal for disaster recovery.

Option B is wrong because manual snapshots are not automated and require manual intervention. Option C is wrong because CloudFormation templates do not capture data in the database or EC2 instance state. Option D is wrong because S3 is not an appropriate backup target for RDS or EC2 instances directly.

124
MCQmedium

A company has an Amazon DynamoDB table with on-demand capacity mode. The SysOps administrator needs to ensure that the table can survive a regional outage. The table is currently in us-east-1. Which feature should be configured to achieve regional resilience with minimal data loss?

A.DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX)
B.DynamoDB global tables
C.DynamoDB point-in-time recovery
D.DynamoDB auto scaling
AnswerB

Global tables replicate data across Regions automatically, allowing the table to remain available during a regional outage with minimal data loss (eventual consistency).

Why this answer

DynamoDB global tables provide multi-Region, fully replicated tables that automatically propagate writes to all configured Regions, enabling the table to survive a regional outage with minimal data loss. This feature uses DynamoDB Streams to replicate data asynchronously across Regions, offering recovery point objectives (RPO) of typically under one second. For the requirement of regional resilience, global tables are the correct choice because they maintain active copies in multiple AWS Regions.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse point-in-time recovery (PITR) with cross-Region disaster recovery, not realizing that PITR only protects against accidental deletes or corruption within a single Region, not a full regional outage.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) is an in-memory cache that improves read performance but does not provide any cross-Region replication or regional resilience. Option C is wrong because point-in-time recovery (PITR) enables restoring a table to any point within the last 35 days within the same Region, but it does not protect against a regional outage since the backups are stored in the same Region. Option D is wrong because DynamoDB auto scaling adjusts read/write capacity based on traffic but does not replicate data across Regions or provide any disaster recovery capability.

125
MCQmedium

A company uses AWS CloudFormation to deploy infrastructure. They want to ensure that if a stack update fails, the stack automatically rolls back to the last known good state. Which CloudFormation stack policy should be used?

A.Use the default 'Rollback on failure' setting.
B.Enable termination protection on the stack.
C.Use a stack policy that prevents specific resources from being updated.
D.Set 'DisableRollback' to false.
AnswerA

Automatically rolls back to the previous working state.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because the 'Rollback on failure' setting (default behavior) causes CloudFormation to roll back failed stack updates. Option B is wrong because DisableRollback would leave the stack in a failed state. Option C is wrong because it is not a valid stack policy.

Option D is wrong because it prevents stack updates, not rollback.

126
MCQhard

A company uses AWS CloudFormation to deploy a multi-tier application. The stack includes an RDS DB instance with automated backups enabled. The SysOps administrator needs to ensure that the database can be recovered to any point within the last 35 days with minimal data loss. What should the administrator do?

A.Create a manual snapshot daily and retain 35 snapshots.
B.Set the backup retention period to 35 days.
C.Enable Multi-AZ on the RDS instance.
D.Configure AWS Backup with a 35-day backup plan.
AnswerB

Automated backups with a 35-day retention allow point-in-time recovery to any second within that window.

Why this answer

RDS automated backups support point-in-time recovery (PITR) within the backup retention period, which can be set up to 35 days. Option A is wrong because manual snapshots are not automatically continuous. Option C is wrong because Multi-AZ provides high availability, not granular recovery.

Option D is wrong because the default backup retention is 1 day, not 35.

127
MCQhard

A company runs a stateful web application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group across two Availability Zones. The application uses an Application Load Balancer for traffic distribution. Users report that their sessions are frequently lost during scale-in events. The SysOps administrator needs to minimize session loss without introducing significant latency. What should the administrator do?

A.Replace the Application Load Balancer with a Network Load Balancer. Enable proxy protocol v2 to pass client IP addresses.
B.Enable sticky sessions (session affinity) on the ALB. Configure a lifecycle hook on the Auto Scaling group with a wait time equal to the ALB's connection draining timeout.
C.Increase the Auto Scaling group's cooldown period to 600 seconds. Configure the ALB to have a deregistration delay of 600 seconds.
D.Configure the Auto Scaling group to scale based on memory utilization instead of CPU. Set the cooldown period to 300 seconds.
AnswerB

Sticky sessions route requests to the same instance; lifecycle hooks delay termination until draining completes, preserving sessions.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because using an ALB with sticky sessions (session affinity) and a connection draining timeout that matches the lifecycle hook's wait time ensures that in-flight requests complete before instance termination. Option A is wrong because scaling based on memory does not address session stickiness. Option B is wrong because a larger cooldown delay helps but does not ensure session persistence across instances.

Option D is wrong because a Network Load Balancer does not support sticky sessions by cookie in the same way and is not ideal for HTTP traffic.

128
MCQhard

A company has a critical application running on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an ALB. The application uses a custom health check endpoint at /health. The SysOps administrator notices that the ALB occasionally marks instances as unhealthy even though the application is running correctly. The health check settings are: HealthCheckIntervalSeconds=30, HealthyThresholdCount=5, UnhealthyThresholdCount=2. What is the most likely cause of the intermittent health check failures?

A.The health check endpoint returns 5xx errors, which are ignored by the ALB.
B.The UnhealthyThresholdCount is set too low.
C.The HealthyThresholdCount is set too high, causing instances to remain unhealthy after transient issues.
D.The health check is using TCP instead of HTTP.
AnswerC

A high healthy threshold makes the system slow to recover after temporary errors.

Why this answer

Option C is correct: With HealthyThresholdCount=5, an instance must pass 5 consecutive health checks to be marked healthy. If the health check endpoint returns a single 5xx error due to a transient issue, the instance may be considered unhealthy for a prolonged period. Option A is incorrect because TCP health checks are less granular but would not cause intermittent failures if the instance is reachable.

Option B is incorrect because an UnhealthyThresholdCount of 2 is standard and not too low. Option D is incorrect because 5xx errors are not ignored by ALB health checks.

129
MCQhard

A SysOps administrator is tasked with designing a disaster recovery strategy for an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL database. The database is currently in us-east-1. The recovery point objective (RPO) is 5 seconds, and the recovery time objective (RTO) is 1 minute. Which solution meets these requirements?

A.Create a cross-region read replica in us-west-2 and promote it during a disaster.
B.Take daily automated snapshots and copy them to another region.
C.Enable Multi-AZ deployment with automatic failover.
D.Deploy the database in a single AZ and use point-in-time recovery.
AnswerC

Multi-AZ provides synchronous replication and fast failover.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because Multi-AZ with automatic failover provides a standby in a different AZ within the same region, with RTO typically 1-2 minutes and RPO of seconds. Option A is wrong because cross-region read replicas have asynchronous replication with potential lag >5 seconds. Option B is wrong because snapshots have RPO of hours.

Option C is wrong because single-AZ does not provide automatic failover.

130
MCQhard

A company has a production application running on Amazon ECS with Fargate launch type. The application uses an Application Load Balancer. The SysOps administrator notices that during deployments, the application experiences a brief period of downtime. Which combination of actions should the administrator take to achieve zero-downtime deployments?

A.Configure the ECS service to use a rolling update with a minimum healthy percent of 0 and a maximum percent of 100.
B.Increase the deregistration delay on the ALB target group to 300 seconds.
C.Use a blue/green deployment with CodeDeploy and set the 'Minimum healthy percent' to 50.
D.Configure the ECS service to use a rolling update with a minimum healthy percent of 100 and a maximum percent of 200.
AnswerD

Correct: This ensures new tasks are started before old ones are terminated, allowing zero downtime.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because configuring the ECS service to use rolling updates with a minimum healthy percent of 100 and a maximum percent of 200 ensures that new tasks are started before old ones are stopped, avoiding downtime. Option A is wrong because it limits the number of new tasks. Option B is wrong because it stops old tasks first.

Option D is wrong because deregistration delay alone does not prevent downtime during deployment.

131
Multi-Selectmedium

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.)

Select 2 answers
A.AWS Backup
B.AWS Snowball
C.AWS Storage Gateway (File Gateway)
D.Amazon EFS
E.S3 Transfer Acceleration
AnswersA, C

AWS Backup can back up on-premises workloads using the AWS Backup gateway.

Why this answer

Correct answers are A and D. AWS Storage Gateway File Gateway provides on-premises caching with backup to S3. AWS Backup can be used for on-premises workloads via the AWS Backup gateway.

Option B is wrong because S3 Transfer Acceleration is for speeding up uploads, not a backup service. Option C is wrong because Amazon EFS is a network file system, not a backup target for on-premises. Option E is wrong because Snowball is for large data transfer, not ongoing backups.

132
MCQeasy

A SysOps administrator is configuring an Amazon RDS for MySQL Multi-AZ deployment. What is the primary benefit of using Multi-AZ?

A.Improved read performance by distributing queries across multiple instances.
B.Automatic failover to a standby instance in a different Availability Zone.
C.Synchronous replication across AWS Regions.
D.Automatic creation of read replicas for disaster recovery.
AnswerB

This is the primary benefit of Multi-AZ.

Why this answer

Option B is correct: Multi-AZ provides automatic failover to a standby in a different AZ, improving availability. Option A is incorrect because Multi-AZ does not increase write performance; writes are synchronous to standby. Option C is incorrect because Multi-AZ does not create read replicas (that's a separate feature).

Option D is incorrect because Multi-AZ does not provide cross-Region replication without additional configuration.

133
MCQmedium

A company has an S3 bucket that stores critical data. The bucket has versioning enabled. A SysOps administrator accidentally deletes a version of an object. What is the quickest way to recover the deleted version?

A.Use the S3 bucket's 'Undelete' feature.
B.Enable MFA Delete and then restore the object.
C.Contact AWS Support to restore the object.
D.Copy the deleted version from the bucket's version history.
AnswerD

Versioning keeps all versions; copy the previous version.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because S3 versioning allows you to restore a previous version by copying it back to the bucket. Option A is wrong because the object is not permanently deleted; it can be undeleted via versioning. Option C is wrong as long as versioning is on.

Option D is wrong because MFA Delete does not help with recovery.

134
MCQeasy

A company runs a stateless web application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group. The instances are behind an Application Load Balancer. The Auto Scaling group uses a dynamic scaling policy based on average CPU utilization. During a traffic spike, new instances are launched but take 5 minutes to become healthy. Users experience errors during this time. Which solution would reduce the time to serve traffic from new instances?

A.Use a launch template with a pre-provisioned AMI.
B.Add a lifecycle hook to delay instance termination.
C.Increase the cooldown period for the scaling policy.
D.Use a larger instance type.
AnswerA

Pre-warmed AMIs have the application already initialized, reducing time to become healthy.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because a launch template with a pre-warmed AMI avoids the initialization steps during scale-out. Option A is incorrect because increasing the cooldown period delays scaling, making the problem worse. Option B is incorrect because instance type does not affect startup time significantly.

Option D is incorrect because lifecycle hooks add delay, not reduce it.

135
MCQhard

A company runs a critical application on a single Amazon EC2 instance with an attached Amazon EBS volume. The SysOps administrator needs to implement a disaster recovery solution that meets a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 30 minutes. The application runs continuously and data changes frequently. Which solution should the administrator implement?

A.Use Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) to take EBS snapshots every 15 minutes and automate the creation of a new AMI.
B.Use AWS Backup to schedule backups every 15 minutes and restore from the latest backup when needed.
C.Use AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS) to continuously replicate the instance to a staging area in another region.
D.Use an Auto Scaling group with a custom AMI that is updated every 15 minutes by a Lambda function.
AnswerC

AWS DRS provides continuous replication with low RPO (seconds) and RTO (minutes), meeting the stated requirements.

Why this answer

AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS) continuously replicates the entire EC2 instance, including the EBS volume, to a staging area in another AWS Region with sub-second data changes. This meets the RPO of 15 minutes and RTO of 30 minutes because you can launch a fully recovered instance in the target region within minutes from the latest consistent point, without relying on periodic snapshots or backups that would miss frequent data changes.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often choose periodic snapshot or backup solutions (like DLM or AWS Backup) because they think 15-minute intervals satisfy the RPO, but they overlook the RTO constraint and the fact that frequent data changes require continuous replication, not periodic snapshots, to avoid data loss between intervals.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) can take EBS snapshots every 15 minutes, but creating a new AMI from those snapshots is not automated by DLM and the process would take longer than 30 minutes to build and register an AMI, failing the RTO. Option B is wrong because AWS Backup scheduled backups every 15 minutes still rely on periodic snapshots, which cannot capture every data change between intervals, and restoring from the latest backup can take longer than 30 minutes due to volume creation and attachment time. Option D is wrong because an Auto Scaling group with a custom AMI updated every 15 minutes by a Lambda function does not provide continuous replication; the AMI creation process itself takes time and the instance launched from an older AMI would miss data changes made in the interim, failing the RPO.

136
MCQhard

A company runs a critical application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group with a minimum of 2 instances. The instances are in a single Availability Zone. The company wants to achieve 99.99% availability. Which change should they make?

A.Modify the Auto Scaling group to launch instances in multiple Availability Zones and place an Application Load Balancer in front.
B.Increase the minimum size of the Auto Scaling group to 4 instances.
C.Use a larger EC2 instance type to handle more traffic.
D.Configure the Auto Scaling group to scale based on memory utilization.
AnswerA

Multi-AZ deployment with ALB ensures availability if an AZ fails.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because using multiple Availability Zones with an Application Load Balancer distributes traffic and provides high availability. Option A is wrong because a single AZ cannot achieve 99.99% availability. Option B is wrong because increasing instance size does not improve availability.

Option C is wrong because scaling based on memory does not provide AZ redundancy.

137
Multi-Selecthard

A company uses Amazon S3 to store backup data. The SysOps administrator needs to ensure that the data is protected against accidental deletion by users with administrative privileges. Which combination of actions should the administrator take? (Choose TWO.)

Select 2 answers
A.Enable MFA Delete on the S3 bucket.
B.Apply an S3 bucket policy that denies s3:DeleteObject for all users.
C.Enable versioning on the S3 bucket.
D.Configure a lifecycle policy to transition objects to S3 Glacier.
E.Enable AWS CloudTrail to log all S3 API calls.
AnswersA, C

MFA Delete requires multi-factor authentication to permanently delete objects.

Why this answer

Options B and D are correct because enabling MFA Delete requires additional authentication to delete objects, and enabling versioning allows recovery of deleted objects via previous versions. Option A is wrong because bucket policies cannot differentiate between accidental and intentional deletion by authorized users. Option C is wrong because lifecycle policies manage storage classes, not deletion protection.

Option E is wrong because CloudTrail logs provide auditing but do not prevent deletion.

138
MCQmedium

A company runs a stateless web application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group across multiple Availability Zones. The application experiences increased latency during peak hours. The SysOps administrator needs to improve the application's performance and reliability. Which action should be taken?

A.Use larger EC2 instance types instead of smaller ones.
B.Reduce the Auto Scaling group's cooldown period to scale out faster.
C.Change the scaling metric from CPU utilization to memory utilization.
D.Increase the maximum instance count in the Auto Scaling group.
AnswerD

Allows scaling out to handle more traffic.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because adding more instances via a higher max size allows the ASG to scale out to handle increased load, improving performance and reliability. Option A is wrong because changing the scaling metric to memory utilization may not reflect the actual load. Option B is wrong because switching to a larger instance type is less elastic than scaling out.

Option C is wrong because reducing the cooldown period could cause thrashing.

139
Multi-Selectmedium

A SysOps administrator is responsible for an Auto Scaling group that runs a critical application. The administrator wants to ensure that the application can recover from an AZ failure. Which THREE steps should the administrator take? (Choose three.)

Select 3 answers
A.Use EC2 instances in a single Availability Zone to reduce latency.
B.Place subnets in each Availability Zone used by the Auto Scaling group.
C.Configure the Auto Scaling group to launch instances in at least two Availability Zones.
D.Attach an Application Load Balancer that is enabled for multiple Availability Zones.
E.Use a single subnet in one Availability Zone to simplify network design.
AnswersB, C, D

Subnets must exist in each AZ for the Auto Scaling group to use.

Why this answer

Options A, B, and D are correct. Launching instances in multiple AZs ensures that if one AZ fails, instances in other AZs continue. Distributing subnets across AZs is necessary for that.

Using an ALB in multiple AZs distributes traffic. Option C is incorrect because a single subnet in one AZ does not provide AZ-level redundancy. Option E is incorrect because using only one AZ defeats the purpose.

140
MCQhard

Refer to the exhibit. A SysOps administrator needs to restore the database 'mydb' to the most recent restorable time shown. However, the administrator cannot restore to that time. What is the MOST likely reason?

A.The database engine does not support point-in-time recovery.
B.Automated backups are disabled (BackupRetentionPeriod is 0).
C.The backup window has already passed.
D.The database is not Multi-AZ.
AnswerB

No backups available for restoration.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because BackupRetentionPeriod is 0, which disables automated backups. Without backups, point-in-time recovery is not possible. Option A is wrong because Multi-AZ is false but does not prevent restores.

Option B is wrong because the backup window has passed; restores can still happen. Option D is wrong because engine is MySQL, which supports restores.

141
MCQeasy

A company has an S3 bucket that stores critical financial data. The bucket versioning is enabled. A SysOps administrator needs to ensure that data can be recovered after accidental deletion by users. What is the MOST effective way to protect against accidental deletion?

A.Configure a lifecycle policy to transition objects to Glacier after 30 days.
B.Apply a bucket policy that denies s3:DeleteObject for all users.
C.Replicate objects to another S3 bucket in a different AWS Region.
D.Enable MFA Delete on the S3 bucket.
AnswerD

MFA Delete requires additional authentication to permanently delete objects, preventing accidental deletions.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because MFA Delete adds an extra layer of protection, requiring multi-factor authentication to permanently delete objects. Option A is wrong because lifecycle policies automate transitions, not deletion prevention. Option B is wrong because bucket policies control access but do not prevent deletion by authorized users.

Option D is wrong because cross-region replication provides disaster recovery, not protection against accidental deletion.

142
MCQmedium

Refer to the exhibit. A SysOps administrator creates an IAM policy to allow an EC2 instance to upload objects to an S3 bucket. However, the instance is unable to upload objects. What is the MOST likely reason?

A.The S3 bucket has server-side encryption enabled.
B.The policy does not include s3:GetObject permission.
C.The bucket policy denies all access.
D.The IAM role is not attached to the EC2 instance.
AnswerD

Without the role, the instance cannot assume permissions.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because the policy allows s3:PutObject only, but the EC2 instance likely needs to assume the role via sts:AssumeRole. However, the policy does not include that action. More commonly, the issue is that the policy is missing s3:PutObjectAcl or the bucket policy denies access.

But among the options, the most likely is that the policy does not include s3:ListBucket, which is often required for PUT operations? Actually, s3:PutObject does not require ListBucket. However, the typical issue is that the IAM role is not attached to the instance. Option B is correct: The role is not attached to the EC2 instance.

Option A is wrong because s3:PutObject is allowed. Option C is wrong because there is no bucket policy shown. Option D is wrong because S3 server-side encryption does not block uploads.

143
Multi-Selectmedium

A company runs a stateless web application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group. To improve reliability during a traffic spike, which THREE actions should the SysOps administrator take? (Choose three.)

Select 3 answers
A.Configure a target tracking scaling policy based on average CPU utilization.
B.Enable detailed monitoring for EC2 instances.
C.Use a larger instance type to handle more traffic per instance.
D.Configure the Auto Scaling group to launch instances in multiple Availability Zones.
E.Place the instances behind an Application Load Balancer with health checks.
AnswersA, D, E

Automatically scales out during traffic spikes.

Why this answer

Options A, C, and D are correct. Using multiple Availability Zones ensures high availability. A target tracking scaling policy adjusts capacity based on load.

An Application Load Balancer distributes traffic and performs health checks. Option B is wrong because a larger instance size does not improve elasticity. Option E is wrong because detailed monitoring is not required for scaling, though it helps.

144
MCQhard

A company runs a critical stateful web application on Amazon EC2 instances in a single AWS region. The application stores user session data in an Amazon ElastiCache for Redis cluster. The SysOps administrator must design a disaster recovery (DR) strategy that can survive a complete regional outage with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 1 hour. The application must be able to redirect users to the DR region with minimal manual effort. Which combination of actions meets these requirements?

A.Use Amazon Route 53 with weighted routing to distribute traffic between the two regions. Use a global DynamoDB table for session data, and launch EC2 instances in the DR region only when a failure is detected using AWS CloudFormation StackSets.
B.Create a read replica of the ElastiCache Redis cluster in the DR region using the native cross-region replication feature. Use Route 53 with failover routing to point to the DR region ALB when the primary health check fails. Pre-configure EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group in the DR region.
C.Use an Amazon CloudFront distribution with multiple origins (primary and DR). Enable session stickiness at the CloudFront level. Use EC2 instances in both regions behind separate ALBs. No special data replication is needed because sessions are stored in Redis.
D.Use EC2 instances with an Auto Scaling group in both regions. Schedule a Lambda function to take snapshots of the Redis cluster every 15 minutes and copy them to the DR region. Use Route 53 latency routing to direct users to the nearest region.
AnswerB

Global Datastore for Redis provides cross-Region replication with low RPO. Pre-configured Auto Scaling groups in the DR region ensure that compute capacity is ready. Route 53 failover routing automatically redirects traffic when the primary ALB health check fails. This combination meets the RPO and RTO requirements with minimal manual effort.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because ElastiCache for Redis supports cross-region replication via a read replica in the DR region, which can keep session data synchronized with minimal lag, meeting the 15-minute RPO. Route 53 failover routing with health checks on the primary region's ALB automatically redirects traffic to the pre-configured DR region EC2 instances and ALB, achieving the 1-hour RTO with minimal manual effort. Pre-configuring the DR region with an Auto Scaling group ensures compute capacity is ready, while the read replica provides the required data availability.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates may assume snapshot-based replication (Option D) is sufficient for a 15-minute RPO, but they overlook the inherent latency and potential data loss from periodic snapshots, and that latency routing (Option D) does not provide health-based failover, while weighted routing (Option A) lacks automatic failover capability.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because weighted routing does not automatically fail over during a regional outage; it distributes traffic based on weights, not health, and using a global DynamoDB table for session data is unnecessary since the application uses ElastiCache for Redis, not DynamoDB. Option C is wrong because CloudFront does not natively support session stickiness based on ElastiCache session data, and without cross-region replication of Redis, the DR region would have no session data, violating the RPO. Option D is wrong because scheduling snapshots every 15 minutes and copying them to the DR region cannot guarantee an RPO of 15 minutes due to snapshot timing and transfer delays, and latency routing does not provide automatic failover during a regional outage; it routes based on latency, not health.

145
MCQmedium

A company runs a stateless web application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group across two Availability Zones. The SysOps administrator needs to ensure that the application can tolerate a failure of an entire Availability Zone. Which configuration is required?

A.Use an Application Load Balancer (ALB) that spans both Availability Zones with health checks enabled.
B.Enable termination protection on all Amazon EC2 instances.
C.Place the Amazon EC2 instances in a cluster placement group.
D.Associate an Elastic IP address with the primary instance.
AnswerA

The ALB distributes incoming traffic across instances in multiple AZs. With health checks, it detects failures and routes traffic only to healthy instances. Combined with Auto Scaling across AZs, this provides zone-failure tolerance.

Why this answer

An Application Load Balancer (ALB) that spans both Availability Zones with health checks enabled distributes incoming traffic across EC2 instances in multiple AZs. If an entire AZ fails, the ALB automatically routes traffic only to healthy instances in the remaining AZ, ensuring the stateless web application remains available. Health checks detect instance or AZ failure and remove unhealthy targets from the load balancer's target group, which is essential for fault tolerance.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse high availability with data durability or instance protection, leading them to choose termination protection or Elastic IPs, when the core requirement is automatic traffic rerouting across AZs, which only a load balancer with health checks can provide.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because termination protection prevents accidental deletion of an instance but does not provide any resilience against an Availability Zone failure; it does not reroute traffic or maintain application availability. Option C is wrong because a cluster placement group is designed for low-latency, high-throughput networking within a single AZ; it actually increases the risk of simultaneous failure if that AZ goes down, as all instances are in the same AZ. Option D is wrong because associating an Elastic IP with the primary instance only provides a static public IP, which does not survive an AZ failure and does not offer automatic failover or load balancing across AZs.

146
MCQmedium

A company is running a web application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer. The application stores session data on the local instance storage. Users are experiencing session loss during scaling events. What should a SysOps administrator do to maintain session persistence?

A.Move session data to an ElastiCache for Redis cluster.
B.Increase the EC2 instance size to reduce the frequency of scaling events.
C.Attach an Amazon EBS volume to each instance and store session data there.
D.Enable sticky sessions on the Application Load Balancer.
AnswerA

ElastiCache provides a centralized, durable session store that survives instance termination.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because using ElastiCache for session state allows instances to be terminated and replaced without losing session data. Option A is wrong because sticky sessions (session affinity) can cause uneven load and do not protect against instance failure. Option C is wrong because EBS volumes are not shared across instances.

Option D is wrong because increasing instance size does not solve the session loss issue.

147
MCQhard

A company runs a critical application on AWS Lambda functions. The functions are invoked by an API Gateway endpoint. The SysOps administrator needs to ensure that the application continues to work if an entire AWS Region becomes unavailable. What should the administrator do?

A.Use AWS Global Accelerator to route traffic to the closest Region.
B.Configure Lambda functions with provisioned concurrency in multiple Regions.
C.Use Lambda@Edge to run the functions at edge locations.
D.Deploy the same API Gateway and Lambda setup in a second Region and use Route 53 with failover routing.
AnswerD

Route 53 failover routing can redirect traffic to the secondary Region.

Why this answer

Route 53 can route traffic to a second Region where the same infrastructure is deployed. Option A is wrong because Lambda functions are regional. Option B is wrong because API Gateway is also regional.

Option D is wrong because Lambda@Edge is for edge locations, not regional failover.

148
MCQhard

An EC2 instance runs a database on a 2 TB EBS gp3 volume. After a corruption event, the team must restore from a snapshot. When they detach the corrupted volume, attach a new volume restored from the snapshot, and start the database, performance is 10 to 20 times lower than normal for the first two hours. What causes this behavior, and what feature eliminates it?

A.Enable Fast Snapshot Restore (FSR) on the snapshot in the target Availability Zone before creating the replacement volume
B.Use a Provisioned IOPS (io2) volume type instead of gp3 to get higher IOPS during initialization
C.Run a full dd or fio pre-warm pass over the volume after attaching it but before starting the database
D.Increase the EBS volume size to 4 TB when restoring from the snapshot to get double the throughput baseline
AnswerA

FSR fully initializes the volume's block index immediately upon creation. The first I/O to any block is served from EBS at full throughput rather than waiting for lazy initialization from S3. For a 2 TB database volume where I/O latency determines restore time, FSR eliminates the 2-hour performance degradation period entirely.

Why this answer

When you create an EBS volume from a snapshot, the volume's data blocks are lazily loaded from Amazon S3 on first access. This causes high latency and low IOPS until all blocks are fetched. Fast Snapshot Restore (FSR) pre-initializes the volume in a specific Availability Zone, eliminating the need for lazy loading and providing full performance immediately.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates assume performance issues are due to volume type (gp3 vs io2) or size, rather than recognizing the fundamental lazy-load initialization behavior of EBS snapshots and the specific feature (FSR) designed to mitigate it.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because Provisioned IOPS (io2) volumes do not eliminate the lazy-load initialization penalty; they only provide consistent IOPS after the volume is fully initialized, but the initial access still suffers from the same on-demand fetch from S3. Option C is wrong because running dd or fio pre-warms the volume manually, but this is a workaround, not a feature that eliminates the behavior, and it still requires the same time-consuming initialization process. Option D is wrong because increasing the volume size to 4 TB does not change the lazy-load behavior; it only increases the baseline throughput for the volume after initialization, but the initial performance degradation remains until all blocks are loaded.

149
MCQmedium

A company runs a production application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group across two Availability Zones. The application uses an Amazon RDS Multi-AZ DB instance. The SysOps administrator wants to test the application's behavior during an Availability Zone failure of the database. Which action should the administrator take to simulate a failure with minimal impact on production?

A.Reboot the DB instance with the 'Reboot with failover' option
B.Modify the DB instance to be a single-AZ deployment
C.Delete the standby replica in the other Availability Zone
D.Stop the DB instance
AnswerA

Rebooting with failover gracefully switches to the standby replica, testing the application's ability to handle an AZ outage.

Why this answer

Rebooting the RDS Multi-AZ DB instance with the 'Reboot with failover' option forces a synchronous failover to the standby replica in the other Availability Zone. This simulates an AZ failure of the primary database with minimal impact because the application's Auto Scaling group spans two AZs and the RDS Multi-AZ deployment provides automatic failover, so the application should experience only a brief interruption during the DNS change to the new primary.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates may think stopping or deleting the standby replica simulates an AZ failure, but those actions either cause a full outage or permanently remove redundancy, whereas 'Reboot with failover' is the only option that triggers a controlled failover with minimal production impact.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because modifying the DB instance to be a single-AZ deployment permanently removes the standby replica and changes the architecture, which does not simulate a transient AZ failure and has a greater impact on production. Option C is wrong because deleting the standby replica in the other AZ is a destructive action that removes high availability entirely, and it does not simulate a failover event; it also requires manual intervention to recreate the standby. Option D is wrong because stopping the DB instance halts the database completely, causing a full outage rather than a controlled failover, and it does not test the application's behavior during an AZ failure of the database.

150
Multi-Selectmedium

A SysOps administrator needs to set up automated backups for a production Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance and copy the snapshots to another AWS Region for disaster recovery. Order the steps the administrator should take to implement this cross-region snapshot copy. (Drag each step to the correct order from first to last.) (Choose 4.)

Select 4 answers
A.Enable automated backups on the source DB instance.
B.Configure cross-region snapshot copy in the RDS console or using AWS Backup.
C.Set a retention policy for the cross-region snapshots.
D.Verify that snapshots are being copied to the target region.
AnswersA, B, C, D

Automated backups must be enabled for the source instance to generate automatic snapshots.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because automated backups must be enabled on the source RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance to generate the necessary snapshots for cross-region copying. Without automated backups, there are no snapshots to copy, and the cross-region copy feature relies on these automated snapshots as the source.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates might think cross-region copy can be configured without first enabling automated backups, but automated backups are a prerequisite because the copy operation uses the automated snapshot as the source.

How to eliminate wrong answers

All options are correct steps in the process, so there are no wrong options to eliminate. The question asks to order the steps from first to last, and the provided options (A, B, C, D) are all correct actions that must be taken in sequence.

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