SOA-C02 Reliability and Business Continuity Practice Question
Which TWO steps should a SysOps administrator take to ensure that an RDS for MySQL instance can withstand an Availability Zone failure? (Choose 2)
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse read replicas with Multi-AZ deployments, assuming a read replica in a different AZ provides automatic failover, when in fact read replicas are asynchronous and require manual promotion, making them unsuitable for automatic AZ failure recovery.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Enable Multi-AZ deployment.
To withstand an Availability Zone failure, the RDS instance must provide automatic failover to a standby in a different AZ. Only Multi-AZ deployment (Option A) achieves this by provisioning a synchronous standby replica and enabling automatic failover. Automated backups (Option C) are for point-in-time recovery, not high availability, so they do not help during an ongoing AZ failure.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Enable Multi-AZ deployment.
Why this is correct
Enable Multi-AZ deployment. This provisions a synchronous standby replica in a different AZ and provides automatic failover, ensuring the instance can withstand an AZ failure.
- ✗
Create a read replica in a different AZ.
Why it's wrong here
Creating a read replica in a different AZ is incorrect because read replicas are asynchronous and do not provide automatic failover; they require manual promotion.
- ✗
Enable automated backups with a short retention period.
Why it's wrong here
Enabling automated backups with a short retention period is incorrect because backups are used for recovery after failure, not for withstanding an ongoing AZ failure.
- ✗
Enable deletion protection on the DB instance.
Why it's wrong here
Enabling deletion protection is incorrect; it prevents accidental deletion but does not provide availability during an AZ failure.
- ✗
Enable provisioned IOPS for the DB instance.
Why it's wrong here
Enabling provisioned IOPS is incorrect; it improves performance but does not provide high availability against AZ failure.
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