This ACE practice question tests your understanding of planning and configuring a cloud solution. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company wants to migrate an on-premises MySQL database to Cloud SQL with minimal downtime. Which service should they use?
Cloud SQL for MySQL
Why wrong: Cloud SQL is the target, not the migration tool.
Cloud SQL with external replicas
Why wrong: There is no such service; replicas are a feature of Cloud SQL.
Database Migration Service
Database Migration Service provides minimal downtime migration.
Compute Engine with MySQL installed
Why wrong: Manual migration would cause significant downtime.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Database Migration Service
Database Migration Service (DMS) is the correct choice because it is specifically designed to migrate on-premises MySQL databases to Cloud SQL with minimal downtime using continuous replication. It handles schema conversion, data transfer, and ongoing sync until you cut over, ensuring near-zero downtime without manual intervention.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Cloud SQL for MySQL
Why it's wrong here
Cloud SQL is the target, not the migration tool.
Cloud SQL with external replicas
Why it's wrong here
There is no such service; replicas are a feature of Cloud SQL.
Database Migration Service
Why this is correct
Database Migration Service provides minimal downtime migration.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Compute Engine with MySQL installed
Why it's wrong here
Manual migration would cause significant downtime.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates confuse the target service (Cloud SQL for MySQL) with the migration tool, or assume that external replicas can be used for migration, when in fact DMS is the only Google Cloud service purpose-built for minimal-downtime database migrations.
Detailed technical explanation
Database Migration Service uses a combination of logical replication (e.g., MySQL binlog-based change data capture) and a one-time full dump to synchronize the source and target databases. During the migration, DMS continuously applies incremental changes from the source's binary logs, allowing you to cut over in seconds when the lag is near zero. In real-world scenarios, this is critical for production databases with high transaction volumes, where even minutes of downtime can cause significant business impact.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
What to study next
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FAQ
Planning and configuring a cloud solution — This question tests Planning and configuring a cloud solution — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Database Migration Service — Database Migration Service (DMS) is the correct choice because it is specifically designed to migrate on-premises MySQL databases to Cloud SQL with minimal downtime using continuous replication. It handles schema conversion, data transfer, and ongoing sync until you cut over, ensuring near-zero downtime without manual intervention.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 25, 2026
This ACE practice question is part of Courseiva's free Google Cloud certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the ACE exam.
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