AWS Certified Database – Specialty — Question 180

A company is running its production databases in a 3 TB Amazon Aurora MySQL DB cluster. The DB cluster is deployed to the us-east-1 Region. For disaster recovery (DR) purposes, the company's database specialist needs to make the DB cluster rapidly available in another AWS Region to cover the production load with an RTO of less than 2 hours.
What is the MOST operationally efficient solution to meet these requirements?

Answer options

• A. Implement an AWS Lambda function to take a snapshot of the production DB cluster every 2 hours, and copy that snapshot to an Amazon S3 bucket in the DR Region. Restore the snapshot to an appropriately sized DB cluster in the DR Region.
• B. Add a cross-Region read replica in the DR Region with the same instance type as the current primary instance. If the read replica in the DR Region needs to be used for production, promote the read replica to become a standalone DB cluster.
• C. Create a smaller DB cluster in the DR Region. Configure an AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) task with change data capture (CDC) enabled to replicate data from the current production DB cluster to the DB cluster in the DR Region.
• D. Create an Aurora global database that spans two Regions. Use AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) to migrate the existing database to the new global database.

Correct answer: B

Explanation

Option B is the best solution because it allows for quick promotion of the read replica to primary status, ensuring minimal downtime and fast availability. Option A relies on snapshots, which might not meet the RTO requirement effectively. Option C involves a smaller cluster and data migration, which could complicate recovery. Option D requires more setup and does not directly address the immediate need for operational efficiency.