AWS Certified Database – Specialty — Question 34

An IT consulting company wants to reduce costs when operating its development environment databases. The company's workflow creates multiple Amazon
Aurora MySQL DB clusters for each development group. The Aurora DB clusters are only used for 8 hours a day. The DB clusters can then be deleted at the end of the development cycle, which lasts 2 weeks.
Which of the following provides the MOST cost-effective solution?

Answer options

• A. Use AWS CloudFormation templates. Deploy a stack with the DB cluster for each development group. Delete the stack at the end of the development cycle.
• B. Use the Aurora DB cloning feature. Deploy a single development and test Aurora DB instance, and create clone instances for the development groups. Delete the clones at the end of the development cycle.
• C. Use Aurora Replicas. From the master automatic pause compute capacity option, create replicas for each development group, and promote each replica to master. Delete the replicas at the end of the development cycle.
• D. Use Aurora Serverless. Restore current Aurora snapshot and deploy to a serverless cluster for each development group. Enable the option to pause the compute capacity on the cluster and set an appropriate timeout.

Correct answer: D

Explanation

The correct answer is D because Aurora Serverless automatically adjusts capacity based on usage and can pause when not in use, thus minimizing costs. Options A and B involve maintaining multiple instances or stacks, which would incur higher costs without the ability to pause. Option C requires creating additional replicas, which also leads to increased expenses compared to the serverless approach.