AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C02) — Question 1

A solutions architect is designing a solution where users will be directed to a backup static error page if the primary website is unavailable. The primary website's
DNS records are hosted in Amazon Route 53 where their domain is pointing to an Application Load Balancer (ALB).
Which configuration should the solutions architect use to meet the company's needs while minimizing changes and infrastructure overhead?

Answer options

• A. Point a Route 53 alias record to an Amazon CloudFront distribution with the ALB as one of its origins. Then, create custom error pages for the distribution.
• B. Set up a Route 53 active-passive failover configuration. Direct traffic to a static error page hosted within an Amazon S3 bucket when Route 53 health checks determine that the ALB endpoint is unhealthy.
• C. Update the Route 53 record to use a latency-based routing policy. Add the backup static error page hosted within an Amazon S3 bucket to the record so the traffic is sent to the most responsive endpoints.
• D. Set up a Route 53 active-active configuration with the ALB and an Amazon EC2 instance hosting a static error page as endpoints. Route 53 will only send requests to the instance if the health checks fail for the ALB.

Correct answer: B

Explanation

The correct answer is B because it implements an active-passive failover configuration that directs traffic to a static error page in an S3 bucket if the ALB is unhealthy, effectively handling the availability issue. Options A and C involve unnecessary complexity with CloudFront and latency-based routing that do not directly address the failover requirement. Option D introduces an active-active setup, which is more complicated and not needed for the specified use case.