AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C02) — Question 144

A company running an on-premises application is migrating the application to AWS to increase its elasticity and availability. The current architecture uses a
Microsoft SQL Server database with heavy read activity. The company wants to explore alternate database options and migrate database engines, if needed.
Every 4 hours, the development team does a full copy of the production database to populate a test database. During this period, users experience latency.
What should a solutions architect recommend as replacement database?

Answer options

• A. Use Amazon Aurora with Multi-AZ Aurora Replicas and restore from mysqldump for the test database.
• B. Use Amazon Aurora with Multi-AZ Aurora Replicas and restore snapshots from Amazon RDS for the test database.
• C. Use Amazon RDS for MySQL with a Multi-AZ deployment and read replicas, and use the standby instance for the test database.
• D. Use Amazon RDS for SQL Server with a Multi-AZ deployment and read replicas, and restore snapshots from RDS for the test database.

Correct answer: D

Explanation

The correct answer is D because it retains the use of Microsoft SQL Server, ensuring compatibility with existing applications and minimizing migration risks. Options A and B suggest switching to Amazon Aurora, which may require significant application changes. Option C proposes using MySQL, which is not aligned with the current SQL Server setup and could complicate the migration process.