AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C02) — Question 660

A company has a Windows-based application that must be migrated to AWS. The application requires the use of a shared Windows file system attached to multiple Amazon EC2 Windows instances that are deployed across multiple Availability Zones.
What should a solutions architect do to meet this requirement?

Answer options

• A. Configure AWS Storage Gateway in volume gateway mode. Mount the volume to each Windows instances.
• B. Configure Amazon FSx for Windows File Server. Mount the Amazon FSx file system to each Windows instance.
• C. Configure a file system by using Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS). Mount the EFS file system to each Windows instance.
• D. Configure an Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volume with the required size. Attach each EC2 instance to the volume. Mount the file system within the volume to each Windows instance.

Correct answer: B

Explanation

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server is the correct choice because it provides fully managed, highly reliable shared file storage that natively supports the SMB protocol used by Windows. Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) is designed for Linux workloads and does not natively support Windows instances. Amazon EBS volumes and AWS Storage Gateway do not provide a native, multi-AZ shared file system solution for multiple Windows EC2 instances.