AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) — Question 25

A development team runs monthly resource-intensive tests on its general purpose Amazon RDS for MySQL DB instance with Performance Insights enabled. The testing lasts for 48 hours once a month and is the only process that uses the database. The team wants to reduce the cost of running the tests without reducing the compute and memory attributes of the DB instance.
Which solution meets these requirements MOST cost-effectively?

Answer options

• A. Stop the DB instance when tests are completed. Restart the DB instance when required.
• B. Use an Auto Scaling policy with the DB instance to automatically scale when tests are completed.
• C. Create a snapshot when tests are completed. Terminate the DB instance and restore the snapshot when required.
• D. Modify the DB instance to a low-capacity instance when tests are completed. Modify the DB instance again when required.

Correct answer: C

Explanation

The correct answer is C because creating a snapshot and terminating the DB instance eliminates ongoing costs while preserving the data for later use. Options A and D still incur costs during the downtime, and option B does not address the need for cost reduction since Auto Scaling would still involve running the instance at higher capacities during tests.