AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) — Question 595

A company runs a production database on Amazon RDS for MySQL. The company wants to upgrade the database version for security compliance reasons. Because the database contains critical data, the company wants a quick solution to upgrade and test functionality without losing any data.

Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

Answer options

• A. Create an RDS manual snapshot. Upgrade to the new version of Amazon RDS for MySQL.
• B. Use native backup and restore. Restore the data to the upgraded new version of Amazon RDS for MySQL.
• C. Use AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) to replicate the data to the upgraded new version of Amazon RDS for MySQL.
• D. Use Amazon RDS Blue/Green Deployments to deploy and test production changes.

Correct answer: D

Explanation

Amazon RDS Blue/Green Deployments provides a fully managed environment that allows users to safely test database upgrades on a separate staging environment before promoting it to production, minimizing both downtime and data loss risk with the least operational effort. Other methods like manual snapshots, native backup and restore, or AWS DMS require significantly more manual configuration, monitoring, and downtime, which increases operational overhead.