AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) — Question 851

A company is designing its production application's disaster recovery (DR) strategy. The application is backed by a MySQL database on an Amazon Aurora cluster in the us-east-1 Region. The company has chosen the us-west-1 Region as its DR Region.

The company's target recovery point objective (RPO) is 5 minutes and the target recovery time objective (RTO) is 20 minutes. The company wants to minimize configuration changes.

Which solution will meet these requirements with the MOST operational efficiency?

Answer options

• A. Create an Aurora read replica in us-west-1 similar in size to the production application's Aurora MySQL cluster writer instance.
• B. Convert the Aurora cluster to an Aurora global database. Configure managed failover.
• C. Create a new Aurora cluster in us-west-1 that has Cross-Region Replication.
• D. Create a new Aurora cluster in us-west-1. Use AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) to sync both clusters.

Correct answer: B

Explanation

Converting the existing cluster to an Aurora global database is the most operationally efficient choice because it natively supports sub-second data replication and managed failover, easily meeting the 5-minute RPO and 20-minute RTO. Other solutions, such as setting up manual replication or utilizing AWS DMS, introduce unnecessary configuration complexity and higher operational overhead. Managed failover in Aurora global databases automates the recovery process with minimal changes to application configuration.