AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) — Question 934

A company currently runs an on-premises stock trading application by using Microsoft Windows Server. The company wants to migrate the application to the AWS Cloud.

The company needs to design a highly available solution that provides low-latency access to block storage across multiple Availability Zones.

Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST implementation effort?

Answer options

• A. Configure a Windows Server cluster that spans two Availability Zones on Amazon EC2 instances. Install the application on both cluster nodes. Use Amazon FSx for Windows File Server as shared storage between the two cluster nodes.
• B. Configure a Windows Server cluster that spans two Availability Zones on Amazon EC2 instances. Install the application on both cluster nodes. Use Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) General Purpose SSD (gp3) volumes as storage attached to the EC2 instances. Set up application-level replication to sync data from one EBS volume in one Availability Zone to another EBS volume in the second Availability Zone.
• C. Deploy the application on Amazon EC2 instances in two Availability Zones. Configure one EC2 instance as active and the second EC2 instance in standby mode. Use an Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP Multi-AZ file system to access the data by using Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) protocol.
• D. Deploy the application on Amazon EC2 instances in two Availability Zones. Configure one EC2 instance as active and the second EC2 instance in standby mode. Use Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) Provisioned IOPS SSD (io2) volumes as storage attached to the EC2 instances. Set up Amazon EBS level replication to sync data from one io2 volume in one Availability Zone to another io2 volume in the second Availability Zone.

Correct answer: C

Explanation

Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP Multi-AZ deployments natively support the iSCSI protocol, which provides the required low-latency block storage access across multiple Availability Zones with minimal setup effort. Amazon FSx for Windows File Server provides file-level storage (SMB) rather than block storage, making it unsuitable for this requirement. Other options involving EBS replication across Availability Zones require complex application-level replication or are not natively supported out of the box, leading to significantly higher implementation effort.