AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional — Question 309

A company has a Microsoft SQL Server database in its data center and plans to migrate data to Amazon Aurora MySQL. The company has already used the AWS
Schema Conversion Tool to migrate triggers, stored procedures and other schema objects to Aurora MySQL. The database contains 1 TB of data and grows less than 1 MB per day. The company's data center is connected to AWS through a dedicated 1Gbps AWS Direct Connect connection.
The company would like to migrate data to Aurora MySQL and perform reconfigurations with minimal downtime to the applications.
Which solution meets the company's requirements?

Answer options

• A. Shut down applications over the weekend. Create an AWS DMS replication instance and task to migrate existing data from SQL Server to Aurora MySQL. Perform application testing and migrate the data to the new database endpoint.
• B. Create an AWS DMS replication instance and task to migrate existing data and ongoing replication from SQL Server to Aurora MySQL. Perform application testing and migrate the data to the new database endpoint.
• C. Create a database snapshot of SQL Server on Amazon S3. Restore the database snapshot from Amazon S3 to Aurora MySQL. Create an AWS DMS replication instance and task for ongoing replication from SQL Server to Aurora MySQL. Perform application testing and migrate the data to the new database endpoint.
• D. Create a SQL Server native backup file on Amazon S3. Create an AWS DMS replication instance and task to restore the SQL Server backup file to Aurora MySQL. Create another AWS DMS task for ongoing replication from SQL Server to Aurora MySQL. Perform application testing and migrate the data to the new database endpoint.

Correct answer: B

Explanation

Using AWS DMS with both full load and ongoing replication (change data capture) allows the source SQL Server database to remain online and interactive during the initial data transfer. Because the database size is 1 TB and growth is minimal, a 1 Gbps Direct Connect link can easily handle both the initial load and the minor daily changes, ensuring a near-zero downtime cutover. Other methods either require significant application downtime (Option A) or attempt unsupported direct restorations between incompatible database engines (Options C and D).