AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional — Question 559

A company is migrating a legacy application from an on-premises data center to AWS. The application consists of a single application server and a Microsoft SQL
Server database server. Each server is deployed on a VMware VM that consumes 500 TB of data across multiple attached volumes.
The company has established a 10 Gbps AWS Direct Connect connection from the closest AWS Region to its on-premises data center. The Direct Connect connection is not currently in use by other services.
Which combination of steps should a solutions architect take to migrate the application with the LEAST amount of downtime? (Choose two.)

Answer options

• A. Use an AWS Server Migration Service (AWS SMS) replication job to migrate the database server VM to AWS.
• B. Use VM Import/Export to import the application server VM.
• C. Export the VM images to an AWS Snowball Edge Storage Optimized device.
• D. Use an AWS Server Migration Service (AWS SMS) replication job to migrate the application server VM to AWS.
• E. Use an AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) replication instance to migrate the database to an Amazon RDS DB instance.

Correct answer: D, E

Explanation

To migrate the system with the lowest possible downtime, continuous replication methods must be used. Using AWS Server Migration Service (AWS SMS) allows the application server VM to be replicated incrementally over the 10 Gbps Direct Connect connection, minimizing the final cutover window. For the database, AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) is the optimal choice to continuously replicate data changes from the on-premises Microsoft SQL Server to Amazon RDS, ensuring near-zero downtime during the database switchover.