AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional — Question 731

A company is migrating an on-premises application and a MySQL database to AWS. The application processes highly sensitive data, and new data is constantly updated in the database. The data must not be transferred over the internet. The company also must encrypt the data in transit and at rest.

The database is 5 TB in size. The company already has created the database schema in an Amazon RDS for MySQL DB instance. The company has set up a 1 Gbps AWS Direct Connect connection to AWS. The company also has set up a public VIF and a private VIF. A solutions architect needs to design a solution that will migrate the data to AWS with the least possible downtime.

Which solution will meet these requirements?

Answer options

• A. Perform a database backup. Copy the backup files to an AWS Snowball Edge Storage Optimized device. Import the backup to Amazon S3. Use server-side encryption with Amazon S3 managed encryption keys (SSE-S3) for encryption at rest. Use TLS for encryption in transit. Import the data from Amazon S3 to the DB instance.
• B. Use AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) to migrate the data to AWS. Create a DMS replication instance in a private subnet. Create VPC endpoints for AWS DMS. Configure a DMS task to copy data from the on-premises database to the DB instance by using full load plus change data capture (CDC). Use the AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) default key for encryption at rest. Use TLS for encryption in transit.
• C. Perform a database backup. Use AWS DataSync to transfer the backup files to Amazon S3. Use server-side encryption with Amazon S3 managed encryption keys (SSE-S3) for encryption at rest. Use TLS for encryption in transit. Import the data from Amazon S3 to the DB instance.
• D. Use Amazon S3 File Gateway. Set up a private connection to Amazon S3 by using AWS PrivateLink. Perform a database backup. Copy the backup files to Amazon S3. Use server-side encryption with Amazon S3 managed encryption keys (SSE-S3) for encryption at rest. Use TLS for encryption in transit. Import the data from Amazon S3 to the DB instance.

Correct answer: B

Explanation

AWS DMS with Change Data Capture (CDC) enables continuous replication from the on-premises MySQL database to Amazon RDS, which achieves the lowest possible downtime. Deploying the DMS replication instance in a private subnet with VPC endpoints and using the existing AWS Direct Connect private VIF ensures that sensitive data is transferred securely over a private connection rather than the public internet. Other options rely on one-time backups and transfers to S3, which do not support continuous replication and would result in significant application downtime during the final switchover.