AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional — Question 859

An on-premises application will be migrated to the cloud. The application consists of a single Elasticsearch virtual machine with data source feeds from local systems that will not be migrated, and a Java web application on Apache Tomcat running on three virtual machines. The Elasticsearch server currently uses 1 TB of storage out of 16 TB available storage, and the web application is updated every 4 months. Multiple users access the web application from the Internet. There is a 10Gbit AWS Direct Connect connection established, and the application can be migrated over a scheduled 48-hour change window.
Which strategy will have the LEAST impact on the Operations staff after the migration?

Answer options

• A. Create an Elasticsearch server on Amazon EC2 right-sized with 2 TB of Amazon EBS and a public AWS Elastic Beanstalk environment for the web application. Pause the data sources, export the Elasticsearch index from on premises, and import into the EC2 Elasticsearch server. Move data source feeds to the new Elasticsearch server and move users to the web application.
• B. Create an Amazon ES cluster for Elasticsearch and a public AWS Elastic Beanstalk environment for the web application. Use AWS DMS to replicate Elasticsearch data. When replication has finished, move data source feeds to the new Amazon ES cluster endpoint and move users to the new web application.
• C. Use the AWS SMS to replicate the virtual machines into AWS. When the migration is complete, pause the data source feeds and start the migrated Elasticsearch and web application instances. Place the web application instances behind a public Elastic Load Balancer. Move the data source feeds to the new Elasticsearch server and move users to the new web Application Load Balancer.
• D. Create an Amazon ES cluster for Elasticsearch and a public AWS Elastic Beanstalk environment for the web application. Pause the data source feeds, export the Elasticsearch index from on premises, and import into the Amazon ES cluster. Move the data source feeds to the new Amazon ES cluster endpoint and move users to the new web application.

Correct answer: D

Explanation

Using managed services like Amazon ES (now Amazon OpenSearch Service) and AWS Elastic Beanstalk significantly reduces the administrative and operational burden on the IT staff post-migration compared to managing raw EC2 instances or VMs. Migrating 1 TB of Elasticsearch data is easily completed within the 48-hour change window over a 10Gbit Direct Connect connection by pausing the feeds, performing an export/import, and avoiding the complexity of AWS DMS which is not optimal for this specific VM-to-managed-service shift.