A company has migrated a two-tier application from its on-premises data center to the AWS Cloud. The data tier is a Multi-AZ deployment of Amazon RDS for Oracle with 12 TB of General Purpose SSD Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) storage. The application is designed to process and store documents in the database as binary large objects (blobs) with an average document size of 6 MB.
The database size has grown over time, reducing the performance and increasing the cost of storage. The company must improve the database performance and needs a solution that is highly available and resilient.
Which solution will meet these requirements MOST cost-effectively?
A. Reduce the RDS DB instance size. Increase the storage capacity to 24 TiB. Change the storage type to Magnetic.
B. Increase the RDS DB instance size. Increase the storage capacity to 24 TiChange the storage type to Provisioned IOPS.
C. Create an Amazon S3 bucket. Update the application to store documents in the S3 bucket. Store the object metadata in the existing database.
D. Create an Amazon DynamoDB table. Update the application to use DynamoDB. Use AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) to migrate data from the Oracle database to DynamoDB.
Show Answer
Correct Answer: C
Explanation: Storing large binary objects inside an RDS Oracle database increases storage cost and degrades performance as the database grows. Amazon S3 is designed for highly durable, highly available, and cost-effective object storage, making it ideal for documents averaging 6 MB. Moving the blobs to S3 and keeping only object metadata in RDS significantly reduces database size, improves performance, and lowers storage costs while maintaining high availability and resilience. Other options either increase cost, do not address the root cause, or are technically unsuitable (for example, DynamoDB item size limits).
Question 406
A solutions architect is designing an application that will allow business users to upload objects to Amazon S3. The solution needs to maximize object durability. Objects also must be readily available at any time and for any length of time. Users will access objects frequently within the first 30 days after the objects are uploaded, but users are much less likely to access objects that are older than 30 days.
Which solution meets these requirements MOST cost-effectively?
A. Store all the objects in S3 Standard with an S3 Lifecycle rule to transition the objects to S3 Glacier after 30 days.
B. Store all the objects in S3 Standard with an S3 Lifecycle rule to transition the objects to S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (S3 Standard-IA) after 30 days.
C. Store all the objects in S3 Standard with an S3 Lifecycle rule to transition the objects to S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access (S3 One Zone-IA) after 30 days.
D. Store all the objects in S3 Intelligent-Tiering with an S3 Lifecycle rule to transition the objects to S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (S3 Standard-IA) after 30 days.
Show Answer
Correct Answer: B
Explanation: Objects must be highly durable and immediately accessible at any time. S3 Glacier does not provide immediate access, so A is excluded. S3 One Zone-IA stores data in a single AZ and is intended for data that can be re-created, which does not maximize resilience for business data, so C is excluded. S3 Intelligent-Tiering is unnecessary and more expensive here because access patterns are already known (frequent for 30 days, infrequent afterward), so D is not most cost-effective. Using S3 Standard for the first 30 days and transitioning to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days provides 11 nines of durability, multi-AZ availability, immediate access, and lower cost for infrequently accessed data, making B the best choice.
Question 407
A company's infrastructure consists of hundreds of Amazon EC2 instances that use Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) storage. A solutions architect must ensure that every EC2 instance can be recovered after a disaster.
What should the solutions architect do to meet this requirement with the LEAST amount of effort?
A. Take a snapshot of the EBS storage that is attached to each EC2 instance. Create an AWS CloudFormation template to launch new EC2 instances from the EBS storage.
B. Take a snapshot of the EBS storage that is attached to each EC2 instance. Use AWS Elastic Beanstalk to set the environment based on the EC2 template and attach the EBS storage.
C. Use AWS Backup to set up a backup plan for the entire group of EC2 instances. Use the AWS Backup API or the AWS CLI to speed up the restore process for multiple EC2 instances.
D. Create an AWS Lambda function to take a snapshot of the EBS storage that is attached to each EC2 instance and copy the Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). Create another Lambda function to perform the restores with the copied AMIs and attach the EBS storage.
Show Answer
Correct Answer: C
Explanation: The requirement is to recover hundreds of EC2 instances with the least effort. AWS Backup provides a managed, centralized way to back up and restore EC2 instances and their attached EBS volumes using backup plans and policies. It eliminates the need for custom scripts, manual snapshots, or additional services, and supports programmatic, bulk restores through the AWS Backup API or CLI. All other options involve significantly more manual configuration or custom automation, making them higher effort.
Question 408
A company recently migrated to the AWS Cloud. The company wants a serverless solution for large-scale parallel on-demand processing of a semistructured dataset. The data consists of logs, media files, sales transactions, and IoT sensor data that is stored in Amazon S3. The company wants the solution to process thousands of items in the dataset in parallel.
Which solution will meet these requirements with the MOST operational efficiency?
A. Use the AWS Step Functions Map state in Inline mode to process the data in parallel.
B. Use the AWS Step Functions Map state in Distributed mode to process the data in parallel.
C. Use AWS Glue to process the data in parallel.
D. Use several AWS Lambda functions to process the data in parallel.
Show Answer
Correct Answer: B
Explanation: The workload requires a fully serverless solution that can process thousands of S3-based items in parallel with minimal operational overhead. AWS Step Functions Map state in Distributed mode is purpose-built for large-scale parallel data processing, supports up to ~10,000 concurrent iterations, integrates natively with Amazon S3, and automatically manages scaling and orchestration. Inline Map mode has much lower concurrency limits, AWS Glue is better suited for batch ETL rather than on-demand item-level fan-out, and manually coordinating multiple Lambda functions adds unnecessary operational complexity.
Question 409
A company runs its critical database on an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance. The company wants to migrate to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL with minimal downtime and data loss.
Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?
A. Create a DB snapshot of the RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance to populate a new Aurora PostgreSQL DB cluster.
B. Create an Aurora read replica of the RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance. Promote the Aurora read replicate to a new Aurora PostgreSQL DB cluster.
C. Use data import from Amazon S3 to migrate the database to an Aurora PostgreSQL DB cluster.
D. Use the pg_dump utility to back up the RDS for PostgreSQL database. Restore the backup to a new Aurora PostgreSQL DB cluster.
Show Answer
Correct Answer: B
Explanation: Creating an Aurora read replica from the existing RDS for PostgreSQL instance enables continuous replication, minimizing downtime and data loss. Once replication lag is zero, the replica can be promoted to a standalone Aurora PostgreSQL cluster. This approach is AWS-managed, requires minimal manual steps, and has the least operational overhead compared to snapshots, exports/imports, or pg_dump restores, all of which introduce more downtime and manual effort.
Question 410
A company is planning to migrate a TCP-based application into the company's VPC. The application is publicly accessible on a nonstandard TCP port through a hardware appliance in the company's data center. This public endpoint can process up to 3 million requests per second with low latency. The company requires the same level of performance for the new public endpoint in AWS.
What should a solutions architect recommend to meet this requirement?
A. Deploy a Network Load Balancer (NLB). Configure the NLB to be publicly accessible over the TCP port that the application requires.
B. Deploy an Application Load Balancer (ALB). Configure the ALB to be publicly accessible over the TCP port that the application requires.
C. Deploy an Amazon CloudFront distribution that listens on the TCP port that the application requires. Use an Application Load Balancer as the origin.
D. Deploy an Amazon API Gateway API that is configured with the TCP port that the application requires. Configure AWS Lambda functions with provisioned concurrency to process the requests.
Show Answer
Correct Answer: A
Explanation: The requirement is a publicly accessible endpoint for a TCP-based application on a nonstandard port with extremely high throughput (millions of requests per second) and low latency. A Network Load Balancer operates at Layer 4 (TCP/UDP), supports arbitrary TCP ports, and is designed to handle millions of requests per second with very low latency. Application Load Balancers and API Gateway are HTTP/HTTPS (Layer 7) services and do not support generic TCP traffic, and CloudFront is a CDN for HTTP(S) content, not raw TCP applications.
Question 411
A company will migrate 10 PB of data to Amazon S3 in 6 weeks. The current data center has a 500 Mbps uplink to the internet. Other on-premises applications share the uplink. The company can use 80% of the internet bandwidth for this one-time migration task.
Which solution will meet these requirements?
A. Configure AWS DataSync to migrate the data to Amazon S3 and to automatically verify the data.
B. Use rsync to transfer the data directly to Amazon S3.
C. Use the AWS CLI and multiple copy processes to send the data directly to Amazon S3.
D. Order multiple AWS Snowball devices. Copy the data to the devices. Send the devices to AWS to copy the data to Amazon S3.
Show Answer
Correct Answer: D
Explanation: 10 PB must be migrated in 6 weeks, but only 80% of a 500 Mbps uplink (≈400 Mbps) is available. At that rate, transferring 10 PB over the internet would take several years, making any network-based solution (DataSync, rsync, AWS CLI) infeasible. AWS Snowball supports large-scale, offline data transfer at petabyte scale and is specifically designed for situations where network bandwidth or time constraints make online transfer impractical. Ordering multiple Snowball devices can meet the 6‑week requirement.
Question 412
A company has deployed its newest product on AWS. The product runs in an Auto Scaling group behind a Network Load Balancer. The company stores the product’s objects in an Amazon S3 bucket.
The company recently experienced malicious attacks against its systems. The company needs a solution that continuously monitors for malicious activity in the AWS account, workloads, and access patterns to the S3 bucket. The solution must also report suspicious activity and display the information on a dashboard.
Which solution will meet these requirements?
A. Configure Amazon Macie to monitor and report findings to AWS Config.
B. Configure Amazon Inspector to monitor and report findings to AWS CloudTrail.
C. Configure Amazon GuardDuty to monitor and report findings to AWS Security Hub.
D. Configure AWS Config to monitor and report findings to Amazon EventBridge.
Show Answer
Correct Answer: C
Explanation: Amazon GuardDuty is a managed threat detection service that continuously monitors AWS accounts, workloads, network activity, and S3 data access for malicious or suspicious behavior by analyzing CloudTrail logs, VPC Flow Logs, and DNS logs. It can detect compromised instances, anomalous API calls, and suspicious S3 access patterns. Sending GuardDuty findings to AWS Security Hub provides centralized reporting, alerts, and a security dashboard, meeting the monitoring and visualization requirements. Other options focus on data classification (Macie), vulnerability scanning (Inspector), or configuration compliance (AWS Config), not continuous threat detection.
Question 413
A company wants to migrate an on-premises data center to AWS. The data center hosts a storage server that stores data in an NFS-based file system. The storage server holds 200 GB of data. The company needs to migrate the data without interruption to existing services. Multiple resources in AWS must be able to access the data by using the NFS protocol.
Which combination of steps will meet these requirements MOST cost-effectively? (Choose two.)
A. Create an Amazon FSx for Lustre file system.
B. Create an Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) file system.
C. Create an Amazon S3 bucket to receive the data.
D. Manually use an operating system copy command to push the data into the AWS destination.
E. Install an AWS DataSync agent in the on-premises data center. Use a DataSync task between the on-premises location and AWS.
Show Answer
Correct Answer: B, E
Explanation: The data must remain available via NFS and be accessible by multiple AWS resources, which is exactly what Amazon EFS provides. To migrate 200 GB from an on-premises NFS server without interrupting existing services, AWS DataSync is the most cost-effective and reliable option because it supports NFS, performs incremental synchronization, and minimizes downtime. Other options either do not support NFS access, are not designed for this use case, or would require manual, disruptive copying.
Question 414
A company uses Amazon API Gateway to manage its REST APIs that third-party service providers access. The company must protect the REST APIs from SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks.
What is the MOST operationally efficient solution that meets these requirements?
A. Configure AWS Shield.
B. Configure AWS WAF.
C. Set up API Gateway with an Amazon CloudFront distribution. Configure AWS Shield in CloudFront.
D. Set up API Gateway with an Amazon CloudFront distribution. Configure AWS WAF in CloudFront.
Show Answer
Correct Answer: B
Explanation: AWS WAF is specifically designed to protect web applications and APIs from layer 7 attacks such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS). API Gateway integrates directly with AWS WAF, making this the most operationally efficient solution. AWS Shield focuses on DDoS protection and does not address SQLi or XSS, and adding CloudFront is unnecessary overhead when the requirement is only application-layer attack protection.
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