Amazon SAA-C03 Exam Questions

To ensure high availability and scalability, the web application should run in an Auto Scaling group across two Availability Zones behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The database should be migrated to Amazon RDS with Multi-AZ deployment, which ensures fault tolerance and automatic failover in case of an AZ failure. This setup minimizes administrative overhead while meeting the company's requirements for high availability and scalability.

Option A: Read replicas are typically used for scaling read operations, and Multi-AZ provides better availability for a transactional database.

Option B: Replicating across AWS Regions adds unnecessary complexity for a single web application.

Option D: EC2 instances across three Availability Zones add unnecessary complexity for this scenario.

AWS Reference:

Auto Scaling Groups

Amazon RDS Multi-AZ

Amazon Aurora Serverless is a cost-effective, on-demand, autoscaling configuration for Amazon Aurora. It automatically adjusts the database's capacity based on the current demand, which is ideal for workloads with variable and unpredictable usage patterns. Since the application is expected to be read-heavy with occasional writes and steady growth, Aurora Serverless can provide the necessary performance without requiring the management of database instances.

Cost-Optimization: Aurora Serverless only charges for the database capacity you use, making it a more cost-effective solution compared to always running provisioned database instances, especially for workloads with fluctuating demand.

Scalability: It automatically scales database capacity up or down based on actual usage, ensuring that you always have the right amount of resources available.

Performance: Aurora Serverless is built on the same underlying storage as Amazon Aurora, providing high performance and availability.

Why Not Other Options?:

Option A (RDS with Provisioned IOPS SSD): While Provisioned IOPS SSD ensures consistent performance, it is generally more expensive and less flexible compared to the autoscaling nature of Aurora Serverless.

Option C (DynamoDB with On-Demand Capacity): DynamoDB is a NoSQL database and may not be the best fit for applications requiring relational database features.

Option D (RDS with Magnetic Storage and Read Replicas): Magnetic storage is outdated and generally slower. While read replicas help with read-heavy workloads, the overall performance might not be optimal, and magnetic storage doesn't provide the necessary performance.

AWS Reference:

Amazon Aurora Serverless - Information on how Aurora Serverless works and its use cases.

Amazon Aurora Pricing - Details on the cost-effectiveness of Aurora Serverless.

This solution is the most cost-effective and efficient way to break down costs per application.

Tagging Resources: By tagging all AWS resources with a specific key (e.g., 'cost') and a value representing the application's name, you can easily identify and categorize costs associated with each application. This tagging strategy allows for granular tracking of costs within AWS.

Activating Cost Allocation Tags: Once tags are applied to resources, you need to activate cost allocation tags in the AWS Billing and Cost Management console. This ensures that the costs associated with each tag are included in your billing reports and can be used for cost analysis.

AWS Cost Explorer: Cost Explorer is a powerful tool that allows you to visualize, understand, and manage your AWS costs and usage over time. You can filter and group your cost data by the tags you've applied to resources, enabling you to easily see the cost breakdown for each application. Cost Explorer also supports generating regular reports, which can be scheduled and emailed to stakeholders.

Why Not Other Options?:

Option A (AWS Budgets): AWS Budgets is more focused on setting cost and usage thresholds and monitoring them, rather than providing detailed cost breakdowns by application.

Option B (Load Cost and Usage Reports into RDS): This approach is less cost-effective and involves more operational overhead, as it requires setting up and maintaining an RDS instance and running SQL queries.

Option D (AWS Billing and Cost Management Console): While you can download bills, this method is more manual and less dynamic compared to using Cost Explorer with activated tags.

AWS Reference:

AWS Tagging Strategies - Overview of how to use tagging to organize and track AWS resources.

AWS Cost Explorer - Details on how to use Cost Explorer to analyze costs.

AWS Backup is the most appropriate solution for managing backups with minimal operational overhead while meeting the regulatory requirement to retain data for 90 days and enabling point-in-time restore for up to 14 days.

AWS Backup: AWS Backup provides a centralized backup management solution that supports automated backup scheduling, retention management, and compliance reporting across AWS services, including Amazon RDS. By creating a backup plan, you can define a retention period (in this case, 90 days) and automate the backup process.

Point-in-Time Restore (PITR): Amazon RDS supports point-in-time restore for up to 35 days with automated backups. By using AWS Backup in conjunction with RDS, you ensure that your backup strategy meets the requirement for restoring data to a specific point in time within the last 14 days.

Why Not Other Options?:

Option A (RDS Automated Backups): While RDS automated backups support PITR, they do not directly support retention beyond 35 days without manual intervention.

Option B (Manual Snapshots): Manually creating and managing snapshots is operationally intensive and less automated compared to AWS Backup.

Option C (Aurora Clones): Aurora Clone is a feature specific to Amazon Aurora and is not applicable to Amazon RDS for Oracle.

AWS Reference:

AWS Backup - Overview of AWS Backup and its capabilities.

Amazon RDS Automated Backups - Information on how RDS automated backups work and their limitations.

AWS Shield Advanced is designed to provide enhanced protection against DDoS attacks with proactive engagement and response capabilities, making it the best solution for this scenario.

AWS Shield Advanced: This service provides advanced protection against DDoS attacks. It includes detailed attack diagnostics, 24/7 access to the AWS DDoS Response Team (DRT), and financial protection against DDoS-related scaling charges. Shield Advanced also integrates with Route 53 and the Application Load Balancer (ALB) to ensure comprehensive protection for your web applications.

Route 53 and ALB Protection: By adding your Route 53 hosted zones and ALB resources to AWS Shield Advanced, you ensure that these components are covered under the enhanced protection plan. Shield Advanced actively monitors traffic and provides real-time attack mitigation, minimizing the impact of DDoS attacks on your application.

Why Not Other Options?:

Option A (AWS Config): AWS Config is a configuration management service and does not provide DDoS protection or detection capabilities.

Option B (AWS WAF): While AWS WAF can help mitigate some types of attacks, it does not provide the comprehensive DDoS protection and proactive engagement offered by Shield Advanced.

Option C (GuardDuty): GuardDuty is a threat detection service that identifies potentially malicious activity within your AWS environment, but it is not specifically designed to provide DDoS protection.

AWS Reference:

AWS Shield Advanced - Overview of AWS Shield Advanced and its DDoS protection capabilities.

Integrating AWS Shield Advanced with Route 53 and ALB - Detailed guidance on how to protect Route 53 and ALB with AWS Shield Advanced.