Create an FSx for NetApp ONTAP instance in the DR Region with a 5-minute SnapMirror schedule
A company discovers that its production environment and disaster recovery (DR) environment are deployed to the same AWS Region. All the production applications run on Amazon EC2 instances and are deployed by AWS CloudFormation. The applications use an Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP volume for application storage. No application data resides on the EC2 instances. A DevOps engineer copies the required AMIs to a new DR Region. The DevOps engineer also updates the CloudFormation code to accept a Region as a parameter. The storage needs to have an RPO of 10 minutes in the DR Region. Which solution will meet these requirements?
Community Votes
100% of anonymous learners picked answer D. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.
Community Insight
The data lives on an ONTAP volume and the target is a ten-minute RPO, so the replication mechanism must be one that operates on ONTAP volumes at a five-minute cadence, which is exactly what a volume-level SnapMirror schedule provides (D). Because SnapMirror replicates only changed blocks incrementally, a five-minute schedule is inexpensive while still meeting the objective, which is what makes it cost-effective. Option A routes the data through S3 with a scheduled Lambda, adding a copy step that is not ONTAP-native. Option B targets the EC2 instances, which the scenario states hold no application data. Option C targets instance store volumes, which likewise hold no application data.
The application data does not reside on the EC2 instances, so the recovery objective applies to the FSx for NetApp ONTAP volume, and the compute and its AMIs are already handled separately. The requirement is a ten-minute RPO for that storage in the DR Region. Creating an FSx for NetApp ONTAP instance in the DR Region and configuring a five-minute volume-level NetApp SnapMirror schedule replicates the volume from the production Region to the DR Region on a cadence well inside the objective, using ONTAP's native incremental replication.
Creating S3 buckets in both Regions with cross-Region replication plus a scheduled Lambda to copy new FSx content to S3 (A) — this requires the application data to be written to S3 as an additional copy on a schedule, adding a bucket, a Lambda, and a copy job rather than replicating the ONTAP volume itself, and the Lambda-based cadence plus S3 replication does not provide the volume-level incremental replication the objective needs. Using AWS Backup with a custom plan at ten-minute frequency targeting the DR Region and assigning the EC2 instances (B) — as the scenario states, no application data resides on the EC2 instances, so backing them up does not protect the application data at all. Using a Lambda to snapshot instance store volumes and copy the snapshots (C) — instance store volumes hold no application data here, and instance store contents are not persistent across instance stops, so this approach protects nothing relevant.
Community Discussion (3 comments)
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Expert Analysis
Why the Answer Is Correct
The scenario establishes that no application data resides on the EC2 instances, so the recovery objective applies to the Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP volume that provides application storage. The AMIs and the CloudFormation Region parameter are already handled, which leaves the storage replication as the remaining requirement. Creating an FSx for NetApp ONTAP instance in the DR Region gives the DR environment a managed ONTAP file system, and configuring a five-minute volume-level NetApp SnapMirror schedule replicates the volume from the production Region to the DR Region on that cadence (D). Because SnapMirror transfers only changed blocks incrementally, a five-minute schedule comfortably meets the ten-minute RPO at modest cost, and ONTAP replication is native to the platform rather than bolted on. Srikantha noted this delivers continuous low-latency replication that meets the ten-minute RPO efficiently. D is the correct answer.Why the Other Options Are Wrong
A creates an Amazon S3 bucket in each Region with cross-Region replication and a scheduled Lambda function to copy new content from the FSx for ONTAP volume into the production Region's bucket. This introduces a bucket, a Lambda, and a scheduled copy job, and it depends on the application data being written to S3 as a secondary copy rather than replicating the ONTAP volume itself, so it does not provide volume-level incremental replication at the required cadence. B uses AWS Backup with a custom backup plan at ten-minute frequency, specifies the DR Region as the target, and assigns the EC2 instances in the production Region to the plan. The scenario states explicitly that no application data resides on the EC2 instances, so backing up and replicating those instances does not protect the application data at all. C creates a Lambda function that snapshots the instance store volumes attached to the EC2 instances, copies the snapshots to the DR Region, and removes previous copies on a ten-minute schedule. Instance store volumes hold no application data in this scenario, and their contents are not durable across instance stops, so this approach protects nothing relevant and adds recurring snapshot-copy cost. D is correct.Community Comment Notes
Community voted D unanimously. Srikantha explained that FSx for ONTAP SnapMirror with a five-minute replication schedule ensures continuous low-latency replication and meets the ten-minute RPO requirement efficiently. f4b18ba described the implementation steps, creating an FSx for ONTAP instance in the new DR Region and setting up SnapMirror replication from the FSx in the production Region. matt200 confirmed D. No alternative received support.Official Reference
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