Aurora Global Database for Disaster Recovery

SAA-C03 By islever Editorial Last updated

Determine appropriate data security controls.

Short answer

B Convert the Aurora cluster to an Aurora global database and configure managed failover to meet RPO and RTO with minimal operations.

Question

A company is designing its production application's disaster recovery (DR) strategy. The application is backed by a MySQL database on an Amazon Aurora cluster in the us-east-1 Region. The company has chosen the us-west-1 Region as its DR Region. The company's target recovery point objective (RPO) is 5 minutes and the target recovery time objective (RTO) is 20 minutes. The company wants to minimize configuration changes. Which solution will meet these requirements with the MOST operational efficiency?
  1. Create an Aurora read replica in us-west-1 similar in size to the production application's Aurora MySQL cluster writer instance.
  2. Convert the Aurora cluster to an Aurora global database. Configure managed failover. Correct Answer
  3. Create a new Aurora cluster in us-west-1 that has Cross-Region Replication.
  4. Create a new Aurora cluster in us-west-1. Use AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) to sync both clusters.

Key Takeaways

Tests knowledge of managed disaster recovery services; the trap is choosing manual replication tools that increase operational overhead.

Aurora Global Database provides synchronous cross-region replication with automated failover, meeting strict RPO and RTO requirements with high operational efficiency. This page explains why it is the optimal choice over manual replication or DMS.

Common mistake: Option C (Cross-Region Replication) is often chosen incorrectly because it lacks the integrated, automated failover management provided by Global Database.

Expert Analysis

Why the Answer Is Correct

Aurora Global Database replicates data synchronously across regions with a latency of less than one second, easily satisfying the 5-minute RPO. It supports managed failover, allowing automatic promotion of the secondary cluster to read/write within minutes, which meets the 20-minute RTO. This minimizes configuration changes and operational effort compared to manual setups.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

Option A (Read Replica) does not support automatic write failover; promotion requires manual intervention or specific scripts, increasing operational complexity. Option C (Cross-Region Replication) is typically asynchronous or requires more manual setup for failover compared to the native integration of Global Database. Option D (DMS) introduces significant operational overhead for synchronization and cutover, failing the 'most operational efficiency' criteria.

Community Comment Notes

The community unanimously agrees on B, noting that Aurora Global Database enables fast local reads and disaster recovery from region-wide outages. As Scheldon noted, "An Aurora cluster can recover in less than 1 minute," highlighting the speed advantage. LeonSauveterre emphasized that global databases are synchronous and provide automated failover, distinguishing them from standard replicas.

Official Reference

https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/global-database/

This link opens the official vendor documentation in a new tab.

Exam Strategy

When DR questions mention 'operational efficiency' and 'minimize configuration', look for fully managed, integrated solutions like Aurora Global Database or Multi-AZ, rather than DIY replication or third-party tools.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why not use Cross-Region Replication?

Cross-Region Replication often involves asynchronous replication and lacks the seamless, managed automated failover capabilities inherent to Aurora Global Database.

Does Aurora Global Database impact performance?

No, it replicates data with no impact on database performance, providing low-latency reads and synchronous writes to secondary regions.

More SAA-C03 FAQ →

Community Votes

B
100%

100% of anonymous learners picked answer B. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.

Discussion 5 contributions

Compiled from public community threads and reader submissions, lightly edited for clarity. Handles and vote tallies are shown as recorded, and comments reflect the views of individual contributors.

From public community threads 5

  1. Scheldon 👍 3 Answered B
    Answer:B https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/global-database/ Cross-Region disaster recovery If your primary Region suffers a performance degradation or outage, you can promote one of the secondary Regions to take read/write responsibilities. An Aurora cluster can recover in less than 1 minute, even in the event of a complete Regional outage. This provides your application with an effective recovery point objective (RPO) of 1 second and a recovery time objective (RTO) of less than 1 minute, providing a strong foundation for a global business continuity plan.
  2. sandordini 👍 3 Answered B
    Aurora Global Database: allowing a single Amazon Aurora database to span multiple AWS Regions. It replicates your data with no impact on database performance, enables fast local reads with low latency in each Region, and provides disaster recovery from Region-wide outages.
  3. EdricHoang 👍 2 Answered B
    I go for B. However, C is also a good option except manual failover intervention
  4. LeonSauveterre 👍 1 Answered B
    A - Read replicas can't automatically provide failover in the event of a disaster. B - Aurora Global Databases are designed for cross-region replication and are synchronous, which means they can meet a low RPO (within seconds). Then failover is automated, meaning that if the primary region fails, traffic can be redirected to the secondary region automatically. C - Aurora does not automatically fail over with cross-region replication. You need to promote the replica manually, which could take longer than 20 minutes. The 5-minute RPO might not be met either. D - Well, just too much work to do manually. Let's simply rule it out.
  5. muhammadahmer36 👍 1 Answered B
    B. Convert the Aurora cluster to an Aurora global database. Configure managed failover.

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