Aurora Global Database Active-Passive DR Strategy

SAA-C03 By islever Editorial Last updated

Design highly available and/or fault-tolerant architectures.

Short answer

A Deploy minimal EC2 capacity in a second Region, convert Aurora MySQL to an Aurora global database, and configure Route 53 active-passive failover.

Question

A company runs a web application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application stores data in an Amazon Aurora MySQL DB cluster. The company needs to create a disaster recovery (DR) solution. The acceptable recovery time for the DR solution is up to 30 minutes. The DR solution does not need to support customer usage when the primary infrastructure is healthy. Which solution will meet these requirements?
  1. Deploy the DR infrastructure in a second AWS Region with an ALB and an Auto Scaling group. Set the desired capacity and maximum capacity of the Auto Scaling group to a minimum value. Convert the Aurora MySQL DB cluster to an Aurora global database. Configure Amazon Route 53 for an active-passive failover with ALB endpoints. Correct Answer
  2. Deploy the DR infrastructure in a second AWS Region with an ALUpdate the Auto Scaling group to include EC2 instances from the second Region. Use Amazon Route 53 to configure active-active failover. Convert the Aurora MySQL DB cluster to an Aurora global database.
  3. Back up the Aurora MySQL DB cluster data by using AWS Backup. Deploy the DR infrastructure in a second AWS Region with an ALB. Update the Auto Scaling group to include EC2 instances from the second Region. Use Amazon Route 53 to configure active-active failover. Create an Aurora MySQL DB cluster in the second Region Restore the data from the backup.
  4. Back up the infrastructure configuration by using AWS Backup. Use the backup to create the required infrastructure in a second AWS Region. Set the Auto Scaling group desired capacity to zero. Use Amazon Route 53 to configure active-passive failover. Convert the Aurora MySQL DB cluster to an Aurora global database.

Key Takeaways

The key trap is distinguishing between Warm Standby (minimal running resources) and Pilot Light (zero running resources), where Aurora Global Database's continuous replication enables rapid promotion.

This question evaluates the design of a cost-optimized disaster recovery solution using Aurora Global Database and Route 53 active-passive failover to meet a 30-minute RTO.

Common mistake: Many candidates choose D, misidentifying it as a Pilot Light strategy; however, with Aurora Global Database, the standby region must have active database nodes for instant promotion, making zero capacity unviable for the required RTO.

Expert Analysis

Why the Answer Is Correct

Option A correctly implements a Warm Standby architecture. By setting the Auto Scaling group's desired and maximum capacity to a minimum value (typically one instance or zero depending on specific implementation nuances, but conceptually 'minimal'), costs are kept low while maintaining the necessary infrastructure framework. The use of Aurora Global Database provides asynchronous cross-region replication, allowing the secondary DB cluster to be promoted in seconds to minutes, easily satisfying the 30-minute RTO. Route 53 active-passive failover ensures traffic only flows to the DR region during an outage.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

Option B uses active-active failover, which violates the requirement that the DR solution does not need to support customer usage when primary is healthy, leading to unnecessary cost. Option C relies on AWS Backup restoration, which typically takes hours to complete, far exceeding the 30-minute RTO. Option D suggests setting the Auto Scaling group desired capacity to zero. While this describes a Pilot Light model for compute, it fails for the database if interpreted strictly as 'no resources', but more importantly, Option A is the standard best practice for 'Warm Standby' with Aurora Global DB because the global DB requires active read replicas in the DR region to facilitate fast promotion, whereas 'Pilot Light' often implies restoring from snapshot/backup which is slower than global DB promotion.

Community Comment Notes

Community consensus strongly favors Option A, citing that Aurora Global Database allows for rapid promotion compared to backup restores. As user spoved noted, "The DR solution does not need to support customer usage... -> Pilot Light" is a common misconception; the prompt describes a Warm Standby scenario effectively managed by Option A. Users like LeonSauveterre pointed out that restoring from AWS Backup (Options C and D's implication) can take hours, disqualifying them for a 30-minute RTO.

Official Reference

These links open the official vendor documentation in a new tab.

Exam Strategy

When evaluating DR strategies, always check the RTO first. If it is short (<1 hour) and data is critical, consider Always-On or Warm Standby with continuous replication (like Aurora Global DB). Avoid solutions relying on manual backups or snapshots unless the RTO is longer (hours).

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Option D considered incorrect despite having zero capacity?

Option D sets the ASG capacity to zero, implying no instances are running. For a 30-minute RTO with Aurora Global DB, you need the database infrastructure ready to promote immediately. While global DB is fast, Option A represents the 'Warm Standby' pattern more accurately by keeping minimal resources alive, whereas D might imply a slower start-up sequence or misinterpretation of Pilot Light vs Warm Standby.

Can Aurora Global Database meet a 30-minute RTO?

Yes. Aurora Global Database replicates data asynchronously across regions. Promoting a secondary cluster to primary status typically takes less than a minute, well within the 30-minute limit.

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Community Votes

A
70%
D
30%

70% of anonymous learners picked answer A. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.

Discussion 12 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 12

  1. spoved 👍 7 Answered D
    https://docs.aws.amazon.com/whitepapers/latest/disaster-recovery-workloads-on-aws/disaster-recovery-options-in-the-cloud.html The DR solution does not need to support customer usage when the primary infrastructure is healthy. -> Pilot Light
  2. LeonSauveterre 👍 4 Answered A
    Well just a thought, I hate it when each option looks like a valid one... I think I'll go with A because it seems to me other options are somewhat flawed compared to A. B - "The DR solution does not need to support customer usage when the primary infrastructure is healthy." So active-active failover is not necessary. C - Restoring a database from AWS Backup can take hours to complete, let alone the 30-minute RTO. If I remember it correcly, it can take up to 7 days? D - Just like C. One more thing about option D, the desired capacity parameter in an Auto Scaling group determines the number of EC2 instances that should be running. By setting it to 0, the group will not launch any EC2 instances during normal operations, so costs are reduced when idle. That's a plus actually.
  3. Liongeek 👍 4 Answered A
    RTO 30 min has to be warm standby. AWS Backup DOES NOT back up configuration, it backs up DATA
  4. JA2018 👍 3 Answered A
    I will choose Option A for the following options: #1 - Active-passive failover: This aligns with the requirement of a DR solution that doesn't need to support customer usage during normal operations, meaning the secondary region only activates when a primary failure occurs. # 2 - Minimal Auto Scaling group capacity: Setting the desired and maximum capacity to a minimum value ensures minimal cost when the DR infrastructure is not actively used. # 3 - Aurora Global Database: Converting the Aurora cluster to a global database allows for fast failover to the secondary region, meeting the 30-minute recovery time objective. #4 - Separate AWS Region: Deploying the DR infrastructure in a different region provides geographic redundancy, crucial for disaster recovery.
  5. Anyio 👍 3 Answered A
    The correct answer is A. Explanation: Option A: Correct. This solution sets up disaster recovery infrastructure in a secondary region with minimal running costs by keeping the Auto Scaling group's desired and maximum capacity low. By converting the Aurora MySQL DB cluster to an Aurora global database, the company can provide rapid cross-region replication and promote the standby database to primary if needed, minimizing downtime. Configuring active-passive failover using Route 53 ensures the DR system is only activated when necessary, aligning with the requirement of not supporting customer usage when the primary infrastructure is healthy.
Show 7 more comments
  1. elmyth 👍 3 Answered D
    It can be A, if minimum value = 0. It Can be D, if this approach is implemented before the disaster. And "Set the Auto Scaling group desired capacity to zero" means that it supposed to be done before the disaster.
  2. Salilgen 👍 3 Answered A
    The question doesn't ask about the most cost effective solution. A is the option that ensures the lowest recovery time
  3. Penjerla 👍 3 Answered A
    Restoring Database from AWS back up could take from a few min to several hours. So not D
  4. Atdotcom 👍 2 Answered D
    D is pilot-light because desired min capacity =0 so ressources are live , services idle, RTO 10s.Ressources are provisionned and scale after even.
  5. zdi561 👍 1 Answered D
    A is not right because the max and min are set to minimum which is zero. and the global table use resource.
  6. EllenLiu 👍 1 Answered D
    pilot light, set auto scaling group desired capacity to 0
  7. chwieobjom 👍 12 Answered A
    RTO 30 minute, warm standby.

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