Configure cross-Region WorkSpaces redirection with connection aliases and Route 53 failover

SAP-C02 By islever Editorial Last updated

Design a solution to ensure business continuity. Design a strategy to meet reliability requirements.

Short answer

A Create a connection alias in each Region, associate each with its local directory, and add a Route 53 failover policy with Evaluate Target Health set to Yes.

Question

A company recently completed a successful proof of concept of Amazon WorkSpaces. A solutions architect needs to make the solution highly available across two AWS Regions. Amazon WorkSpaces is deployed in a failover Region, and a hosted zone is deployed in Amazon Route 53. What should the solutions architect do to configure high availability for the solution?
  1. Create a connection alias in the primary Region and in the failover Region. Associate the connection aliases with a directory in each Region. Create a Route 53 failover routing policy. Set Evaluate Target Health to Yes. Correct Answer
  2. Create a connection alias in the primary Region and in the failover Region. Associate the connection aliases with a directory in the primary Region. Create a Route 53 multivalue answer routing policy.
  3. Create a connection alias in the primary Region. Associate the connection alias with a directory in the primary Region. Create a Route 53 weighted routing policy.
  4. Create a connection alias in the primary Region Associate the connection alias with a directory in the failover Region. Create a Route 53 failover routing policy. Set Evaluate Target Health to Yes.

Key Takeaways

Cross-Region redirection requires a connection alias in each Region associated with a directory in that same Region, and the Route 53 failover record with Evaluate Target Health set to Yes moves the client connection to the failover Region when the primary target fails health checks.

A proven WorkSpaces deployment must become highly available across two Regions, with the failover Region already deployed and a Route 53 hosted zone in place. Users should reach their WorkSpace through a stable name that follows the active Region.

Common mistake: Creating the connection alias in the primary Region but associating it with a directory in the failover Region. A connection alias can only be associated with a directory in the same Region, so the association must exist in each Region for redirection to work.

Expert Analysis

Why the Answer Is Correct

The AWS cross-Region redirection guidance requires you to create a connection alias in each Region and associate each alias with the directory in its own Region, then point a Route 53 failover routing record at the two aliases with Evaluate Target Health set to Yes. When health checks determine the primary alias is unhealthy, the record resolves to the failover Region alias, and the WorkSpaces client is redirected without the user doing anything.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

B: A multivalue answer record returns several healthy targets and lets Route 53 choose arbitrarily, so it gives no primary-to-failover ordering and no health-based redirection. It also associates the aliases with a directory in only one Region, which leaves the other alias unbacked. C: A weighted routing record only splits traffic by the weights you assign and does not perform health-based failover, and no alias exists in the failover Region. D: The connection alias in the primary Region is associated with a directory in the failover Region, which is not possible because a connection alias belongs to a directory in its own Region.

Community Comment Notes

The community voted 74 to 26 for A over D. The dissent for D cited the cross-Region redirection documentation, but the decisive constraint is that a connection alias can only be associated with a directory inside the same Region, so the correct answer must create and associate aliases in both Regions.

Official Reference

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/workspaces/latest/adminguide/cross-region-redirection.html

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

Community Votes

A
74%
D
26%

74% 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. d7ccbf6 👍 6 Answered D
    https://docs.aws.amazon.com/workspaces/latest/adminguide/cross-region-redirection.html#cross-region-redirection-associate-connection-aliases
  2. ujizane 👍 6 Answered A
    A https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ja_jp/workspaces/latest/adminguide/cross-region-redirection.html
  3. zapper1234 👍 4
    Believe the answer is A becuase the two distinct Workspaces directories would give you two IP's for truc failover
  4. NoinNothing 👍 3
    Answer is A - A. Create a connection alias in the primary Region and in the failover Region. Associate the connection aliases with a directory in each Region. Create a Route 53 failover routing policy. Set Evaluate Target Health to Yes.
  5. 0b43291 👍 1 Answered A
    By following Option A, you can achieve high availability for your Amazon WorkSpaces solution across two AWS Regions, with automatic failover and health monitoring provided by the Route 53 failover routing policy and connection aliases associated with WorkSpaces directories in each Region. The other options are either incomplete or incorrect: Option B (multivalue answer routing policy) is not suitable for failover scenarios, as it distributes traffic across multiple resources simultaneously, rather than failing over to a secondary resource when the primary becomes unavailable. Option C (weighted routing policy) is used for distributing traffic based on predefined weights, but it does not provide automatic failover capabilities based on health checks. Option D is incorrect because it associates the connection alias with the failover Region's directory, which would make the failover Region the primary deployment, defeating the purpose of having a failover configuration.
Show 7 more comments
  1. AzureDP900 👍 1
    A is right Creating connection aliases in both Regions ensures that users can access the WorkSpaces instance from either region. Associating the connection aliases with directories in each Region allows for load balancing and redirection of traffic between the two Regions. Creating a Route 53 failover routing policy enables Amazon Route 53 to direct users from the primary Region to the failover Region if there's an issue with the primary Region. Setting Evaluate Target Health to Yes ensures that Route 53 continuously monitors the health of the WorkSpaces instance in both Regions and directs traffic accordingly.
  2. bhanus 👍 1 Answered A
    https://docs.aws.amazon.com/workspaces/latest/adminguide/cross-region-redirection.html#cross-region-redirection-create-connection-aliases Using the same AWS account, create connection aliases in each primary and failover Region where you want to set up cross-Region redirection.
  3. PSPaul 👍 1
    For A: Potential latency increase due to cross-region access For B:Potential data consistency issues if failover occurs I choose A
  4. JoeTromundo 👍 1 Answered A
    "You can associate a connection alias with ONLY ONE directory per AWS Region." So, it can't be D.
  5. mark_232323 👍 4 Answered A
    A for sure
  6. Moghite 👍 2 Answered A
    I will go with option A
  7. vip2 👍 2 Answered A
    A is correct

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