AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – ProfessionalResilient Cloud SolutionsMedium

A company uses Amazon Aurora MySQL for its critical relational database. To enhance disaster recovery capabilities and minimize data loss (RPO) and downtime (RTO) in the event of a regional outage, they want to establish a cross-Region disaster recovery solution. They also need to be able to promote the secondary database to primary with minimal data loss and downtime. Which Aurora feature should they implement?

  1. ASet up a cross-Region read replica for the Aurora database.
  2. BConfigure Aurora Global Database.
  3. CImplement a custom solution using AWS DMS to replicate data to another Region.
  4. DUtilize AWS Backup to regularly back up the Aurora cluster to another Region.
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B. Configure Aurora Global Database.

Aurora Global Database is designed for global applications, allowing a single Aurora database to span multiple AWS Regions. It provides fast, low-latency global reads and enables rapid disaster recovery from a regional outage with an RPO of typically 1 second and an RTO of less than 1 minute, by promoting a secondary region to primary with minimal data loss.

Why the other options are wrong

  • A. A cross-Region read replica can be promoted, but Global Database offers significantly lower RPO/RTO and faster failover specifically for disaster recovery.
  • C. Custom DMS solutions are complex to manage and typically have higher RPO/RTO compared to the native, optimized Aurora Global Database.
  • D. AWS Backup provides point-in-time recovery, but it's not a real-time replication solution for active disaster recovery with minimal RPO/RTO.

Aurora Global Database

A single Amazon Aurora database that spans multiple AWS Regions, enabling fast local reads and rapid disaster recovery from a regional outage.

  • Asynchronous, continuous replication across regions.
  • RPO typically 1 second, RTO less than 1 minute for regional failover.
  • Supports up to 5 secondary regions.

Memory trick: Global Database: Go global, guarantee uptime.

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