AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate
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A solutions architect is reviewing the resilience of an application. The solutions architect notices that a database administrator recently failed over the application's Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL database writer instance as part of a scaling exercise. The failover resulted in 3 minutes of downtime for the application.
Which solution will reduce the downtime for scaling exercises with the LEAST operational overhead?
Other
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UAnonymous
A
Create more Aurora PostgreSQL read replicas in the cluster to handle the load during failover.
B
Set up a secondary Aurora PostgreSQL cluster in the same AWS Region. During failover, update the application to use the secondary cluster's writer endpoint.
C
Create an Amazon ElastiCache for Memcached cluster to handle the load during failover.
D
Set up an Amazon RDS proxy for the database. Update the application to use the proxy endpoint.
Explanation:
Explanation
Correct Answer: D - Set up an Amazon RDS proxy for the database. Update the application to use the proxy endpoint.
Why Option D is Correct:
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Amazon RDS Proxy is specifically designed to handle database failovers with minimal downtime by:
- Maintaining a connection pool to the database
- Automatically routing connections to the new writer instance during failover
- Preserving application connections during failover events
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Least Operational Overhead: RDS Proxy requires minimal configuration and management. Once set up, it automatically handles connection management and failover routing without requiring application code changes during failover events.
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Reduced Downtime: RDS Proxy can reduce failover downtime from minutes to seconds by maintaining established connections and quickly routing them to the new writer instance.
Why Other Options Are Incorrect:
A. Create more Aurora PostgreSQL read replicas in the cluster to handle the load during failover.
- Read replicas cannot handle write operations during failover
- This doesn't address the connection disruption issue during writer failover
- Adds operational overhead for managing additional replicas
B. Set up a secondary Aurora PostgreSQL cluster in the same AWS Region. During failover, update the application to use the secondary cluster's writer endpoint.
- Requires manual intervention to update application endpoints
- Significant operational overhead for managing two clusters
- Application downtime would still occur during the endpoint update
C. Create an Amazon ElastiCache for Memcached cluster to handle the load during failover.
- ElastiCache is for caching, not database failover handling
- Doesn't address the database connection disruption issue
- Inappropriate solution for database failover scenarios
Key AWS Concepts:
- Amazon RDS Proxy: A fully managed database proxy service that makes applications more scalable, more resilient to database failures, and more secure.
- Aurora Failover: When an Aurora writer instance fails, Aurora automatically promotes one of the read replicas to become the new writer.
- Connection Management: The main issue during failover is that existing database connections are dropped, requiring applications to reconnect.
Best Practice:**
Using RDS Proxy is the recommended AWS best practice for minimizing application downtime during database failovers while maintaining low operational overhead.
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