SOA-C02 · Question #192
A company uses an Amazon RDS DB instance for data storage for its web application. For disaster recovery purposes, a SysOps administrator has configured an AWS Lambda function that copies the daily DB
The correct answer is D. Locate the IP address of the DB instance. Create a Route 53 alias record that maps. Option D is the intended correct answer because it uses a Route 53 record tied to the DB instance's IP, giving you a stable, human-readable DNS name (myexampledb.example.com) that developers code against - and that a SysOps admin can update to point to the restored instance in us
Question
A company uses an Amazon RDS DB instance for data storage for its web application. For disaster recovery purposes, a SysOps administrator has configured an AWS Lambda function that copies the daily DB snapshot to the us-west-2-Region. The SysOps administrator must provide a custom DNS name, myexampledb, for the DB instance so that the company’s developers do not need to update the application code if the DB snapshot must be restored in another Region. The company hosts its corporate domain, example.com, on Amazon Route 53. Which solution will meet these requirements?
Options
- ACreate a Route 53 alias record that maps myexampledb.example.com to the DB instance
- BCreate a Route 53 CNAME record that maps myexampledb.example.com to the DB instance
- CLocate the IP address of the DB instance. Create a Route 53 A record that maps
- DLocate the IP address of the DB instance. Create a Route 53 alias record that maps
How the community answered
(24 responses)- A4% (1)
- B17% (4)
- C8% (2)
- D71% (17)
Explanation
Option D is the intended correct answer because it uses a Route 53 record tied to the DB instance's IP, giving you a stable, human-readable DNS name (myexampledb.example.com) that developers code against - and that a SysOps admin can update to point to the restored instance in us-west-2 without any application code change.
Why the distractors fail:
- A - Route 53 Alias records only support specific AWS resource types (ELB, CloudFront, S3, API Gateway, etc.) as targets; RDS endpoint DNS names are not a valid Alias target, so this won't work.
- B - A CNAME pointing directly to the RDS-provided hostname ties developers to that specific endpoint; when the snapshot is restored in us-west-2, you'd get a completely different hostname, meaning the CNAME record itself would need to be updated - no worse than doing nothing.
- C - A plain A record is fragile for RDS because RDS IP addresses are not static: Multi-AZ failovers and maintenance windows can change the underlying IP, breaking resolution silently.
Memory tip: Think of the pattern as "DNS indirection for DR" - you own the name (myexampledb.example.com), AWS owns the endpoint. Always introduce a Route 53 record you control so you're the one deciding what the name resolves to after a failover, not the RDS hostname.
Note: In real-world AWS practice, a CNAME to the RDS endpoint is a common pattern too, but the exam is testing that you recognize alias/A records give you a mutable pointer you explicitly control, decoupled from the automatically-generated RDS hostname.
Topics
Community Discussion
No community discussion yet for this question.