- (Exam Topic 1)
A company plans to migrate to AWS. A solutions architect uses AWS Application Discovery Service over the fleet and discovers that there is an Oracle data warehouse and several PostgreSQL databases. Which combination of migration patterns will reduce licensing costs and operational overhead? (Select TWO.)

1. A. Lift and shift the Oracle data warehouse to Amazon EC2 using AWS DMS.
2. B. Migrate the Oracle data warehouse to Amazon Redshift using AWS SCT and AWS QMS.
3. C. Lift and shift the PostgreSQL databases to Amazon EC2 using AWS DMS.
4. D. Migrate the PostgreSQL databases to Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL using AWS DMS
5. E. Migrate the Oracle data warehouse to an Amazon EMR managed cluster using AWS DMS.

Correct Answer: BD
https://aws.amazon.com/getting-started/hands-on/migrate-oracle-to-amazon-redshift/ https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/patterns/migrate-an-on-premises-postgresql-database

- (Exam Topic 2)
A company recently deployed an application on AWS. The application uses Amazon DynamoDB. The company measured the application load and configured the RCUs and WCUs on the DynamoDB table to match the expected peak load. The peak load occurs once a week for a 4-hour period and is double the average load. The application load is close to the average load tor the rest of the week. The access pattern includes many more writes to the table than reads of the table.
A solutions architect needs to implement a solution to minimize the cost of the table. Which solution will meet these requirements?

1. A. Use AWS Application Auto Scaling to increase capacity during the peak perio
2. B. Purchase reserved RCUs and WCUs to match the average load.
3. C. Configure on-demand capacity mode for the table.
4. D. Configure DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) in front of the tabl
5. E. Reduce the provisioned read capacity to match the new peak load on the table.
6. F. Configure DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) in front of the tabl
7. G. Configure on-demand capacity mode for the table.

Correct Answer: D

- (Exam Topic 2)
A retail company has a small ecommerce web application that uses an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance The DB instance is deployed with the Multi-AZ option turned on.
Application usage recently increased exponentially and users experienced frequent HTTP 503 errors Users reported the errors, and the company's reputation suffered The company could not identify a definitive root cause.
The company wants to improve its operational readiness and receive alerts before users notice an incident The company also wants to collect enough information to determine the root cause of any future incident.
Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

1. A. Turn on Enhanced Monitoring for the DB instance Modify the corresponding parameter group to turn on query logging for all the slow queries Create Amazon CloudWatch alarms Set the alarms to appropriate thresholds that are based on performance metrics in CloudWatch
2. B. Turn on Enhanced Monitoring and Performance Insights for the DB instance Create Amazon CloudWatch alarms Set the alarms to appropriate thresholds that are based on performance metrics in CloudWatch
3. C. Turn on log exports to Amazon CloudWatch for the PostgreSQL logs on the DB instance Analyze the logs by using Amazon Elasticsearch Service (Amazon ES) and Kibana Create a dashboard in Kibana Configure alerts that are based on the metrics that are collected
4. D. Turn on Performance Insights for the DB instance Modify the corresponding parameter group to turn on query logging for all the slow queries Create Amazon CloudWatch alarms Set the alarms to appropriate thresholds that are based on performance metrics in CloudWatch

Correct Answer: A

- (Exam Topic 1)
A company is running a web application with On-Demand Amazon EC2 instances in Auto Scaling groups that scale dynamically based on custom metrics After extensive testing, the company determines that the m5.2xlarge instance size is optimal for the workload Application data is stored in db.r4.4xlarge Amazon RDS instances that are confirmed to be optimal. The traffic to the web application spikes randomly during the day.
What other cost-optimization methods should the company implement to further reduce costs without impacting the reliability of the application?

1. A. Double the instance count in the Auto Scaling groups and reduce the instance size to m5.large
2. B. Reserve capacity for the RDS database and the minimum number of EC2 instances that are constantly running.
3. C. Reduce the RDS instance size to db.r4.xlarge and add five equivalent^ sized read replicas to provide reliability.
4. D. Reserve capacity for all EC2 instances and leverage Spot Instance pricing for the RDS database.

Correct Answer: B
People are being confused by the term 'reserve capacity'. This is not the same as an on-demand capacity reservation. This article by AWS clearly states that by 'reserving capacity' you are reserving the instances and reducing your costs. See https://aws.amazon.com/aws-cost-management/aws-cost-optimization/reserved-instances/

- (Exam Topic 2)
A company processes environmental data. The company has set up sensors to provide a continuous stream of data from different areas in a city. The data is available in JSON format.
The company wants to use an AWS solution to send the data to a database that does not require fixed schemas for storage. The data must be sent in real time.
Which solution will meet these requirements?

1. A. Use Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose to send the data to Amazon Redshift.
2. B. Use Amazon Kinesis Data Streams to send the data to Amazon DynamoDB
3. C. Use Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka {Amazon MSK) to send the data to Amazon Aurora.
4. D. Use Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose to send the data to Amazon Keyspaces (for Apache Cassandra).

Correct Answer: B