AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Practice Exam

What action should be taken to address an RDS database that becomes unresponsive?

1. Perform a backup and restore operation

2. Restart the database instance

3. Enable RDS Multi-AZ for high availability

4. Increase the instance size temporarily

The correct answer is: Enable RDS Multi-AZ for high availability

Enabling RDS Multi-AZ for high availability is a proactive step that can help prevent the RDS database from becoming unresponsive in the future. Multi-AZ deployments automatically replicate the database across different Availability Zones, which provides redundancy and failover capabilities. This means that if there is an issue with the primary instance, Amazon RDS can automatically switch to a standby instance in a different Availability Zone without data loss or downtime. While a temporary increase in instance size might address performance issues by providing more resources, it does not solve the underlying problem that may cause unresponsiveness in the first place. Similarly, just restarting the database instance might provide a short-term fix, but it does not ensure ongoing availability or mitigate future risks. Performing a backup and restore operation can be time-consuming and may not directly address the current issue of unresponsiveness without understanding the root cause. In contrast, implementing Multi-AZ will not only help to maintain performance levels but will also ensure higher availability and resilience against failures, making it a more comprehensive and long-term solution for addressing issues related to unresponsiveness in the RDS database.