A company is building an application that runs on several Linux-based containers in Amazon ECS. The containers must have shared access to log files and configuration dat
a. The application requires a POSIX-compliant file system that provides high availability and scalability.
Which solution will meet these requirements in the MOST cost-effective way?
Answer : A
Amazon EFS is the correct answer because it provides aPOSIX-compliant, shared file systemthat multiple ECS tasks and instances can mount concurrently. AWS documents EFS as a managed NFS file system built for shared access and elastic growth, which fits the requirement for log and configuration sharing across Linux containers.Elastic throughputis the best cost-conscious choice when access patterns can vary, because throughput scales automatically without manual provisioning. S3 is object storage and does not provide native POSIX file system behavior. EBS is block storage and is not the right answer for shared, highly available multi-container access across a distributed environment. FSx for Lustre is optimized for specialized high-performance workloads, not general shared configuration and log storage.
============
A company runs an HPC workload that uses a 200-TB file system on premises. The company needs to migrate this data to Amazon FSx for Lustre. Internet capacity is 10 Mbps, and all data must be migrated within 30 days.
Which solution will meet this requirement?
Answer : D
At 10 Mbps, the maximum transferable data in 30 days is far below 200 TB, making any online transfer (Options A, B, C) impossible within the time window.
AWS Snowball Edge storage-optimized devices support high-speed, offline bulk data migration of large datasets. Once the data is delivered to S3, FSx for Lustre can be linked to the S3 bucket to populate the Lustre filesystem.
DataSync cannot meet the time constraint over 10 Mbps. Storage Gateway is not designed for large-scale migrations.
=====================================================
A company deploys an application on Amazon EC2 Spot Instances. The company observes frequent unavailability issues that affect the application's output. The application instances all use the same instance type in a single Availability Zone. The application architecture does not require the use of any specific instance family.
The company needs a solution to improve the availability of the application.
Which combination of steps will meet this requirement MOST cost-effectively? (Select THREE.)
Answer : A, D, F
AWS Spot best practices recommend diversifying capacity across multiple instance types and Availability Zones and using the capacity-optimized (price-capacity-optimized) allocation strategy to choose pools with the deepest capacity for higher availability. Adding a small On-Demand base in the Auto Scaling group maintains steady, uninterrupted baseline processing while keeping costs low and absorbing Spot interruptions. Option C (lowest price) increases interruption risk. Capacity Reservations (B) target On-Demand capacity guarantees and add cost, not needed for Spot-based elasticity. Option E is redundant; diversification is already achieved with (D). This combination maximizes resiliency of Spot workloads while preserving strong cost efficiency and aligns with AWS guidance for fault-tolerant, stateless applications on Spot.
A company plans to use AWS to run high-performance computing (HPC) workloads and analytics workloads. The company will run HPC workloads on Amazon EC2 instances. The workloads require a high-performance file system that can scale to millions of input/output operations per second (IOPS). Which combination of steps will meet these requirements? (Select TWO.)
Answer : B, E
Option B (Amazon FSx for Lustre): FSx for Lustre is optimized for high-performance file systems required by HPC workloads, scaling to millions of IOPS and supporting parallelized data access.
Option E (Cluster Placement Group with Auto Scaling): A cluster placement group ensures low-latency communication between EC2 instances, critical for HPC workloads. Amazon EMR simplifies running large-scale analytics jobs.
Amazon FSx for Lustre Documentation,AWS Placement Groups Documentation
A company has an Amazon S3 data lake that is governed by AWS Lake Formation. The company wants to create a visualization in Amazon QuickSight by joining the data in the data lake with operational data that is stored in an Amazon Aurora MySQL database. The company wants to enforce column-level authorization so that the company's marketing team can access only a subset of columns in the database.
Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?
Answer : D
AWS Lake Formation provides centralized data access control, including fine-grained (column-level) permissions for data stored in S3 and accessed through services like Amazon Athena.
Using a Lake Formation blueprint to ingest data from Aurora MySQL into the data lake keeps ingestion and governance integrated. When QuickSight uses Athena as the data source, Athena enforces Lake Formation's column-level permissions automatically. This allows the marketing team to see only the authorized subset of columns without custom access-control logic.
Options A, B, and C rely on manually limiting columns at ingestion time or using IAM or S3 bucket policies, which do not provide true column-level authorization for SQL queries and require significantly more manual work and maintenance.
A company has established a new AWS account. The account is newly provisioned and no changes have been made to the default settings. The company is concerned about the security of the AWS account root user.
What should be done to secure the root user?
Answer : B
According to the AWS Well-Architected Framework -- Security Pillar and the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) User Guide, the root user account in an AWS account is extremely powerful and should be protected with strict security measures.
From AWS documentation:
''We recommend that you not use the root user for everyday tasks, even administrative ones. Instead, create IAM users and grant them only the permissions they need. To help protect your AWS account, enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for the root user.''
(Source: AWS Identity and Access Management User Guide -- Securing the Root User)
The correct and recommended action is to create IAM users with specific permissions for daily operations and enable MFA on the root user to provide an additional layer of security. The root user cannot be disabled, so Option A is technically incorrect. AWS also explicitly advises against using root access keys (Option C) or sharing root credentials (Option D), both of which violate the principle of least privilege.
Best practices summarized from AWS official documentation:
Do not use root user for routine tasks
Enable MFA for root user immediately
Create individual IAM users and assign least privilege
Avoid creating or using root user access keys
These recommendations are foundational to securing any new AWS account and are consistently emphasized in the AWS Certified Solutions Architect -- Official Study Guide and the AWS Security Best Practices whitepaper.
References:
AWS IAM User Guide -- 'Securing the root user'
AWS Well-Architected Framework -- Security Pillar
AWS Certified Solutions Architect -- Official Study Guide (Latest Edition)
A company has an application that runs only on Amazon EC2 Spot Instances. The instances run in an Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling group with scheduled scaling actions. However, the capacity does not always increase at the scheduled times, and instances terminate many times a day. A solutions architect must ensure that the instances launch on time and have fewer interruptions.
Which action will meet these requirements?
Answer : A
Spot Instances can be interrupted when AWS needs the capacity back. To reduce interruptions and improve availability, AWS provides the capacity-optimized allocation strategy.
Capacity-optimized strategy launches Spot Instances from the most available Spot capacity pools instead of the lowest-priced ones, reducing interruption rates.
By adding multiple instance types (e.g., using Instance Type Flexibility), the Auto Scaling group can launch instances in a broader set of pools, improving the chance that capacity is available.
Scheduled scaling actions combined with a diverse set of instances under the capacity-optimized strategy ensure higher resilience and better timing for instance launches.
This approach directly supports the Resiliency design principle in the AWS Well-Architected Framework.
References:
Best Practices for EC2 Spot Instances
Capacity-Optimized Allocation Strategy