RDS backup and snapshots in AWS - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

❓ service_behavior

intermediate

RDS Automated Backups Retention Period

You have an Amazon RDS instance with automated backups enabled and a retention period set to 7 days. What happens to the automated backups if you delete the RDS instance?

A Automated backups remain indefinitely until manually deleted.

B Automated backups are retained for the retention period after deletion and then deleted automatically.

C Automated backups are converted to manual snapshots and retained indefinitely.

D All automated backups are deleted immediately when the instance is deleted.

💡 Hint

Think about what happens to automatic backups when the source instance no longer exists.

When you delete an RDS instance, all automated backups are deleted immediately. Only manual snapshots remain after deletion.

❓ Architecture

intermediate

Choosing Between Automated Backups and Manual Snapshots

You want to ensure daily backups of your RDS database that you can keep for 30 days and restore from any day within that period. Which approach should you use?

A Use manual snapshots only and keep them indefinitely.

B Enable automated backups with a 7-day retention and create manual snapshots weekly.

C Enable automated backups with a 30-day retention period.

D Create manual snapshots daily and delete them after 30 days.

💡 Hint

Consider which backup method supports automatic retention and point-in-time restore.

Automated backups with a 30-day retention allow point-in-time restore within that period. Manual snapshots do not support point-in-time restore and require manual management.

❓ security

advanced

Securing RDS Snapshots

You want to share an RDS manual snapshot with another AWS account but ensure the snapshot data is encrypted and secure. Which is the correct approach?

A Create a copy of the snapshot encrypted with a customer-managed KMS key and share the copy with the other account.

B Share the unencrypted manual snapshot directly with the other account.

C Enable automated backups and share the automated backup with the other account.

D Export the snapshot data to S3 and share the S3 bucket with the other account.

💡 Hint

Think about encryption and sharing permissions for snapshots.

Only manual snapshots can be shared. To share encrypted snapshots, you must create a copy encrypted with a customer-managed KMS key and share that key and snapshot with the other account.

✅ Best Practice

advanced

Optimizing RDS Backup Storage Costs

Your RDS instance has automated backups enabled with a 35-day retention period, but you notice high backup storage costs. What is the best way to reduce backup storage costs without losing the ability to restore to any point in the retention period?

A Enable backup compression on the RDS instance to reduce storage size.

B Reduce the automated backup retention period to 7 days and create manual snapshots weekly.

C Delete all manual snapshots to reduce storage costs.

D Use lifecycle policies to automatically delete older manual snapshots and keep automated backups.

💡 Hint

Consider how automated backups and manual snapshots affect storage costs and restore capabilities.

Automated backups with long retention increase storage costs. Reducing retention and supplementing with manual snapshots balances cost and restore needs.

🧠 Conceptual

expert

RDS Point-in-Time Restore Behavior

You have an RDS instance with automated backups enabled and a retention period of 10 days. You perform a point-in-time restore to a time 5 days ago. What is true about the restored instance?

A The restored instance contains data exactly as it was at the chosen time, including all transactions up to that point.

B The restored instance contains data only from the last manual snapshot before the chosen time.

C The restored instance contains data from the latest automated backup regardless of the chosen time.

D The restored instance contains data from the automated backup closest to the chosen time but may miss some transactions.

💡 Hint

Recall how point-in-time restore works with automated backups.

Point-in-time restore uses automated backups and transaction logs to restore the database to the exact state at the specified time, including all committed transactions.