Exams / SAA-C03 / Choosing shared storage / Question 3
SAA-C03 practice question: Choosing shared storage (3 of 3)
Design High-Performing Architectures A free question from our original SAA-C03 practice exam. Try it, then open the answer to see why each option is right or wrong.
A company is moving a Windows-based document management application to AWS. The application servers use shared folders over the SMB protocol, and folder permissions are controlled by groups in Microsoft Active Directory, which will run in AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory. The file share must stay available if an Availability Zone fails, and the IT team does not want to patch or manage file servers. Which storage solution meets these requirements?
Choose one answer.
- AA. An Amazon EFS file system using Regional storage, mounted on the Windows application servers in two Availability Zones.
- BB. An Amazon FSx for Windows File Server Single-AZ file system joined to the directory, with daily automatic backups to restore from.
- CC. Two Windows Server EC2 instances in different Availability Zones, joined to the directory and kept in sync with DFS Replication.
- DD. An Amazon FSx for Windows File Server Multi-AZ file system joined to the AWS Managed Microsoft AD directory.
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: D
- A. Wrong: EFS stores data across several Availability Zones, but it is an NFS file system and is not supported on Windows instances. It also does not use Active Directory groups for SMB share permissions. Learn more: Use Amazon EFS with Amazon EC2 (opens in a new tab)
- B. Wrong: FSx for Windows File Server supports SMB and Active Directory, but a Single-AZ file system does not protect against an Availability Zone outage. Restoring from a backup during an outage means downtime. A Multi-AZ file system fails over automatically. Learn more: Availability and durability: Single-AZ and Multi-AZ file systems (opens in a new tab)
- C. Wrong: This can provide SMB shares that survive a zone failure, but the team would have to patch, back up and monitor the Windows file servers themselves. That breaks the requirement not to manage file servers.
- D. Right: Correct. FSx for Windows File Server is a fully managed Windows file system that serves SMB shares and uses Active Directory for authentication and permissions. The Multi-AZ deployment runs a standby file server in a second zone and fails over automatically, usually in under 30 seconds. Learn more: What is FSx for Windows File Server? (opens in a new tab)
Explanation
The requirements are SMB shares with Active Directory permissions, survival of an Availability Zone failure, and no file servers to manage. FSx for Windows File Server Multi-AZ meets all three. Single-AZ does not survive a zone outage, EFS does not support Windows, and self-managed Windows servers bring the patching work the team wants to avoid.
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