Exams / SAA-C03 / S3 storage classes and lifecycle / Question 2
SAA-C03 practice question: S3 storage classes and lifecycle (2 of 3)
Design Cost-Optimized 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 design agency keeps 30 million project files in Amazon S3, most between 2 MB and 50 MB. Some files are reopened daily for months, others are never read again after delivery, and the agency cannot predict which. When an old file is needed it must open immediately, and the agency wants no retrieval fees that could make monthly bills spike. It has no staff to tune lifecycle rules. Which storage approach is MOST cost-effective?
Choose one answer.
- AA. Store all files in S3 Intelligent-Tiering, and use only its automatic access tiers, which need no restore.
- BB. Store all files in S3 Standard, and add a lifecycle rule that moves each file to S3 Standard-IA 30 days after it is created.
- CC. Store all files in S3 One Zone-IA from upload, because its storage price is lower than that of S3 Standard-IA.
- DD. Store all files in S3 Intelligent-Tiering, and activate the Deep Archive Access tier for files that are not opened for 180 days.
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: A
- A. Right: Correct. Intelligent-Tiering moves each file to cheaper tiers after 30 and 90 days without access, and back to Frequent Access when it is read, based on each file's own use. These tiers give millisecond access with no retrieval fees, at the cost of a small per-object monitoring charge. Learn more: How S3 Intelligent-Tiering works (opens in a new tab)
- B. Wrong: Standard-IA lowers the storage price, but the rule moves files by age, not by use, so files still opened every day also move and then incur per-GB retrieval fees. That makes bills spike in exactly the way the agency wants to avoid. Learn more: Understanding and managing Amazon S3 storage classes (opens in a new tab)
- C. Wrong: One Zone-IA is cheap to store, but it charges a retrieval fee every time a file is read, which is costly for the files opened daily. It also keeps data in a single Availability Zone, so files would be lost if that zone were destroyed. Learn more: Understanding and managing Amazon S3 storage classes (opens in a new tab)
- D. Wrong: Intelligent-Tiering is the right class, but the optional Deep Archive Access tier needs a restore before a file can be read, and a standard restore can take up to 12 hours. That breaks the requirement for old files to open immediately, so the optional archive tiers should stay off. Learn more: How S3 Intelligent-Tiering works (opens in a new tab)
Explanation
With unpredictable access, a class that tiers each object by its own use avoids both guessing and retrieval fees. S3 Intelligent-Tiering's automatic Frequent, Infrequent and Archive Instant Access tiers all give millisecond access with no retrieval charges; only the optional archive tiers need a restore. The files are well above 128 KB, so they are all eligible for automatic tiering.
Study
Keep practising
Answer questions with a score at the end, or practise just this topic with the explanation after each one. No sign-up needed.