Fastest and Effortless Method for Creating a New Amazon Aurora Development Environment

Answer: C.

Option A is incorrect because read-replicas are only used for read operations on a production database.

They cannot be used to perform and test schema changes.

Option B is incorrect because this is not an optimal solution.

Creating and copying a snapshot and provisioning a new Aurora cluster can be a very time-consuming activity for large production databases.

Operationally, this method is also not ideal as it involves many steps.

Further, it is not the most cost-efficient solution as it requires storage for snapshots and additional cluster infrastructure.

Option C is CORRECT because Amazon Aurora database cloning is a quick and cost-effective method of creating “clones” of an Aurora DB cluster.

The clone databases utilize minimal additional space.

The clones can be used for performing operations, such as schema change testing, without impacting the source production database.

Option D is incorrect because global database clusters have only one primary instance.

Any schema changes would impact the production cluster.

Reference:

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-aurora-fast-database-cloning/ https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/Aurora.Managing.Clone.html

The best option for creating a new Amazon Aurora development environment would be to create a clone of the production database. This is because a clone would be an exact replica of the production database, including all the data and schema changes that the developer wishes to test.

Option A, creating a read-replica of the production database, would not be the best choice as it would only provide a copy of the data, but not the schema changes made by the developer. Moreover, read-replicas can be delayed, which may impact the testing process.

Option B, creating a snapshot of the production database, copying the snapshot, and creating a new Amazon Aurora database from the snapshot, would be a viable option, but it may take longer to complete as it involves multiple steps.

Option D, configuring the production cluster to a global database by adding a cluster in another region, would not be an ideal choice as it involves setting up a global database architecture and can be complex.

Therefore, option C, creating a clone of the production database, is the fastest and most effortless method for the developer to create a new Amazon Aurora development environment. This can be done by using the "create clone" feature in the AWS Management Console or the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI). Once the clone is created, the developer can test the schema changes in the new environment without affecting the production database.