Best Approach for Achieving 1-Hour RTO in AWS Application Recovery

Correct Answer - B.

The question asks for the approach that can help the most to achieve the target.

The application contains several components and all of them should be considered.

The RTO (recovery time objective) is set as 1 hour, which means the application should recover within 1 hour after the outage.

The question does not mention the RPO (Recovery Point Objective).

Option A is incorrect: It only helps on RDS and it does not mention how to deal with other components.

Besides, the automatic snapshots mainly help on RPO since the data is backed up frequently.

Option B is CORRECT: This is a standard approach to help achieve a short RTO.

It can reduce the recovery time because most of the service is always running in warm standby.

Option C is incorrect: Because it is only related to EBS and mainly helps on achieving RPO instead of RTO.

Option D is incorrect: Similar with Option.

C.

This option can be regarded as an option to help meet the RPO target.

Sure, I'd be happy to explain each option and discuss which approach can help achieve the 1-hour RTO target the most.

Option A: In RDS, configure each database to create regular automated snapshots every hour. Copy the snapshots to another region.

Automated snapshots are a convenient way to regularly back up RDS databases. They capture the entire database instance, including all of its data and configuration settings. By configuring RDS to take automated snapshots every hour, you can minimize the amount of data loss in case of a failure. However, note that snapshots only capture the state of the database at the time they are taken, so if a failure occurs shortly after a snapshot is taken, some data may still be lost.

Copying snapshots to another region is a good way to protect against region-wide failures. In case the primary region experiences an outage, you can quickly spin up a new database instance in the secondary region using the latest snapshot. However, note that copying snapshots across regions may add additional latency and costs.

Overall, this option can help achieve the RTO target of 1 hour, but it may not be the most efficient or cost-effective approach.

Option B: Create a warm standby in another region. Use Route53 failover routing policy to route to the standby if the active application has an outage.

A warm standby is a secondary environment that is kept running at all times, but with a lower capacity than the primary environment. By setting up a warm standby in another region, you can quickly switch over to it in case of a failure in the primary region. This approach can help achieve the RTO target of 1 hour because failover can happen almost immediately.

Using Route53 failover routing policy can help automate the failover process. You can set up health checks to monitor the primary environment and automatically route traffic to the standby if the primary environment becomes unavailable. This can help minimize the downtime and reduce the need for manual intervention.

Overall, this option is a good approach to achieve the 1-hour RTO target. However, note that setting up a warm standby in another region can add additional costs and complexity.

Option C: Create regular EBS snapshots every hour using EBS lifecycle manager.

EBS snapshots are a convenient way to regularly back up EC2 instances' data volumes. By configuring EBS lifecycle manager to take snapshots every hour, you can minimize the amount of data loss in case of a failure. However, note that snapshots only capture the state of the volume at the time they are taken, so if a failure occurs shortly after a snapshot is taken, some data may still be lost.

This option is focused on backing up data volumes, so it may not be sufficient to achieve the 1-hour RTO target for the entire application. Additionally, EBS snapshots may not be the best approach for backing up database instances.

Option D: Create a Jenkins pipeline to automatically create AMIs for EC2 instances. Execute the pipeline every hour.

Creating automated AMIs is a good way to ensure that EC2 instances can be quickly restored in case of a failure. By executing a Jenkins pipeline every hour, you can ensure that the latest AMIs are available for recovery. However, note that restoring an instance from an AMI may take some time, so this approach may not achieve the 1-hour RTO target for the entire application.

Additionally, note that creating AMIs can add additional costs and complexity, as well as increase the storage requirements.

In summary, option B (creating a warm standby in another region and using Route53 failover routing policy) is the best approach to achieve the 1-hour RTO target for the entire application. However, each option has its own benefits and drawbacks, and the optimal approach may depend on the specific needs and requirements of the application and the organization.