Question #1738
A company is consolidating its data storage onto AWS. Their environment includes Windows, macOS, and Linux EC2 instances in the same region, requiring access via both SMB and NFS. A significant portion of the data is accessed daily, while the rest is rarely accessed after the first month. The company seeks a storage solution that minimizes management effort while optimizing costs.
Which solution meets these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?
Create an Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) volume with EFS Intelligent-Tiering. Use AWS DataSync to migrate the data to the EFS volume.
Create an Amazon FSx for ONTAP instance with a file system using the auto-tiering policy. Migrate the data to the FSx for ONTAP volume.
Create an Amazon S3 bucket with S3 Intelligent-Tiering. Migrate the data using an AWS Storage Gateway S3 File Gateway.
Create an Amazon FSx for Windows File Server file system. Migrate the data to the new volume.
Explanation
The correct answer is B. Amazon FSx for ONTAP supports both SMB and NFS protocols, enabling cross-platform access (Windows, macOS, Linux). Its auto-tiering policy automatically moves data between performance tiers (for frequently accessed data) and cost-effective capacity pools (for rarely accessed data), aligning with the data access patterns described. This minimizes management effort while optimizing costs.
Other options fail because:
- A: EFS only supports NFS, not SMB.
- C: S3 File Gateway requires additional configuration and does not natively support both SMB and NFS simultaneously.
- D: FSx for Windows File Server supports SMB only, not NFS.
Key Points:
1. Multi-protocol support (SMB/NFS) is critical for mixed environments.
2. Auto-tiering reduces costs for infrequently accessed data.
3. Managed services minimize operational overhead.
Answer
The correct answer is: B