Question #732
A company needs to migrate a 50 TB on-premises Microsoft SQL Server database to Amazon RDS for SQL Server in the us-west-2 Region. Their current internet connection has low bandwidth, leading to an estimated transfer time of six weeks. The company requires a solution that minimizes migration time.
Which solution achieves the fastest migration?
Set up a 10 Gbps AWS Direct Connect link and use AWS DMS to migrate the database.
Use AWS DataSync over the existing connection to transfer data, then use AWS Application Migration Service for the database migration.
Ship an AWS Snowball Edge device to transfer data to Amazon S3, then use AWS DMS to migrate from S3 to RDS.
Use multiple AWS Snowball devices with the S3 Adapter, then AWS Application Migration Service to migrate data from S3.
Explanation
Option C is correct because:
- AWS Snowball Edge allows offline transfer of large datasets (50 TB) via physical shipping, bypassing slow internet. This reduces transfer time from weeks to days.
- AWS DMS is designed for database migrations, efficiently loading data from S3 into Amazon RDS for SQL Server.
Other options are incorrect because:
- A: While Direct Connect offers faster bandwidth, provisioning a new 10 Gbps link may take weeks, negating time savings.
- B: DataSync over the existing slow connection would still take six weeks, and Application Migration Service is not optimized for database migrations.
- D: Application Migration Service is intended for server migrations, not databases, making it unsuitable for this scenario.
Key Points: Use Snowball for large offline data transfers and DMS for database migrations to minimize downtime.
Answer
The correct answer is: C