Amazon SAP-C02: How to improve file system performance during maintenance?

Table of Contents

Question
Answer
Explanation
Reference

Question

A large education company recently introduced Amazon Workspaces to provide access to internal applications across multiple universities. The company is storing user profiles on an Amazon FSx for Windows File Server file system. The file system is configured with a DNS alias and is connected to a self-managed Active Directory. As more users begin to use the Workspaces, login time increases to unacceptable levels.

An investigation reveals a degradation in performance of the file system. The company created the file system on HDD storage with a throughput of 16 MBps. A solutions architect must improve the performance of the file system during a defined maintenance window. What should the solutions architect do to meet these requirements with the LEAST administrative effort?

A. Use AWS Backup to create a point-in-time backup of the file system. Restore the backup to a new FSx for Windows File Server file system. Select SSD as the storage type. Select 32 MBps as the throughput capacity. When the backup and restore process is completed, adjust the DNS alias accordingly. Delete the original file system.
B. Disconnect users from the file system. In the Amazon FSx console, update the throughput capacity to 32 MBps. Update the storage type to SSD. Reconnect users to the file system.
C. Deploy an AWS DataSync agent onto a new Amazon EC2 instance. Create a task. Configure the existing file system as the source location. Configure a new FSx for Windows File Server file system with SSD storage and 32 MBps of throughput as the target location. Schedule the task. When the task is completed, adjust the DNS alias accordingly. Delete the original file system.
D. Enable shadow copies on the existing file system by using a Windows PowerShell command. Schedule the shadow copy job to create a point-in-time backup of the file system. Choose to restore previous versions. Create a new FSx for Windows File Server file system with SSD storage and 32 MBps of throughput. When the copy job is completed, adjust the DNS alias. Delete the original file system.

Answer

Explanation

The question you asked is about how to improve the performance of an Amazon FSx for Windows File Server file system that is storing user profiles for Amazon Workspaces users. The file system is configured with a DNS alias and is connected to a self-managed Active Directory. The file system is experiencing degradation in performance due to HDD storage and low throughput. The solution that will meet these requirements with the least administrative effort is A. Use AWS Backup to create a point-in-time backup of the file system. Restore the backup to a new FSx for Windows File Server file system. Select SSD as the storage type. Select 32 MBps as the throughput capacity. When the backup and restore process is completed, adjust the DNS alias accordingly. Delete the original file system.

This approach will allow the solutions architect to improve the performance of the file system with the least administrative effort. Here are the steps involved:

Use AWS Backup to create a point-in-time backup of the file system.
Restore the backup to a new FSx for Windows File Server file system.
Select SSD as the storage type.
Select 32 MBps as the throughput capacity.
When the backup and restore process is completed, adjust the DNS alias accordingly.
Delete the original file system.

This approach will allow the solutions architect to improve the performance of the file system without having to disconnect users from the file system or manually copy data. AWS Backup will automatically create a point-in-time backup of the file system, which can then be restored to a new FSx for Windows File Server file system with SSD storage and 32 MBps of throughput. Once the backup and restore process is completed, the solutions architect can simply adjust the DNS alias to point to the new file system and delete the original file system.

Here are some additional details about each of these steps:

1Use AWS Backup to create a point-in-time backup of the file system: AWS Backup is a fully managed service that makes it easy to create, manage, and restore backups of your AWS resources. To create a point-in-time backup of the file system, the solutions architect would first need to create a backup plan. The backup plan would define the resources that are to be backed up, the frequency of backups, and the storage location for backups. Once the backup plan is created, the solutions architect would then need to initiate a backup job.
Restore the backup to a new FSx for Windows File Server file system: To restore the backup to a new FSx for Windows File Server file system, the solutions architect would first need to create a new file system. The new file system would need to be configured with the same storage type and throughput capacity as the original file system. Once the new file system is created, the solutions architect would then need to restore the backup to the new file system.
Select SSD as the storage type: SSD storage is a more expensive option than HDD storage, but it offers significantly better performance. By selecting SSD storage, the solutions architect can improve the performance of the file system without having to increase the throughput capacity.
Select 32 MBps as the throughput capacity:The throughput capacity of a file system determines the maximum amount of data that can be transferred to or from the file system per second. By increasing the throughput capacity, the solutions architect can improve the performance of the file system for users who are accessing large files or transferring large amounts of data.
When the backup and restore process is completed, adjust the DNS alias accordingly: Once the backup and restore process is completed, the solutions architect will need to update the DNS alias to point to the new file system. This will ensure that users are able to access the new file system.
Delete the original file system: Once the backup and restore process is completed and the DNS alias has been updated, the solutions architect can delete the original file system. This will free up storage space and resources.

AWS Backup is a fully managed service that makes it easy to centralize and automate the backup of data across AWS services such as Amazon EBS, Amazon RDS, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon EFS, and Amazon FSx for Windows File Server. You can use AWS Backup to create a point-in-time backup of your FSx for Windows File Server file system by creating a backup plan and assigning it to your file system.

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server is a fully managed service that provides shared storage built on Windows Server with full SMB support. You can use FSx for Windows File Server to store user profiles for your Workspaces users and provide them with fast and consistent access to their data. You can use AWS Backup to restore your file system backup to a new FSx for Windows File Server file system with different storage type and throughput capacity settings.

SSD storage is a type of storage that uses solid state drives (SSDs) instead of hard disk drives (HDDs) to store data. SSD storage offers higher performance, lower latency, and more IOPS than HDD storage. You can use SSD storage for your FSx for Windows File Server file system to improve the performance of your user profile data access.

Throughput capacity is a setting that determines the amount of read and write throughput that your file system can provide. You can choose from 8 MBps up to 2048 MBps per TiB of storage capacity for your file system. You can use a higher throughput capacity for your FSx for Windows File Server file system to improve the performance of your user profile data access.

DNS alias is a feature that allows you to associate a custom domain name with your FSx for Windows File Server file system instead of using the default DNS name provided by AWS. You can use a DNS alias for your FSx for Windows File Server file system to simplify the access to your user profile data from your Workspaces instances. You can adjust the DNS alias after restoring your file system backup to point to the new file system.

The other options are not correct because:

B. Disconnect users from the file system. In the Amazon FSx console, update the throughput capacity to 32 MBps. Update the storage type to SSD. Reconnect users to the file system. This option is not correct because it does not leverage the benefits of using AWS Backup for creating and restoring file system backups. Updating the throughput capacity and storage type of an existing FSx for Windows File Server file system requires creating a new file system manually or using AWS CLI commands and copying data from the old file system to the new one using tools such as Robocopy or AWS DataSync.

C. Deploy an AWS DataSync agent onto a new Amazon EC2 instance. Create a task. Configure the existing file system as the source location. Configure a new FSx for Windows File Server file system with SSD storage and 32 MBps of throughput as the target location. Schedule the task. When the task is completed, adjust the DNS alias accordingly. Delete the original file system. This option is not correct because it does not leverage the benefits of using AWS Backup for creating and restoring file system backups. Using AWS DataSync requires deploying an agent on an EC2 instance and creating and scheduling a task to copy data from one location to another. This involves more administrative effort than using AWS Backup.

D. Enable shadow copies on the existing file system by using a Windows PowerShell command. Schedule the shadow copy job to create a point-in-time backup of the file system. Choose to restore previous versions. Create a new FSx for Windows File Server file system with SSD storage and 32 MBps of throughput. When the copy job is completed, adjust the DNS alias accordingly. Delete the original file system. This option is not correct because it does not leverage the benefits of using AWS Backup for creating and restoring file system backups. Using shadow copies requires enabling and configuring them on your existing FSx for Windows File Server file system using PowerShell commands and scheduling shadow copy jobs manually or using third-party tools. Shadow copies also do not allow you to restore your file system backup to a new FSx for Windows File Server file system with different storage type and throughput capacity settings.

Reference

Amazon AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional SAP-C02 certification exam practice question and answer (Q&A) dump with detail explanation and reference available free, helpful to pass the Amazon AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional SAP-C02 exam and earn Amazon AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional SAP-C02 certification.