Disaster Recovery Strategies with EC2 u0026 VPC Quiz Quiz

Explore essential concepts and best practices for disaster recovery using EC2 instances and VPC configurations. This quiz helps you assess your understanding of key strategies to ensure resilience, availability, and security in cloud-based environments.

1. Backups for Data Protection

   Which strategy best ensures data protection for an EC2 instance running critical applications?

   1. Rebooting the instance daily
   2. Regular automated snapshots of attached storage volumes
   3. Increasing instance storage size monthly
   4. Blocking all inbound network traffic

   Explanation: Regular automated snapshots capture data at scheduled intervals and allow recovery in case of data loss. Simply increasing storage size does not protect existing data. Blocking all inbound traffic could disrupt services and does not safeguard data. Rebooting an instance does not provide any data protection or backup capability.

2. Multi-AZ Deployment Benefits

   Why is deploying EC2 instances across multiple availability zones important in disaster recovery?

   1. It increases data transfer costs
   2. It makes monitoring resources easier
   3. It automatically updates instance software
   4. It improves resiliency by reducing single points of failure

   Explanation: Distributing instances across multiple zones ensures service continuity even if one zone experiences an outage. While there may be additional data transfer costs, the main benefit is improved availability. Automatically updating software and easier monitoring are not direct effects of multi-zone deployment.

3. Network Design for DR

   Which VPC feature can help create a secure and isolated disaster recovery environment?

   1. Subnets and network access control lists
   2. Enabling local instance storage
   3. Elastic IP addresses assigned to all instances
   4. Instance metadata endpoints

   Explanation: Subnets and network access control lists allow you to segment your network and restrict access as needed, which is vital for isolating disaster recovery deployments. Instance metadata and Elastic IP addresses do not inherently provide isolation or network security. Local instance storage is volatile and not intended for DR isolation.

4. Replication for High Availability

   What is the primary reason for replicating EC2 instances and databases to a secondary region?

   1. To avoid configuring firewalls
   2. To improve single-user performance
   3. To ensure business continuity in case of regional failures
   4. To increase hourly compute charges

   Explanation: Replication to a secondary region allows rapid failover if the primary region goes down, helping maintain operations. While it may result in higher costs, cost is not the purpose. Firewall configuration is unrelated, and single-user performance is not significantly impacted by regional replication.

5. EC2 Instance Restore Method

   If an EC2 instance fails, what is an effective way to quickly restore operations using previous backups?

   1. Expand the instance's stop time
   2. Disable all scheduled events
   3. Launch a new instance from the latest snapshot
   4. Increase the instance’s CPU credits

   Explanation: Launching from a recent snapshot allows you to recover the application with minimal downtime. Extending stop times or adjusting CPU credits does not restore lost data or functionality. Disabling scheduled events does not return the system to a working state.

6. Data Transfer Optimization

   Which option minimizes downtime and data loss when syncing large volumes of data across regions for DR?

   1. Expanding storage only in the primary region
   2. Increasing network bandwidth without changing backup strategy
   3. Manually copying data files once a month
   4. Utilizing automated incremental backups and replication

   Explanation: Automated incremental backups only transfer changed data, optimizing speed and minimizing downtime or data loss. Manually copying files is slower and error-prone. Simply increasing bandwidth won’t help if the backup process isn’t frequent or incremental. Expanding storage in just one region does not enhance cross-region disaster recovery.

7. Consistent Network Configuration

   In a disaster recovery plan, why should VPC network configurations be mirrored in both primary and backup regions?

   1. To ensure seamless failover and consistent connectivity
   2. To allow unlimited internet access for all instances
   3. To reduce storage costs on all volumes
   4. To restrict instance-to-instance communication

   Explanation: Mirroring VPC setup allows systems to migrate or fail over without encountering network mismatches or connection problems. Storage costs are managed separately, and unlimited internet access is a security risk, not an objective. Restricting communication is possible but not the main purpose for mirroring the network setup.

8. Testing DR Procedures

   What is a recommended best practice for ensuring disaster recovery procedures for EC2 and VPC are effective?

   1. Disable monitoring tools to reduce system load
   2. Remove subnets to minimize resource usage
   3. Assign public IPs to all backup instances
   4. Regularly conduct failover and recovery drills

   Explanation: Conducting regular drills ensures your response plans work as expected during a real outage. Disabling monitoring, assigning unnecessary public IPs, or removing subnets can actually increase risks by reducing oversight or breaking network segmentation.

9. Security in DR Scenarios

   Why is it important to restrict access permissions on backup EC2 instances and disaster recovery VPCs?

   1. To minimize the risk of unauthorized access during a disaster
   2. To speed up network performance metrics
   3. To prevent instance resizing
   4. To automatically increase storage capacity

   Explanation: Limiting permissions helps keep backup environments secure even under stress. Speeding up network performance or increasing storage is unrelated to security. Disallowing resizing does not directly help secure the environment in a disaster scenario.

10. DNS in Disaster Recovery

    How can properly configured DNS help in reducing downtime during EC2 disaster recovery?

    1. By limiting all outbound network requests
    2. By quickly redirecting user traffic to healthy backup instances
    3. By disabling dynamic routing protocols
    4. By increasing static IP ranges for all services

    Explanation: Configuring DNS lets you reroute traffic to standby resources, enabling faster recovery when you switch environments. Increasing static IP ranges does not directly aid recovery. Disabling routing or limiting outbound traffic may prevent users from accessing recovery resources.