An on-premises company wants their applications to continue using NFS and SMB file protocols to access files, while the actual data is stored durably in Amazon S3. Which AWS Storage Gateway type provides this?
- AVolume Gateway (Stored mode) — exposes iSCSI block volumes to on-premises apps; primary data stays on-premises.
- BTape Gateway — presents a virtual tape library to backup software; not for NFS/SMB file access.
- CS3 File Gateway — presents S3 buckets as NFS/SMB file shares on-premises; files are stored as objects in S3.✓ Correct
- DAWS DataSync — transfers data to S3/EFS but does not present a persistent NFS/SMB mount point.
AWS Storage Gateway types: (1) S3 File Gateway — NFS/SMB access to S3. (2) FSx File Gateway — SMB access to FSx for Windows. (3) Volume Gateway — iSCSI block storage (Stored: primary on-prem + async S3 backup; Cached: primary in S3 + local cache). (4) Tape Gateway — virtual tape library for backup software.
A company needs to migrate 80 TB of data from an on-premises data centre to Amazon S3. Their internet connection is 1 Gbps but is heavily used for business operations. The migration must complete within 2 weeks. What is the MOST appropriate transfer method?
- AAWS DataSync over the existing internet connection — would saturate business bandwidth and take weeks.
- BS3 Transfer Acceleration — speeds up uploads over internet but still limited by business bandwidth constraints.
- CAWS Snowball Edge Storage Optimised — a physical device with 80 TB capacity shipped to the data centre; data is loaded offline and shipped to AWS.✓ Correct
- DAWS Direct Connect — dedicated network connection, but takes weeks to provision and adds ongoing cost.
AWS Snow Family rule of thumb: if transferring over the internet would take more than 1 week, use a Snowball device. Snowball Edge Storage Optimised holds 80 TB usable storage. For very large migrations (petabytes), use multiple Snowball devices or Snowmobile (45-foot shipping container, up to 100 PB). DataSync is best for ongoing or incremental transfers after the initial bulk migration.
A company wants to migrate their on-premises Oracle database to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL with minimal downtime. They need continuous replication during the migration period so the cutover window is just a few minutes. Which service handles this?
- AAWS Snowball Edge — for bulk offline data transfer, not live database replication.
- BAWS Application Migration Service (MGN) — for server lift-and-shift migrations, not database-specific replication.
- CAWS Database Migration Service (DMS) — replicates data continuously from source to target, supporting heterogeneous migrations (e.g., Oracle to Aurora).✓ Correct
- DAWS DataSync — transfers file and object data, not relational database records.
DMS supports homogeneous migrations (Oracle to RDS Oracle) and heterogeneous migrations (Oracle to Aurora, SQL Server to MySQL). For heterogeneous migrations, use AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) to convert the schema first, then DMS for data migration with ongoing replication. The source database stays live during migration, minimising downtime.
Which Storage Gateway (Volume Gateway) configuration stores ALL primary data in Amazon S3 while caching only the most frequently accessed data locally on-premises?
- AStored Volume Gateway — keeps the complete dataset on-premises and asynchronously backs up to S3 as EBS snapshots.
- BCached Volume Gateway — primary dataset resides in S3; frequently accessed data is cached locally for low-latency access.✓ Correct
- CS3 File Gateway — provides NFS/SMB access to S3, not iSCSI block volume access.
- DTape Gateway — virtual tape library for backup, not block volume storage.
Volume Gateway modes: Stored — complete copy on-premises, async EBS snapshot to S3 (low latency for all data, high local storage required). Cached — complete copy in S3, local cache for hot data (minimises local storage requirement, slightly higher latency on cache miss). Cached mode is preferred when local storage is limited.
A company wants to retire their physical tape backup infrastructure while keeping their existing backup software (e.g., Veeam, Commvault) working without modification. Which AWS service replaces physical tapes?
- AAWS Backup — manages backup policies for AWS services, but existing tape backup software cannot connect to it directly.
- BAmazon S3 Glacier — long-term archive storage, but backup software cannot natively write to it as a tape library.
- CAWS Storage Gateway — Tape Gateway presents a Virtual Tape Library (VTL) interface that existing backup software recognises as a physical tape library.✓ Correct
- DAmazon EFS — a shared file system, not a tape library interface.
Tape Gateway emulates a physical tape library over iSCSI, with virtual tape drives and a virtual tape shelf. Backup software writes to virtual tapes as if they were physical tapes. Virtual tapes are stored in S3, and archived tapes are moved to S3 Glacier or Glacier Deep Archive. This is a zero-change path to the cloud for tape-based backup workflows.