An internal security audit of AWS resources within a company found that a number of Amazon EC2 instances running Microsoft Windows workloads were missing several important operating system-level patches. A Solutions Architect has been asked to fix existing patch deficiencies, and to develop a workflow to ensure that future patching requirements are identified and taken care of quickly. The Solutions Architect has decided to use AWS Systems Manager. It is important that EC2 instance reboots do not occur at the same time on all Windows workloads to meet organizational uptime requirements.
Which workflow will meet these requirements in an automated manner?

A. Add a Patch Group tag with a value of Windows Servers to all existing EC2 instances. Ensure that all Windows EC2 instances are assigned this tag. Associate the AWS-DefaultPatchBaseline to the Windows Servers patch group. Define an AWS Systems Manager maintenance window, conduct patching within it, and associate it with the Windows Servers patch group. Register instances with the maintenance window using associated subnet IDs. Assign the AWS-RunPatchBaseline document as a task within each maintenance window.
B. Add a Patch Group tag with a value of Windows Servers to all existing EC2 instances. Ensure that all Windows EC2 instances are assigned this tag. Associate the AWS-WindowsPatchBaseline to the Windows Servers patch group. Create an Amazon CloudWatch Events rule configured to use a cron expression to schedule the execution of patching using the AWS Systems Manager run command. Assign the AWS-RunWindowsPatchBaseline document as a task associated with the Windows Servers patch group. Create an AWS Systems Manager State Manager document to define commands to be executed during patch execution.
C. Add a Patch Group tag with a value of either Windows Servers1 or Windows Servers2 to all existing EC2 instances. Ensure that all Windows EC2 instances are assigned this tag. Associate the AWS-DefaultPatchBaseline with both Windows Servers patch groups. Define two non-overlapping AWS Systems Manager maintenance windows, conduct patching within them, and associate each with a different patch group. Register targets with specific maintenance windows using the Patch Group tags. Assign the AWS-RunPatchBaseline document as a task within each maintenance window.
D. Add a Patch Group tag with a value of either Windows Servers1 or Windows Server2 to all existing EC2 instances. Ensure that all Windows EC2 instances are assigned this tag. Associate the AWS-WindowsPatchBaseline with both Windows Servers patch groups. Define two non-overlapping AWS Systems Manager maintenance windows, conduct patching within them, and associate each with a different patch group. Assign the AWS-RunWindowsPatchBaseline document as a task within each maintenance window. Create an AWS Systems Manager State Manager document to define commands to be executed during patch execution.

A company has decided to move some workloads onto AWS to create a grid environment to run market analytics. The grid will consist of many similar instances, spun-up by a job-scheduling function. Each time a large analytics workload is completed, a new VPC is deployed along with job scheduler and grid nodes. Multiple grids could be running in parallel.
Key requirements are:

• Grid instances must communicate with Amazon S3 to retrieve data to be processed.
• Grid instances must communicate with Amazon DynamoDB to track intermediate data.
• The job scheduler needs only to communicate with the Amazon EC2 API to start new grid nodes.

A key requirement is that the environment has no access to the internet, either directly or via the on-premises proxy. However, the application needs to be able to seamlessly communicate to Amazon S3, Amazon DynamoDB, and Amazon EC2 API, without the need for reconfiguration for each new deployment.
Which of the following should the Solutions Architect do to achieve this target architecture? (Choose three.)

A. Enable VPC endpoints for Amazon S3 and DynamoDB.
B. Disable Private DNS Name Support.
C. Configure the application on the grid instances to use the private DNS name of the Amazon S3 endpoint.
D. Populate the on-premises DNS server with the private IP addresses of the EC2 endpoint.
E. Enable an interface VPC endpoint for EC2.
F. Configure Amazon S3 endpoint policy to permit access only from the grid nodes.

A company is moving a business-critical application onto AWS. It is a traditional three-tier web application using an Oracle database. Data must be encrypted in transit and at rest. The database hosts 12 TB of data. Network connectivity to the source Oracle database over the internal is allowed, and the company wants to reduce operational costs by using AWS Managed Services where possible. All resources within the web and application tiers have been migrated. The database has a few tables and a simple schema using primary keys only; however, it contains many Binary Large Object (BLOB) fields. It was not possible to use the database’s native replication tools because of licensing restrictions.
Which database migration solution will result in the LEAST amount of impact to the application’s availability?

A. Provision an Amazon RDS for Oracle instance. Host the RDS database within a virtual private cloud (VPC) subnet with internet access, and set up the RDS database as an encrypted Read Replica of the source database. Use SSL to encrypt the connection between the two databases. Monitor the replication performance by watching the RDS ReplicaLagmetric. During the application maintenance window, shut down the on-premises database and switch over the application connection to the RDS instance when there is no more replication lag. Promote the Read Replica into a standalone database instance.
B. Provision an Amazon EC2 instance and install the same Oracle database software. Create a backup of the source database using the supported tools. During the application maintenance window, restore the backup into the Oracle database running in the EC2 instance. Set up an Amazon RDS for Oracle instance, and create an import job between the databases hosted in AWS. Shut down the source database and switch over the database connections to the RDS instance when the job is complete.
C. Use AWS DMS to load and replicate the dataset between the on-premises Oracle database and the replication instance hosted on AWS. Provision an Amazon RDS for Oracle instance with Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) enabled and configure it as a target for the replication instance. Create a customer-managed AWS KMS master key to set it as the encryption key for the replication instance. Use AWS DMS tasks to load the data into the target RDS instance. During the application maintenance window and after the load tasks reach the ongoing replication phase, switch the database connections to the new database.
D. Create a compressed full database backup of the on-premises Oracle database during an application maintenance window. While the backup is being performed, provision a 10 Gbps AWS Direct Connect connection to increase the transfer speed of the database backup files to Amazon S3, and shorten the maintenance window period. Use SSL/TLS to copy the files over the Direct Connect connection. When the backup files are successfully copied, start the maintenance window, and rise any of the Amazon RDS supported tools to import the data into a newly provisioned Amazon RDS for Oracle instance with encryption enabled. Wait until the data is fully loaded and switch over the database connections to the new database. Delete the Direct Connect connection to cut unnecessary charges.

A company collects a steady stream of 10 million data records from 100,000 sources each day. These records are written to an Amazon RDS MySQL DB. A query must produce the daily average of a data source over the past 30 days. There are twice as many reads as writes. Queries to the collected data are for one source ID at a time.
How can the Solutions Architect improve the reliability and cost effectiveness of this solution?

A. Use Amazon Aurora with MySQL in a Multi-AZ mode. Use four additional read replicas.
B. Use Amazon DynamoDB with the source ID as the partition key and the timestamp as the sort key. Use a Time to Live (TTL) to delete data after 30 days.
C. Use Amazon DynamoDB with the source ID as the partition key. Use a different table each day.
D. Ingest data into Amazon Kinesis using a retention period of 30 days. Use AWS Lambda to write data records to Amazon ElastiCache for read access.

A large company is migrating its entire IT portfolio to AWS. Each business unit in the company has a standalone AWS account that supports both development and test environments. New accounts to support production workloads will be needed soon.
The Finance department requires a centralized method for payment but must maintain visibility into each group’s spending to allocate costs.
The Security team requires a centralized mechanism to control IAM usage in all the company’s accounts.
What combination of the following options meet the company’s needs with the LEAST effort? (Choose two.)

A. Use a collection of parameterized AWS CloudFormation templates defining common IAM permissions that are launched into each account. Require all new and existing accounts to launch the appropriate stacks to enforce the least privilege model.
B. Use AWS Organizations to create a new organization from a chosen payer account and define an organizational unit hierarchy. Invite the existing accounts to join the organization and create new accounts using Organizations.
C. Require each business unit to use its own AWS accounts. Tag each AWS account appropriately and enable Cost Explorer to administer chargebacks.
D. Enable all features of AWS Organizations and establish appropriate service control policies that filter IAM permissions for sub-accounts.
E. Consolidate all of the company’s AWS accounts into a single AWS account. Use tags for billing purposes and IAM’s Access Advisor feature to enforce the least privilege model.

A company wants to replace its call center system with a solution built using AWS managed services. The company call center would like the solution to receive calls, create contact flows, and scale to handle growth projections. The call center would also like the solution to use deep learning capabilities to recognize the intent of the callers and handle basic tasks, reducing the need to speak to an agent. The solution should also be able to query business applications and provide relevant information back to callers as requested.
Which services should the Solutions Architect use to build this solution? (Choose three.)

A. Amazon Rekognition to identify who is calling.
B. Amazon Connect to create a cloud-based contact center.
C. Amazon Alexa for Business to build conversational interfaces.
D. AWS Lambda to integrate with internal systems.
E. Amazon Lex to recognize the intent of the caller.
F. Amazon SQS to add incoming callers to a queue.

A company had a tight deadline to migrate its on-premises environment to AWS. It moved over Microsoft SQL Servers and Microsoft Windows Servers using the virtual machine import/export service and rebuild other applications native to the cloud. The team created both Amazon EC2 databases and used Amazon RDS. Each team in the company was responsible for migrating their applications, and they have created individual accounts for isolation of resources. The company did not have much time to consider costs, but now it would like suggestions on reducing its AWS spend.
Which steps should a Solutions Architect take to reduce costs?

A. Enable AWS Business Support and review AWS Trusted Advisor’s cost checks. Create Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling groups for applications that experience fluctuating demand. Save AWS Simple Monthly Calculator reports in Amazon S3 for trend analysis. Create a master account under Organizations and have teams join for consolidated billing.
B. Enable Cost Explorer and AWS Business Support. Reserve Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS DB instances. Use Amazon CloudWatch and AWS Trusted Advisor for monitoring and to receive cost-savings suggestions. Create a master account under Organizations and have teams join for consolidated billing.
C. Create an AWS Lambda function that changes the instance size based on Amazon CloudWatch alarms. Reserve instances based on AWS Simple Monthly Calculator suggestions. Have an AWS Well-Architected framework review and apply recommendations. Create a master account under Organizations and have teams join for consolidated billing.
D. Create a budget and monitor for costs exceeding the budget. Create Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling groups for applications that experience fluctuating demand. Create an AWS Lambda function that changes instance sizes based on Amazon CloudWatch alarms. Have each team upload their bill to an Amazon S3 bucket for analysis of team spending. Use Spot Instances on nightly batch processing jobs.

A large global financial services company has multiple business units. The company wants to allow Developers to try new services, but there are multiple compliance requirements for different workloads. The Security team is concerned about the access strategy for on-premises and AWS implementations. They would like to enforce governance for AWS services used by business teams for regulatory workloads, including Payment Card Industry (PCI) requirements.
Which solution will address the Security team’s concerns and allow the Developers to try new services?

A. Implement a strong identity and access management model that includes users, groups, and roles in various AWS accounts. Ensure that centralized AWS CloudTrail logging is enabled to detect anomalies. Build automation with AWS Lambda to tear down unapproved AWS resources for governance.
B. Build a multi-account strategy based on business units, environments, and specific regulatory requirements. Implement SAML-based federation across all AWS accounts with an on-premises identity store. Use AWS Organizations and build organizational units (OUs) structure based on regulations and service governance. Implement service control policies across OUs.
C. Implement a multi-account strategy based on business units, environments, and specific regulatory requirements. Ensure that only PCI-compliant services are approved for use in the accounts. Build IAM policies to give access to only PCI-compliant services for governance.
D. Build one AWS account for the company for strong security controls. Ensure that all the service limits are raised to meet company scalability requirements. Implement SAML federation with an on-premises identity store, and ensure that only approved services are used in the account.

A company has an application behind a load balancer with enough Amazon EC2 instances to satisfy peak demand. Scripts and third-party deployment solutions are used to configure EC2 instances when demand increases or an instance fails. The team must periodically evaluate the utilization of the instance types to ensure that the correct sizes are deployed.
How can this workload be optimized to meet these requirements?

A. Use CloudFormer to create AWS CloudFormation stacks from the current resources. Deploy that stack by using AWS CloudFormation in the same region. Use Amazon CloudWatch alarms to send notifications about underutilized resources to provide cost-savings suggestions.
B. Create an Auto Scaling group to scale the instances, and use AWS CodeDeploy to perform the configuration. Change from a load balancer to an Application Load Balancer. Purchase a third-party product that provides suggestions for cost savings on AWS resources.
C. Deploy the application by using AWS Elastic Beanstalk with default options. Register for an AWS Support Developer plan. Review the instance usage for the application by using Amazon CloudWatch, and identify less expensive instances that can handle the load. Hold monthly meetings to review new instance types and determine whether Reserved Instances should be purchased.
D. Deploy the application as a Docker image by using Amazon ECS. Set up Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling and Amazon ECS scaling. Register for AWS Business Support and use Trusted Advisor checks to provide suggestions on cost savings.

A Development team has created a series of AWS CloudFormation templates to help deploy services. They created a template for a network/virtual private cloud (VPC) stack, a database stack, a bastion host stack, and a web application-specific stack. Each service requires the deployment of at least:

• A network/VPC stack
• A bastion host stack
• A web application stack

Each template has multiple input parameters that make it difficult to deploy the services individually from the AWS CloudFormation console. The input parameters from one stack are typically outputs from other stacks. For example, the VPC ID, subnet IDs, and security groups from the network stack may need to be used in the application stack or database stack.
Which actions will help reduce both the operational burden and the number of parameters passed into a service deployment? (Choose two.)

A. Create a new AWS CloudFormation template for each service. Alter the existing templates to use cross-stack references to eliminate passing many parameters to each template. Call each required stack for the application as a nested stack from the new stack. Call the newly created service stack from the AWS CloudFormation console to deploy the specific service with a subset of the parameters previously required.
B. Create a new portfolio in AWS Service Catalog for each service. Create a product for each existing AWS CloudFormation template required to build the service. Add the products to the portfolio that represents that service in AWS Service Catalog. To deploy the service, select the specific service portfolio and launch the portfolio with the necessary parameters to deploy all templates.
C. Set up an AWS CodePipeline workflow for each service. For each existing template, choose AWS CloudFormation as a deployment action. Add the AWS CloudFormation template to the deployment action. Ensure that the deployment actions are processed to make sure that dependencies are obeyed. Use configuration files and scripts to share parameters between the stacks. To launch the service, execute the specific template by choosing the name of the service and releasing a change.
D. Use AWS Step Functions to define a new service. Create a new AWS CloudFormation template for each service. Alter the existing templates to use cross-stack references to eliminate passing many parameters to each template. Call each required stack for the application as a nested stack from the new service template. Configure AWS Step Functions to call the service template directly. In the AWS Step Functions console, execute the step.
E. Create a new portfolio for the services in AWS Service Catalog. Create a new AWS CloudFormation template for each service. Alter the existing templates to use cross-stack references to eliminate passing many parameters to each template. Call each required stack for the application as a nested stack from the new stack. Create a product for each application. Add the service template to the product. Add each new product to the portfolio. Deploy the product from the portfolio to deploy the service with the necessary parameters only to start the deployment.