A platform team must change the storage engine and several parameters on a production RDS for MySQL instance. They want a managed staging copy that receives the changes, can be validated with production-like traffic, and supports a fast switchover with rollback. Which capability should they use?
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
Blue/Green Deployments build a green environment from the blue production instance, apply engine, parameter and schema changes there, and keep the two synchronized until switchover. Switchover repoints the endpoint in seconds, and the blue environment remains intact so the team can roll back if validation after cutover fails.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. A read replica copies the source configuration, so it cannot carry the intended change. Promotion is manual, multi-step and has no managed synchronization window or rollback.
- C. Multi-AZ replaces a failed instance in another Availability Zone. It does not create a staging environment or support schema changes.
- D. RDS Proxy pools and routes connections. It cannot build, validate or switch a staging copy of the database.
Exam tip. Blue/Green gives a synchronized staging copy plus a fast, reversible switchover.