Databases in AWS Flashcards

1
Q

What is Amazon RDS?

A

A managed relational database service that is compatible with many of the most used database engines, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle etc.

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2
Q

How do manual and automatic backups work with RDS?

A

Automated backups enable point-in-time-restore capability, but expire after 35 days.
Manual backups are kept for longer than this and thus can be used for longer term recovery.

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3
Q

What two engines is Aurora compatible with?

A

PostgreSQL and MySQL

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4
Q

When is the serverless version of Aurora appropriate?

A

For intermittent or unpredictable workloads

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5
Q

What is the strength of Aurora’s storage set up?

A

Data is stored in 6 replicas across 3 AZs, making it highly available and self-healing

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6
Q

What is the fastest way to make a new Aurora cluster from an existing one?

A

Cloning - faster than restoring a snapshot

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7
Q

What is ElastiCache?

A

A managed Redis/Memcached database service that utilises an in-memory store to deliver queries with sub-ms latency

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8
Q

What is one downside/serious consideration associated with using ElastiCache?

A

It will probably require modifications to your application’s code

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9
Q

What is an example of a use case for ElastiCache?

A

Key/value store, frequent reads (but not often written), cache results for DB queries, store session data for websites

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10
Q

What high availability feature does DynamoDB have as default?

A

Multi-AZ deployment

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11
Q

What is DynamoDB?

A

Proprietary AWS noSQL database that is useful for databases where you need a flexible or evolving schema

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12
Q

What are the two DynamoDB backup options?

A

Automated or manual

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13
Q

How is security, authorisation and authentication handled for DynamoDB?

A

Through IAM

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14
Q

What is DocumentDB specialised for? Does it use SQL?

A

JSON data
No, DocumentDB is a NoSQL database service

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15
Q

What is Neptune?

A

A fully managed, highly available graph database.

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16
Q

What is Amazon Keyspaces?

A

A fully managed Apache Cassandra distributed database.

17
Q

What query language is used to query an Amazon Keyspace database?

A

Cassandra Query Language

18
Q

What is QLDB? What does this stand for?

A

A ledger of financial transactions that are immutable and cryptographically verifiable

19
Q

What would a QLDB be used for?

A

Reviewing the history of all the changes made to application data over time

20
Q

What is the difference between QLDB and Amazon Managed Blockchain?

A

QLDB has no decentralisation component in accordance with financial regulations

21
Q

What is Amazon Timestream?

A

A fully managed time series database with built-in analytics functions

22
Q

Are RDS read replicas updated synchronously or asynchronously?

A

Asynchronously

23
Q

What would be the equivalent AWS service used for a MongoDB database?

A

A DocumentDB database

24
Q

What is the simplest way to increase the storage of an RDS instance if you need to?

A

Enable autoscaling on that instance

25
What service would be used for caching popular DynamoDB results?
DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX)
26
How do you encrypt an RDS database?
Create an encrypted snapshot and then restore the database from the encrypted snapshot
27
What is lazy loading?
A caching strategy where data is only updated in the cache if it is forced to do so (i.e. there was a cache miss). There are no forced updates when the backend database is updated
28
What is a downside of lazy loading?
Data can easily become stale as there is no forced updates when data in the actual backend database is changed or updated
29
What is write-through with ElastiCache? What is the benefit of write-through? What is the downside?
A caching strategy where new data is written simultaneously to the cache and the database. Benefit: Data is always up to date Downside: Slightly increases latency
30
What is a benefit of lazy loading?
There is minimal data kept in the cache itself, so it can be small in size and there is nothing unnecessary in there