Which solution should a solutions architect recommend to meet these requirements?
Create a backup vault in AWS Backup to retain RDS backups. Create a new backup plan with a daily schedule and an expiration period of 2 years after creation. Assign the RDS DB instances to the backup plan.
Configure a backup window for the RDS DB instances for daily snapshots. Assign a snapshot retention policy of 2 years to each RDS DB instance. Use Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (Amazon DLM) to schedule snapshot deletions.
Configure database transaction logs to be automatically backed up to Amazon CloudWatch Logs with an expiration period of 2 years.
Configure an AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) replication task. Deploy a replication instance, and configure a change data capture (CDC) task to stream database changes to Amazon S3 as the target. Configure S3 Lifecycle policies to delete the snapshots after 2 years.
Explanations:
AWS Backup allows centralized backup management and retention policies. By creating a backup vault and a plan for daily backups with a 2-year retention period, the company ensures consistent and restorable backups of RDS instances.
While configuring daily snapshots with a 2-year retention policy seems viable, it does not provide the same level of centralized management and reporting as AWS Backup, which is specifically designed for such requirements. Additionally, Amazon DLM is used for EBS volumes rather than RDS snapshots.
Backing up transaction logs to CloudWatch Logs does not meet the requirement for daily backups that are restorable. Transaction logs are not sufficient alone for a full database restoration, and retention policies for logs may not guarantee the same consistency as database snapshots.
AWS DMS is primarily used for database migration and replication tasks. Using it for CDC to stream changes to S3 does not provide a straightforward backup solution. It also complicates the process for compliance with the retention requirement since it’s not designed for backup and restore functionalities.
I scheme that the answer is:
Create a backup vault in AWS Backup to retain RDS backups. Create a new backup plan with a daily schedule and an expiration period of 2 years after creation. Assign the RDS DB instances to the backup plan.