What should a solutions architect recommend?
Provision an EC2 instance with a Throughput Optimized HDD (st1) root volume and a Cold HDD (sc1) data volume.
Provision an EC2 instance with a Throughput Optimized HDD (st1) volume that will serve as the root and data volume.
Provision an EC2 instance with a General Purpose SSD (gp2) root volume and Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) data volume.
Provision an EC2 instance with a General Purpose SSD (gp2) root volume. Configure the application to store its data in an Amazon S3 bucket.
Explanations:
Provisioning an EC2 instance with a Throughput Optimized HDD (st1) root volume and a Cold HDD (sc1) data volume does not provide the required configurable and consistent IOPS. These volume types are designed for throughput rather than IOPS, making them unsuitable for applications needing consistent IOPS.
Provisioning an EC2 instance with a Throughput Optimized HDD (st1) volume for both root and data does not meet the requirement for configurable and consistent IOPS, as st1 volumes are optimized for throughput and have variable performance characteristics.
Provisioning an EC2 instance with a General Purpose SSD (gp2) root volume and a Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) data volume allows for configurable IOPS on the data volume (io1). This meets the application’s need for consistent and reliable IOPS for transactional data. The gp2 volume provides a balance of price and performance for the root volume.
Provisioning an EC2 instance with a General Purpose SSD (gp2) root volume and storing data in an Amazon S3 bucket does not satisfy the requirement for configurable and consistent IOPS, as S3 is an object storage service that does not offer the same performance characteristics or IOPS configurability as block storage volumes like io1.
I have a feeling that the answer is:
Provision an EC2 instance with a General Purpose SSD (gp2) root volume and Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) data volume.