How should a solutions architect design the architecture to meet these requirements?
Host all three tiers on Amazon EC2 instances. Use Amazon FSx File Gateway for file sharing between the tiers.
Host all three tiers on Amazon EC2 instances. Use Amazon FSx for Windows File Server for file sharing between the tiers.
Host the application tier and the business tier on Amazon EC2 instances. Host the database tier on Amazon RDS. Use Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) for file sharing between the tiers.
Host the application tier and the business tier on Amazon EC2 instances. Host the database tier on Amazon RDS. Use a Provisioned IOPS SSD (io2) Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volume for file sharing between the tiers.
Explanations:
While Amazon FSx File Gateway can provide file sharing, it is not suitable for sharing files in a Windows environment where native Windows file system features are required. FSx for Windows File Server is more appropriate for this scenario.
Hosting all three tiers on Amazon EC2 instances allows for full control over the Windows environment and SQL Server features like native backups and Data Quality Services. Amazon FSx for Windows File Server provides an SMB file share, enabling efficient file sharing between tiers in a Windows-friendly format.
While Amazon RDS can manage the database tier effectively, it does not support all SQL Server features such as native backups and Data Quality Services. Using Amazon EFS may not meet the specific file sharing requirements in a Windows environment as well.
Hosting the database on Amazon RDS limits access to specific SQL Server features, and using an EBS volume for file sharing is not ideal since EBS volumes are not designed for sharing files between multiple EC2 instances directly. EBS volumes are block storage and do not provide a native file system interface suitable for tiered applications.