Exam AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate SAA-C03 topic 1 question 54 discussion

EFS is not supported on Windows instances https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/AmazonEFS.html Amazon FSx for Windows File Server provides fully managed Microsoft Windows file servers, backed by a fully native Windows file system. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/fsx/latest/WindowsGuide/what-is.html

Windows file shares = Amazon FSx for Windows File Server Hence, the correct answer is C

Ans C - use FSx for Windows File Server - why create extra work by migrating to EFS? Add Multi-AZ configuration for availability

Amazon EFS (Linux) and Amazon FSx (Windows) provide highly durable and available file systems that can span multiple Availability Zones. Both solutions are designed to deliver high performance, however, when choosing to use network file systems consider the access patterns. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/sap-lens/best-practice-14-3.html

FSx=Windows https://docs.aws.amazon.com/fsx/latest/WindowsGuide/what-is.html

Windows workload rules out S3 and EFS as they cannot be mounted directly on Windows. S3 File Gateway is mainly for on-prem to AWS which is not a requirement here as company is already in AWS. C meets all the requirements.

With Amazon FSx for Windows File Server, you can enjoy a native Windows file server experience with a fully managed, scalable, and highly dependable file storage solution

https://aws.amazon.com/fsx/windows/faqs/ Thousands of compute instances and devices can access a file system concurrently.

With Amazon FSx for Windows File Server, you can enjoy a native Windows file server experience with a fully managed, scalable, and highly dependable file storage solution. Rich administrative features including end-user file recovery, user quotas, and Microsoft Active Directory integration are all provided by this Windows Server-based system.

The key reasons are: FSx for Windows provides fully managed Windows-native SMB file shares that are accessible from Windows clients. It allows seamlessly migrating the existing Windows file shares to FSx shares without disrupting users. The Multi-AZ configuration provides high availability and durability for file storage. Users can continue to access files the same way over SMB without any changes. It is optimized for Windows workloads and provides features like user quotas, ACLs, AD integration. Data is stored on SSDs with automatic backups for resilience.

The company wants a highly available and durable storage solution that preserves how users currently access the files = Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

Option C is the correct answer

Migrating all the data to FSx for Windows File Server allows you to preserve existing user access method and maintain compatibility with Windows file shares. Users can continue accessing files using the same method as before, without any disruptions. A: S3 is a highly durable object storage service, it is not designed to directly host Windows file shares. Implementing IAM authentication for file access would require significant changes to existing user access method. B: S3 File Gateway can provide access to Amazon S3 objects through standard file protocols, it may not be ideal solution for preserving existing user access method and maintaining Windows file shares. D: Although Amazon EFS provides highly available and durable file storage, it may not directly support the existing Windows file shares and their access method.

https://aws.amazon.com/fsx/windows/faqs/ Thousands of compute instances and devices can access a file system concurrently. EFS does not support Windows

C is correct. Amazon FSx for Windows File Server.

EFS is not supported on Windows instances https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/AmazonEFS.html Amazon FSx for Windows File Server provides fully managed Microsoft Windows file servers, backed by a fully native Windows file system. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/fsx/latest/WindowsGuide/what-is.html

C is correct. Amazon FSx for Windows File Server provides fully managed Microsoft Windows file servers.