AWS SAA-C03 #99

A company is implementing a shared storage solution for a gaming application that is hosted in an on-premises data center. The company needs the ability to use Lustre clients to access data. The solution must be fully managed.
Which solution meets these requirements?

A. Create an AWS Storage Gateway file gateway. Create a file share that uses the required client protocol. Connect the application server to the file share.
B. Create an Amazon EC2 Windows instance. Install and configure a Windows file share role on the instance. Connect the application server to the file share.
C. Create an Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) file system, and configure it to support Lustre. Attach the file system to the origin server. Connect the application server to the file system.
D. Create an Amazon FSx for Lustre file system. Attach the file system to the origin server. Connect the application server to the file system.

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The correct answer is D. Create an Amazon FSx for Lustre file system. Attach the file system to the origin server. Connect the application server to the file system.

Amazon FSx for Lustre is a fully managed service that provides cost-effective, high-performance, scalable storage for compute workloads. It’s designed for applications that require fast storage where you can read, write, and process massive amounts of data at up to hundreds of gigabytes per second of throughput, millions of IOPS, and sub-millisecond latencies.

This makes Amazon FSx for Lustre a great choice for workloads where speed matters, such as machine learning, high performance computing (HPC), video processing, and financial modeling. The other options A, B and C do not meet all the requirements as they either do not support Lustre clients or are not fully managed solutions.

Sure, here’s why the other options are incorrect:

A. Create an AWS Storage Gateway file gateway: AWS Storage Gateway’s file gateway configuration does indeed provide a virtual on-premises file server, which enables you to store and retrieve Amazon S3 objects through standard file storage protocols. However, it does not support the Lustre file system which is a requirement in this scenario.

B. Create an Amazon EC2 Windows instance: While you can indeed create a file share on a Windows EC2 instance, this solution would not be fully managed. You would be responsible for managing the EC2 instance, including the installation and configuration of the file share role, as well as any necessary maintenance and updates. Furthermore, this solution does not inherently support the Lustre file system.

C. Create an Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) file system: Amazon EFS provides a simple, scalable, fully managed elastic NFS file system for use with AWS Cloud services and on-premises resources. While it is fully managed and does support on-premises access via AWS Direct Connect or AWS VPN, it does not support the Lustre file system.

So, only option D meets all the requirements: it supports Lustre clients, is fully managed, and can be used with an on-premises data center.