Question

Difficulty: EasyHigh-Performing and Elastic Compute Solutions

A solutions architect is designing a high-performance computing (HPC) database application on Amazon EC2. The database nodes require maximum network performance and the lowest possible latency for node-to-node communication. Which configuration should the solutions architect use to meet these network performance requirements?

  1. Deploy the EC2 instances in a cluster placement group.Answer
  2. B
    Deploy the EC2 instances in a spread placement group.
  3. C
    Deploy the EC2 instances across different Availability Zones in a partition placement group.
  4. D
    Deploy the EC2 instances behind a Network Load Balancer with default health checks configured on port 80.

Answer

Deploy the EC2 instances in a cluster placement group.
Deploying the EC2 instances in a cluster placement group is correct because it logically groups instances within a single Availability Zone. This configuration provides the lowest possible network latency and highest packet-per-second performance for tightly-coupled node-to-node communication.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the primary performance requirement of the workload.
The database application requires maximum network performance and the lowest possible latency for node-to-node communication.
Understanding the workload constraints is necessary to select the correct compute placement strategy.
2
Evaluate the available EC2 placement options against the low-latency requirement.
Cluster placement groups place instances close together inside a single Availability Zone, which minimizes latency and maximizes throughput.
Selecting the correct placement group configuration guarantees the hardware-level performance characteristics needed for the application.
3
Eliminate configurations designed for high availability or load balancing.
Spread placement groups, partition placement groups, and Network Load Balancers do not provide the low-latency node-to-node network characteristics requested.
Spread and partition groups prioritize fault tolerance and failure isolation, while load balancers handle external traffic distribution rather than internal node clustering.

Key Concept

Selecting the appropriate EC2 placement group for high-performance network workloads.
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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