Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumOptimizing Network Performance and Latency

A SaaS platform operates a real-time media processing pipeline in the `us-east-1` Region. The architecture consists of an ingestion fleet of Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in the `IngestionVPC`, and a processing cluster of EC2 instances in the `ProcessingVPC`. Currently, the two VPCs are connected via an AWS Transit Gateway. The ingestion instances resolve the processing cluster's domain names using a Route 53 Private Hosted Zone (PHZ) that is associated only with the `ProcessingVPC`, leading to intermittent name resolution failures. The platform is preparing for a scheduled live-streaming event that will generate an immediate, massive traffic spike (flash traffic). The solutions architect must optimize the network to minimize latency and maximize throughput between the ingestion and processing tiers, resolve the DNS failures, and ensure the infrastructure can handle the traffic surge without dropping packets.

Which three actions should the solutions architect take to meet these requirements?

  1. Establish a VPC Peering connection between the IngestionVPC and the ProcessingVPC, update the subnet route tables to direct inter-VPC traffic through the peering connection, and configure the EC2 instances to use jumbo frames with an MTU of 90019001.Answer
  2. Associate the existing Route 53 Private Hosted Zone with the IngestionVPC to enable internal name resolution for the processing cluster.Answer
  3. Submit a support ticket to AWS to pre-warm the Application Load Balancer prior to the event to handle the sudden traffic surge.Answer
  4. D
    Route all inter-VPC traffic through an AWS Direct Connect gateway connected directly to both VPCs to bypass the Transit Gateway and achieve low-latency transitive routing.
  5. E
    Create a new, separate Route 53 Private Hosted Zone with the same domain name in the IngestionVPC to resolve local queries, instead of associating the existing zone.
  6. F
    Configure the ALB with a target tracking scaling policy based on the RequestCountPerTarget metric to scale the load balancer during the event, rather than requesting pre-warming.

Answer

To optimize network performance, establish a VPC Peering connection and configure jumbo frames (MTU 90019001) on the EC2 instances. To resolve the DNS issues, associate the existing Route 53 Private Hosted Zone with the IngestionVPC. To handle the flash traffic, submit a support ticket to AWS to pre-warm the ALB.
The correct architecture involves establishing a VPC Peering connection between the IngestionVPC and ProcessingVPC, which provides the lowest latency and highest throughput for same-region traffic while supporting jumbo frames (MTU 90019001). To resolve the domain name resolution failures, the existing Route 53 Private Hosted Zone must be associated with the IngestionVPC. To handle the anticipated flash traffic without packet loss, the Application Load Balancer must be pre-warmed by submitting a support ticket to AWS.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Establish VPC Peering between the IngestionVPC and ProcessingVPC, update subnet route tables to point to the peering connection, and set the MTU to 90019001 on the EC2 instances.
Inter-VPC traffic bypasses the Transit Gateway, eliminating extra hops and bandwidth caps, and jumbo frames reduce packet overhead for large transfers.
VPC Peering provides direct routing with higher throughput and lower latency than Transit Gateway in the same region, and supports jumbo frames.
2
Associate the existing Route 53 Private Hosted Zone of the ProcessingVPC with the IngestionVPC.
The ingestion fleet can resolve the private DNS names of the processing cluster directly.
A Route 53 Private Hosted Zone must be associated with a VPC for instances in that VPC to resolve its DNS records.
3
Submit a request to AWS Support to pre-warm the Application Load Balancer.
The ALB is pre-provisioned with the capacity required to handle the anticipated flash traffic surge immediately.
ALB auto-scaling is reactive; sudden, massive traffic spikes will exceed the current capacity and lead to dropped connections before scaling completes.

Key Concept

Optimizing inter-VPC network throughput and latency using VPC Peering and Jumbo Frames, cross-VPC Route 53 Private Hosted Zone association, and pre-warming Application Load Balancers for flash traffic.
Rate this question

Topics

Optimizing Network Performance and Latency