A bank holds an RDS snapshot in one Region and must restore the database in a second Region. The snapshot has not been copied anywhere else. What must exist in the second Region before the restore?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
A spare key locked in another city's drawer cannot open a door here until you make a copy in this city. You copy the RDS snapshot into the second Region and restore from that copy. A matching subnet group name or a Multi-AZ setting does not move a snapshot across Regions.
Full Explanation
RDS restores a snapshot in the Region where that snapshot exists. A snapshot that lives only in the source Region cannot be restored into the second Region until a copy of it has been created there. The restore then uses the copy. A DB subnet group is regional and chooses subnets for an instance in its own Region. Sharing the source group's name does not import a snapshot. A cross-Region read replica replicates the live source database. It is not a conversion of this snapshot, and creating one does not restore the snapshot. Multi-AZ keeps a standby in another Availability Zone of the same Region. It does not place the snapshot in a second Region. The copy is a separate step, and it has to be available in the destination before a restore there can select it. Caveat: the copy is a new snapshot in the destination, so the restore must select that copy rather than the source snapshot's identifier. Operational check: wait until the copy is available in the second Region, restore from it, and confirm the new instance's Region is the destination.