The correct answer is: Provision the necessary infrastructure in a standby state in a secondary AWS Region. Use Amazon Route 53 to implement active-passive failover, and create an Aurora cross-Region replica in the standby Region.

This solution aligns with the companys tolerance for some downtime and data loss (30 minutes), which points to a warm standby disaster recovery strategy. Creating an Aurora cross-Region replica ensures relatively recent data is available in the second Region, minimizing data loss. Using Route 53's active-passive failover ensures that DNS fails over to the standby environment only when the primary Region becomes unhealthy, avoiding unnecessary operational costs while still providing acceptable recovery time and point objectives (RTO/RPO).

Why the other options are incorrect:

Deploying a scaled-down active-active setup in another Region with Route 53 is more expensive and unnecessary given the companys tolerance for downtime. Active-active is suitable for zero-downtime, zero-data-loss requirements, not when up to 30 minutes of outage is acceptable.

Fully replicating infrastructure in another Region and using snapshots to restore Aurora introduces too much potential data loss and delay. Restoring from a snapshot is a manual and slower process, which is likely to exceed the 30-minute window.

Using AWS Backup and launching Aurora in a secondary Region as a second primary is not supported. Aurora global databases and cross-Region replicas are valid DR tools, but the concept of a 'second primary' doesn't apply in this way. AWS Backup can be part of a DR strategy but isn't sufficient alone for this level of RTO/RPO.

Why this question is important: This question tests your understanding of disaster recovery strategies, especially how to balance cost, complexity, and downtime tolerance. Recognizing when to use active-active vs. active-passive configurations and how Aurora cross-Region replicas support DR is critical.

Tip: Always match the DR approach to the stated RTO and RPO. If the solution doesnt need to be fully online during normal operations, active-passive is often the best cost-effective approach.

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