The correct answer is Create a backup vault in AWS Backup to retain RDS backups. Create a new backup plan with a daily schedule and an expiration period of 7 years after creation. Assign the RDS DB instances to the backup plan.

AWS Backup provides a centralized, fully managed backup solution for AWS services, including Amazon RDS. With AWS Backup, you can create a custom backup plan that includes a daily backup schedule and set a retention period of 7 years. This ensures that backups are consistent, automatically managed, and restorable. It also supports compliance requirements through backup vaults and access controls.

Configure a backup window for the RDS DB instances for daily snapshots. Assign a snapshot retention policy of 7 years to each RDS DB instance. Use Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (Amazon DLM) to schedule snapshot deletions is incorrect because Amazon DLM is designed for Amazon EBS snapshots, not RDS snapshots. RDS snapshot retention must be managed through RDS or AWS Backup.

Configure database transaction logs to be automatically backed up to Amazon CloudWatch Logs with an expiration period of 7 years is incorrect because CloudWatch Logs is intended for monitoring and observabilitynot for storing complete, restorable RDS backups.

Configure an AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) replication task. Deploy a replication instance, and configure a change data capture (CDC) task to stream database changes to Amazon S3 as the target. Configure S3 Lifecycle policies to delete the snapshots after 7 years is incorrect because DMS is used for migration and replication, not as a backup and restore solution. It does not provide point-in-time recovery or consistent snapshotting.

Why this question matters: It assesses your knowledge of backup and compliance features in AWS, especially for RDS. Long-term data retention for audit and regulatory compliance is a critical requirement in many industries, and AWS Backup is the best tool for managing this in a scalable, policy-driven way.

Tip: When backup retention is tied to a specific time frame (like 7 years), and backups must be restorable, AWS Backup is often the correct service. Be careful not to confuse monitoring (CloudWatch), migration (DMS), or snapshot management tools (DLM) with full-featured backup solutions.

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