The best solution is to **enable Amazon EBS fast snapshot restore on a snapshot used to create the AMI, and update the Auto Scaling group to launch instances from this optimized AMI**. Fast snapshot restore pre-warms the EBS snapshot in specific Availability Zones, significantly reducing the time it takes to initialize EBS volumes during instance launch. This is particularly effective when provisioning large EC2 instances that depend on fast disk readiness during scale-out events.

The suggestion to use the aws ec2 register-image command with AWS Step Functions to orchestrate AMI updates is unnecessary and adds operational complexity. While this process creates an AMI, it does not address the primary issueinitialization latency during instance launch. Without fast snapshot restore, instances can still be slow to boot, especially with large EBS volumes.

The idea to activate AMI creation with Amazon DLM and automate AMI replacement using Lambda is focused on AMI rotation and backup hygiene, not on reducing startup latency. DLM helps maintain up-to-date AMIs, but it does not optimize the initialization speed of EBS volumes unless paired with fast snapshot restore, which is not mentioned in this option.

The option to use Amazon EventBridge and AWS Backup lifecycle policies to provision AMIs is incorrect. AWS Backup is not used for AMI creation or launch optimization. EventBridge is useful for orchestration and automation, but this combination does not address the need for faster volume attachment or EC2 instance boot times.

This question is significant because it evaluates your ability to improve EC2 instance startup performance in response to scaling demands. A common mistake is assuming that creating new AMIs or automating their replacement will speed up instance launches. The key is recognizing that EBS fast snapshot restore is specifically built to solve this problem by reducing data initialization time. The challenge lies in distinguishing between tools for automation versus those for performance optimization.

Full AWS Practitioner Certification Question