The best combination of steps is to **modify the DB instance from a Single-AZ DB instance to a Multi-AZ deployment** and **use RDS Proxy to limit reporting requests to the maintenance window**.

Converting the Single-AZ DB instance to a Multi-AZ deployment improves availability and provides automatic failover support. In the event of hardware or infrastructure failure, RDS will automatically promote the standby instance to be the new primary, minimizing downtime.

Using **RDS Proxy** can help manage and control access to the database. Although RDS Proxy doesnt directly improve reporting speed, it allows you to manage and pool connections efficiently. You can configure it to restrict or throttle reporting workloadssuch as routing them during off-peak times or maintenance windowsthereby reducing the impact on transactional performance during regular operations.

The option to take a snapshot and restore it to another instance does not provide continuous availability or live reporting capabilities. Snapshots are static and cannot be used for up-to-date reporting without restoring and replicating the workload manually.

The option to create a read replica is not currently supported for Amazon RDS for Microsoft SQL Server unless you're using RDS Custom or Always On availability groups, which add significant complexity. Standard RDS for SQL Server doesnt offer traditional read replicas like MySQL or PostgreSQL.

The option to migrate to RDS Custom is overkill for this scenario. RDS Custom offers deeper database customization and OS-level access, but it increases operational burden and cost. This is not necessary unless highly specific customization is needed.

This question is important because it combines high availability design with performance optimization in a real-world RDS context. A common pitfall is assuming all RDS engines support read replicas equally. The key is knowing the limitations of SQL Server on RDS and leveraging Multi-AZ for HA and RDS Proxy for connection management. The challenge lies in balancing availability, performance, and complexity.

Full AWS Practitioner Certification Question