SOA-C02 Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation Practice Test 3 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company runs a web application on Amazon EC2 instances. The SysOps administrator needs to monitor two metrics: high CPU utilization (greater than 90%) and high memory utilization (greater than 85%). An alarm should trigger when both conditions are true simultaneously for a period of 5 minutes. Which CloudWatch feature should the administrator use to create this alarm?

Accepted Answer

Composite alarm. A composite alarm in Amazon CloudWatch allows you to create an alarm that evaluates multiple conditions using logical operators (AND, OR, NOT). In this scenario, the administrator needs the alarm to trigger only when both CPU utilization > 90% AND memory utilization > 85% are true simultaneously for 5 minutes. Composite alarms evaluate the state of underlying metric alarms (e.g., two separate simple alarms for CPU and memory) and combine them with an AND condition, making it the correct feature for this requirement.

Answer

Metric math

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Anomaly detection

Answer

Logs Insights

Question 2

A web application publishes a custom metric 'FailedLoginAttempts' to Amazon CloudWatch. The SysOps administrator needs to be notified via Amazon SNS when the number of failed login attempts exceeds 100 within a 5-minute period. Which AWS service or feature should be used to create this notification?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch alarm. An Amazon CloudWatch alarm is the correct service because it monitors a specific CloudWatch metric (such as 'FailedLoginAttempts') and triggers an action (such as sending an SNS notification) when the metric crosses a defined threshold over a specified period. In this case, the alarm evaluates whether the sum of 'FailedLoginAttempts' exceeds 100 within a 5-minute period, and upon breaching, it publishes to the SNS topic to notify the SysOps administrator.

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Logs metric filter

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Amazon CloudWatch dashboard

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AWS Config rule

Question 3

A company runs a REST API on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The SysOps administrator needs to monitor the API endpoint from multiple geographic locations and receive an alarm if the p90 latency exceeds 2 seconds for two consecutive checks. The solution must use AWS managed services and not require custom code running on EC2. Which approach should the administrator use?

Accepted Answer

Set up Amazon CloudWatch Synthetics canaries to run from multiple AWS Regions and publish custom metrics. Create a CloudWatch alarm on the p90 latency metric.. Amazon CloudWatch Synthetics canaries are AWS-managed Node.js scripts that run on a schedule to monitor endpoints from multiple AWS Regions, capturing metrics like duration and latency. By configuring canaries to report p90 latency as a custom metric, you can create a CloudWatch alarm that triggers when p90 exceeds 2 seconds for two consecutive data points, meeting all requirements without custom EC2 code.

Answer

Configure VPC Flow Logs on the Application Load Balancer and use Amazon CloudWatch Logs Insights to query for high-latency requests.

Answer

Enable Amazon CloudWatch RUM (Real User Monitoring) on the client side and create a CloudWatch alarm on the Duration metric.

Answer

Use AWS CloudTrail to log API calls and set a CloudWatch alarm on the event count for errors.

Question 4

A company runs a multi-tier application that uses an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL database. The SysOps administrator needs to monitor the database for performance anomalies, such as sudden spikes in connections or query latencies. The administrator wants to receive alerts when metrics deviate from their expected baseline. The solution must automatically adjust to changes in normal behavior over time, such as seasonal patterns. Which AWS service or feature should the administrator use?

Accepted Answer

Configure Amazon CloudWatch Anomaly Detection on the relevant RDS metrics (e.g., DatabaseConnections, ReadLatency, WriteLatency) and set an alarm to notify when the metric breaches the anomaly band.. Amazon CloudWatch Anomaly Detection uses machine learning to continuously analyze metric patterns and establish a dynamic baseline that adapts to seasonal trends and gradual changes in normal behavior. By applying anomaly detection to RDS metrics like DatabaseConnections, ReadLatency, and WriteLatency, the administrator can set an alarm that triggers when a metric deviates outside the calculated anomaly band, automatically adjusting to evolving traffic patterns without manual threshold updates.

Answer

Use Amazon RDS Performance Insights to analyze database load and set CloudWatch alarms on the DBLoad metric with static thresholds.

Answer

Enable Amazon CloudWatch Metrics Explorer to create a dashboard that visualizes the metrics and manually review for anomalies.

Answer

Use AWS X-Ray to trace database queries and set alarms on trace segment durations.

Question 5

A SysOps administrator needs to monitor the CPU utilization of an Amazon EC2 instance and send an alert when it exceeds 90% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which combination of AWS services should the administrator use to meet this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch metric (CPUUtilization), a CloudWatch alarm, and an Amazon SNS topic.. The correct approach is to use a CloudWatch metric for CPUUtilization, which is automatically published by EC2 instances. A CloudWatch alarm can be configured to evaluate this metric over a period of 5 consecutive minutes with a threshold of 90%, and when the alarm state is triggered, it publishes to an SNS topic to send notifications. This is the native, efficient, and recommended method for monitoring and alerting on EC2 CPU utilization.

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Logs, a metric filter to extract CPU utilization from logs, and an alarm on that metric.

Answer

A CloudWatch dashboard and an AWS Lambda function that checks the dashboard periodically.

Answer

Amazon EventBridge (CloudWatch Events) and a Lambda function that calls the EC2 DescribeInstances API.

Question 6

A company uses Amazon CloudWatch Logs to store application logs. The SysOps administrator needs to count the occurrences of the string 'ERROR' in the logs and trigger an Amazon SNS notification when more than 10 errors occur within a 5-minute window. Which steps should the administrator take?

Accepted Answer

Create a metric filter on the log group and then create a CloudWatch alarm on the resulting metric. A metric filter on a CloudWatch Logs log group extracts a numeric metric (e.g., count of 'ERROR' occurrences) and publishes it to a CloudWatch custom metric. A CloudWatch alarm can then be configured on that metric to evaluate a threshold (e.g., >10) over a specified period (e.g., 5 minutes) and trigger an SNS notification when breached. This is the native, serverless, and cost-effective approach for counting log patterns and alerting.

Answer

Create a CloudWatch alarm directly on the log group

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Create an AWS Lambda function to parse the logs and send a notification to Amazon SNS

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Create an Amazon EventBridge rule to filter log events and send to SNS

Question 7

A company uses AWS CloudTrail to record all API activity. The SysOps administrator needs to be alerted in real time when an IAM user creates a new access key. Which combination of AWS services should be used to create this alert?

Accepted Answer

CloudTrail + Amazon EventBridge + Amazon SNS. Option D is correct because Amazon EventBridge can directly consume CloudTrail events in real time and trigger an SNS notification when an IAM user creates a new access key. EventBridge provides a serverless event bus that matches specific API calls (e.g., CreateAccessKey) using event patterns, enabling immediate alerting without additional polling or log processing.

Answer

CloudTrail + Amazon S3 + Amazon SNS

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CloudTrail + Amazon CloudWatch Logs + Amazon SNS

Answer

CloudTrail + AWS Config + Amazon SNS

Question 8

A company needs to continuously scan Amazon EC2 instances for software vulnerabilities and unintended network exposure. Which AWS service should be used?

Accepted Answer

Amazon Inspector. Amazon Inspector is the correct service because it is specifically designed to automatically scan Amazon EC2 instances for software vulnerabilities (CVEs) and unintended network exposure (network reachability). It uses a combination of a managed agent (for OS-level assessment) and network configuration analysis to produce a detailed findings report, directly meeting the requirement for continuous scanning.

Answer

AWS Config

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AWS Trusted Advisor

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Amazon GuardDuty

Question 9

A SysOps administrator needs to monitor Amazon EC2 instances for disk space usage. Disk space metrics are not available by default in Amazon CloudWatch. The administrator wants to collect disk space metrics from all EC2 instances across multiple AWS accounts and aggregate them in a single CloudWatch dashboard. Which combination of steps should the administrator take?

Accepted Answer

Install the CloudWatch agent on each instance using SSM Run Command, configure the agent to collect disk metrics, and use CloudWatch cross-account observability to aggregate metrics from multiple accounts.. Option A is correct because the CloudWatch agent is required to collect custom metrics like disk space from EC2 instances, as these are not available by default. SSM Run Command enables scalable, agentless installation across instances. CloudWatch cross-account observability allows you to aggregate metrics from multiple AWS accounts into a single monitoring account, meeting the requirement for a unified dashboard.

Answer

Enable detailed monitoring on the EC2 instances, create a custom metric in CloudWatch for disk space, and use CloudWatch Logs to forward logs to a central account.

Answer

Use AWS Config to track disk space and send metrics to CloudWatch.

Answer

Use AWS Trusted Advisor to monitor disk space and send alerts via SNS.

Question 10

A SysOps administrator needs to create a custom Amazon CloudWatch metric to track the number of active user sessions from application logs. The administrator wants to publish this metric to CloudWatch and set an alarm when the count exceeds a threshold. Which solution should be used?

Accepted Answer

Use a CloudWatch Logs Metric Filter on the log group.. Option A is correct because CloudWatch Logs Metric Filters allow you to define a filter pattern that matches specific log events (e.g., 'User session started') and convert them into a custom metric. The metric is automatically published to CloudWatch, where you can set an alarm on the count of matching log entries. This is the standard, cost-effective approach for extracting metrics from application logs without modifying the application code.

Answer

Use CloudWatch Contributor Insights to extract the metric from logs.

Answer

Use CloudWatch Synthetics Canary to simulate user sessions and publish metrics.

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Use CloudWatch Embedded Metric Format to have the application publish metrics directly.

Question 11

A SysOps administrator needs to receive an email notification when an IAM user's console login fails. Which AWS service should be used to set up this notification?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch. Amazon CloudWatch can monitor AWS CloudTrail log events for IAM console login failures by creating a metric filter on the CloudTrail log group for the `ConsoleLogin` event with a `failure` status. When the filter matches, CloudWatch can trigger an alarm that sends an email notification via Amazon SNS. This is the correct service because CloudWatch is designed for monitoring and alerting on operational metrics and log patterns.

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)

Answer

AWS Config

Question 12

A SysOps administrator needs to audit all API calls made in an AWS account for compliance and security analysis. The logs must be stored securely for at least one year. Which AWS service should the administrator enable?

Accepted Answer

AWS CloudTrail. AWS CloudTrail is the correct service because it records all API calls made in an AWS account, including the identity of the caller, the time of the call, the source IP address, and the request parameters. This audit log is essential for compliance and security analysis, and CloudTrail can be configured to store logs in an S3 bucket with lifecycle policies to retain them for at least one year.

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Logs

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AWS Config

Answer

Amazon GuardDuty

Question 13

A SysOps administrator needs to monitor application logs in Amazon CloudWatch Logs for the occurrence of the string 'ERROR'. The administrator wants to create a custom metric that counts the number of 'ERROR' occurrences per 5-minute window and trigger an Amazon CloudWatch alarm when the count exceeds 10. Which action should the administrator take to create the custom metric?

Accepted Answer

Create a metric filter on the CloudWatch Logs log group that matches the term 'ERROR'.. Option B is correct because metric filters in CloudWatch Logs allow you to define a pattern (e.g., 'ERROR') that is evaluated against incoming log events. The filter counts occurrences and publishes a custom metric to CloudWatch, which can then be used to set an alarm with a period of 5 minutes and a threshold of 10.

Answer

Create a CloudWatch Events rule that triggers on 'ERROR' and publishes a metric.

Answer

Create a CloudWatch dashboard that displays the log group and set an alarm on the dashboard.

Answer

Enable AWS CloudTrail on the log group and select the 'ERROR' pattern.

Question 14

A SysOps administrator manages Amazon EC2 instances in multiple AWS accounts. The administrator needs to collect and analyze network traffic logs to identify the top IP addresses generating the most traffic to the instances. The administrator must centralize this analysis in a single monitoring account that has cross-account access to the logs. Which combination of AWS services should the administrator use?

Accepted Answer

Set up CloudWatch Contributor Insights rules in the central monitoring account, with cross-account log ingestion from each account's VPC Flow Logs published to CloudWatch Logs.. Option C is correct because CloudWatch Contributor Insights can analyze VPC Flow Logs to identify the top IP addresses generating traffic, and it supports cross-account log ingestion by subscribing to CloudWatch Logs from multiple accounts. This allows centralized analysis in the monitoring account without needing to copy logs to S3 or run complex queries manually.

Answer

Enable VPC Flow Logs in each account, publish them to an Amazon S3 bucket, and use Amazon Athena to query for top IPs.

Answer

Use AWS Config rules across accounts to aggregate network traffic data and generate a report in Amazon QuickSight.

Answer

Use Amazon CloudWatch Logs Insights with a saved query in the central account and schedule it to run every hour using EventBridge.

Question 15

An application logs user authentication attempts to Amazon CloudWatch Logs. The SysOps administrator needs to create a custom metric that counts the number of failed authentication attempts every 5 minutes and trigger an alarm when the count exceeds 5. Which combination of actions should the administrator take?

Accepted Answer

Create a metric filter on the log group for the string 'FAILED_AUTH', set the metric value to 1, then create an alarm on the resulting metric.. Option B is correct because CloudWatch Logs metric filters allow you to extract a numeric value from log events and publish it as a custom metric. By creating a filter that matches the string 'FAILED_AUTH' and setting the metric value to 1, each failed attempt increments the metric. You can then set the metric's period to 5 minutes and create an alarm that triggers when the sum exceeds 5, meeting the requirement without modifying the application code.

Answer

Use the PutMetricData API in the application to publish the number of failed attempts as a custom metric, then create an alarm.

Answer

Use AWS CloudTrail to track authentication events and create a metric filter on the CloudTrail log group.

Answer

Use Amazon Athena to query the logs every 5 minutes and publish results to a CloudWatch metric.