DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A data engineer needs to monitor the number of records processed by an AWS Glue ETL job and send an alert if the count drops below a threshold. Which AWS service should be used to create this custom metric?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse AWS CloudTrail with CloudWatch because both are monitoring-related, but CloudTrail is for auditing API calls, not for ingesting custom numerical metrics or setting alarms on them.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Amazon CloudWatch
Amazon CloudWatch is the correct service for creating custom metrics because it allows you to publish your own data points, such as the number of records processed by an AWS Glue ETL job. You can use the CloudWatch PutMetricData API or the AWS Glue job script to emit a custom metric, then set an alarm on that metric to trigger an alert when the count drops below a threshold.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon S3
Why it's wrong here
S3 is for object storage, not metrics.
- ✗
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
Config evaluates resource configurations, not metrics.
- ✓
Amazon CloudWatch
Why this is correct
CloudWatch can store custom metrics and trigger alarms.
- ✗
AWS CloudTrail
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail records API activity, not custom metrics.
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