DBS-C01 Management and Operations Practice Question
A company uses Amazon ElastiCache for Redis to cache frequently accessed data. The cache cluster experiences high CPU utilization during peak hours. The cluster has a single node of type cache.r5.large. What is the most cost-effective way to reduce CPU utilization while maintaining performance?
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
✓
Add a read replica to distribute read traffic.
Adding a read replica distributes read traffic away from the primary node, reducing its CPU utilization. This is more cost-effective than upgrading to a larger instance type (option B) because you can add a smaller replica node. Option A (enabling encryption) does not reduce CPU utilization and adds overhead. Option D (changing maxmemory-policy) also does not reduce CPU utilization.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable encryption at rest and in transit.
Why it's wrong here
Encryption adds CPU overhead.
- ✗
Upgrade to a cache.r5.xlarge node type.
Why it's wrong here
More expensive than adding a replica.
- ✓
Add a read replica to distribute read traffic.
Why this is correct
Offloads read traffic, reducing CPU on primary.
- ✗
Increase the maxmemory-policy parameter to 'allkeys-lru'.
Why it's wrong here
Eviction policy does not reduce CPU.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DBS-C01 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the DBS-C01 exam.