DBS-C01 Monitoring and Troubleshooting Practice Question
A database administrator is monitoring an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance. The administrator notices that the DB instance is using more memory than expected. Which TWO metrics in Amazon CloudWatch can help diagnose memory usage?
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
✓
FreeableMemory
The correct answers are FreeableMemory (B) and SwapUsage (E). FreeableMemory reflects the amount of available memory on the instance; a low value indicates high memory usage. SwapUsage tracks the amount of swap space being used; when memory is exhausted, the OS begins swapping, which directly indicates memory pressure. The other metrics are unrelated to memory: NetworkReceiveThroughput (A) measures network traffic, ReadIOPS (C) measures I/O operations, and DatabaseConnections (D) shows the number of connections, not memory consumption.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
NetworkReceiveThroughput
Why it's wrong here
This is a network metric.
- ✓
FreeableMemory
Why this is correct
This metric shows the amount of available RAM.
- ✗
ReadIOPS
Why it's wrong here
ReadIOPS measures I/O operations per second.
- ✗
DatabaseConnections
Why it's wrong here
This shows the number of client connections.
- ✓
SwapUsage
Why this is correct
Swap usage indicates memory pressure.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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