DBS-C01 Management and Operations Practice Question
A database administrator is troubleshooting a performance issue on an Amazon RDS for SQL Server instance. The CPU utilization is consistently above 90%, and the number of database connections is high. Which Amazon CloudWatch metric should be analyzed first to determine if the issue is due to a specific query?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers choose CPUUtilization (Option D) because it seems directly related to CPU issues, but they overlook that Enhanced Monitoring provides the granularity needed to isolate a specific query's impact.
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
✓
Enhanced Monitoring (cpuUtilization per process)
Enhanced Monitoring provides per-process CPU utilization metrics, which allow you to identify if a specific SQL Server query or session is consuming excessive CPU. Unlike aggregate metrics like CPUUtilization, Enhanced Monitoring breaks down CPU usage by process (e.g., sqlservr.exe), enabling you to pinpoint a problematic query. This is the most direct way to determine if the high CPU is driven by a specific query rather than general load.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
DatabaseConnections
Why it's wrong here
This metric shows the number of connections, but not which queries are causing high CPU.
- ✗
ReadIOPS
Why it's wrong here
ReadIOPS indicates disk I/O, not directly CPU usage by queries.
- ✓
Enhanced Monitoring (cpuUtilization per process)
Why this is correct
Enhanced Monitoring provides per-process CPU metrics, which can help identify which process (and thus which query) is consuming the most CPU.
- ✗
CPUUtilization
Why it's wrong here
CPUUtilization confirms high CPU but does not identify the specific query causing it.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 1,663 original DBS-C01 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
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.