Question 414 of 1,663
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.
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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.
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