DBS-C01 Monitoring and Troubleshooting Practice Question
A database administrator wants to receive an alert when an RDS instance's storage space drops below 10% of total allocated storage. Which AWS service should be used to set up this alert?
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 Alarms
Amazon CloudWatch Alarms can monitor the FreeStorageSpace metric for RDS instances and trigger an action (e.g., send an SNS notification) when the storage space drops below 10% of total allocated storage. Option A (Amazon SNS) is a notification service that can be used with CloudWatch Alarms but does not itself monitor metrics. Option B (AWS CloudTrail) records API activity, not storage metrics. Option C (AWS Config) tracks configuration changes. Therefore, Option D is the correct service for setting up the alert.
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 SNS
Why it's wrong here
SNS is used for notifications, not monitoring metrics.
- ✗
AWS CloudTrail
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail records API calls, not storage metrics.
- ✗
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config tracks resource configuration changes, not performance metrics.
- ✓
Amazon CloudWatch Alarms
Why this is correct
CloudWatch Alarms monitor metrics and trigger actions when thresholds are breached.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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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.