DBS-C01 Monitoring and Troubleshooting Practice Question
A database team notices that the Amazon Aurora MySQL-Compatible DB cluster is experiencing frequent failovers during peak hours. The failover events are not correlated with any maintenance windows or manual interventions. Which metric in Amazon CloudWatch should be investigated first to identify the root cause?
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
✓
WriteIOPS.
(WriteIOPS) is correct because during peak hours, high write IOPS can overwhelm the primary instance's capacity, leading to replication lag or resource exhaustion that triggers a failover. Monitoring WriteIOPS helps identify if the write workload exceeds the instance's limits. Option A (FreeableMemory) is incorrect because low freeable memory can cause performance degradation but is less likely to directly cause failover unless memory is severely exhausted. Option B (DatabaseConnections) is incorrect because high connection counts can cause performance issues but typically do not directly trigger failovers unless combined with other resource constraints. Option C (ReadLatency) is incorrect because it is a symptom of issues like high read load or replication lag, but not a direct cause of failover; failovers are usually triggered by primary instance failure or unreachability.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
FreeableMemory.
Why it's wrong here
Low freeable memory can cause performance issues but is less likely to directly cause failover. Failovers are usually due to instance health checks or resource exhaustion beyond memory alone.
- ✗
DatabaseConnections.
Why it's wrong here
High DatabaseConnections can lead to connection limits and performance degradation, but not a direct trigger for failover. Failovers typically occur from instance failure, not just connection count.
- ✗
ReadLatency.
Why it's wrong here
ReadLatency is a symptom of issues like high read workload or replication lag. It is not a direct cause of failover; failovers originate from primary instance problems.
- ✓
WriteIOPS.
Why this is correct
High WriteIOPS can overwhelm the primary instance's write capacity, causing replication lag or resource exhaustion, leading to a failover. This is the most direct metric to investigate first.
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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.