DBS-C01 Management and Operations Practice Question
A SysOps administrator is tasked with monitoring the free storage space on all Amazon RDS DB instances. Which AWS service should be used to set up an alarm that sends an email notification when free storage space falls below a threshold?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse logging/auditing services (CloudTrail, Config) or security scanners (Inspector) with the monitoring and alerting capabilities of CloudWatch, leading candidates to select a service that cannot evaluate real-time metric thresholds.
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 with an alarm on the FreeStorageSpace metric and an SNS topic.
Amazon CloudWatch provides the `FreeStorageSpace` metric for RDS DB instances, which reports the amount of available storage in bytes. You can create a CloudWatch alarm on this metric and configure it to send a notification via an Amazon SNS topic when the value falls below a specified threshold, enabling proactive monitoring of storage capacity.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS CloudTrail to monitor storage events.
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail logs API calls, not storage metrics.
- ✗
AWS Config to track storage configuration changes.
Why it's wrong here
Config is for configuration compliance, not real-time metrics.
- ✓
Amazon CloudWatch with an alarm on the FreeStorageSpace metric and an SNS topic.
Why this is correct
CloudWatch monitors metrics and can trigger actions via SNS.
- ✗
Amazon Inspector to check for storage vulnerabilities.
Why it's wrong here
Inspector assesses application security, not storage metrics.
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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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on DBS-C01
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. Which TWO AWS services can be used to monitor and set alarms on Amazon RDS database performance metrics? (Choose two.)
easy- A.Amazon RDS Performance Insights
- B.AWS Trusted Advisor
- ✓ C.Amazon RDS Enhanced Monitoring
- ✓ D.Amazon CloudWatch
- E.AWS CloudTrail
Why C: CloudWatch monitors metrics and can set alarms; Enhanced Monitoring provides OS-level metrics. RDS Performance Insights is for performance analysis, not alarms.
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.