← DBS-C01·Amazon Web Services

Question 493 of 1,730

Monitoring and Troubleshooting →hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

Quick Answer

The answer is to migrate the storage to gp3 with a baseline of 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s throughput. This resolves gp2 burst balance exhaustion on RDS PostgreSQL because a 500 GB gp2 volume provides only 1,500 baseline IOPS, and when read spikes hit 5,000 IOPS, the volume burns through its burst credits, causing the BurstBalance to drop and triggering latency. gp3 eliminates the burst credit model entirely by offering a consistent baseline of 3,000 IOPS, so no credit exhaustion occurs. On the AWS Certified Database Specialty DBS-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of the gp2 vs gp3 storage trade-offs and the specific IOPS baseline formula (3 IOPS per GB for gp2). A common trap is assuming larger gp2 volumes or larger instances fix the issue, but only gp3 removes the burst dependency. Memory tip: “gp3 means three-thousand baseline—no bursting, no busting.”

DBS-C01 Monitoring and Troubleshooting Practice Question

This DBS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of monitoring and troubleshooting. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.

A company runs a production Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL Multi-AZ DB instance (db.r5.large) with 500 GB of General Purpose SSD (gp2) storage. The application experiences intermittent latency spikes every 15 minutes. Monitoring shows that during these spikes, the ReadIOPS metric on the primary instance spikes to 5,000 IOPS (the baseline is 1,500 IOPS), and the BurstBalance drops from 100% to 20% then recovers. There is no increase in CPU or connections. The application uses connection pooling with pgBouncer on an EC2 instance. The team has verified that no long-running queries or index scans are causing the spikes. Which action is MOST likely to resolve the intermittent latency?

Clue words in this question

Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.

Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
Clue: "primary"
Why it matters: Asks for the main purpose or function, not a secondary benefit. Eliminate answers that describe side-effects or partial functions.

Question 1hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A
Create a read replica and redirect read traffic to it.
Why wrong: Read replicas do not help with write IOPS spikes on the primary. The issue is storage performance on the writer.
B
Increase the DB instance to db.r5.xlarge to improve CPU and network performance.
Why wrong: The issue is IOPS credit exhaustion, not CPU or network. Increasing instance class does not affect storage IOPS baseline or burst behavior.
C
Migrate the storage to gp3 with a baseline of 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s throughput.
gp3 provides consistent baseline IOPS without burst credits, eliminating the performance variability due to credit exhaustion.
D
Scale the storage to 1,000 GB to increase baseline IOPS and burst credits.
Why wrong: Increasing gp2 storage size increases baseline IOPS and burst credits, but the workload spikes exceed the new baseline, still causing credit consumption. Also, cost increases unnecessarily.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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

✓

Migrate the storage to gp3 with a baseline of 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s throughput.

Option B is correct because the burst balance dropping indicates the gp2 volume is exhausting its burst credits. The baseline IOPS for a 500 GB gp2 volume is 1,500 IOPS, but the spikes reach 5,000 IOPS, burning credits. Converting to gp3 provides a baseline of 3,000 IOPS (or more) without burst credits, eliminating the burst balance issue. Option A increases volume size but does not change the burst behavior (larger gp2 still uses credits and needs even more IOPS). Option C adds read replicas but the issue is on the primary write instance. Option D increases instance size but the metric shows no CPU or connection bottleneck; the bottleneck is storage IOPS credit exhaustion.

Key principle: NAT direction and interface roles matter as much as the IP address mapping. Inside/outside designation controls which traffic is translated.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✗
Create a read replica and redirect read traffic to it.
Why it's wrong here
Read replicas do not help with write IOPS spikes on the primary. The issue is storage performance on the writer.
✗
Increase the DB instance to db.r5.xlarge to improve CPU and network performance.
Why it's wrong here
The issue is IOPS credit exhaustion, not CPU or network. Increasing instance class does not affect storage IOPS baseline or burst behavior.
✓
Migrate the storage to gp3 with a baseline of 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s throughput.
Why this is correct
gp3 provides consistent baseline IOPS without burst credits, eliminating the performance variability due to credit exhaustion.
Clue confirmation
The clue words "most likely", "primary" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
✗
Scale the storage to 1,000 GB to increase baseline IOPS and burst credits.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing gp2 storage size increases baseline IOPS and burst credits, but the workload spikes exceed the new baseline, still causing credit consumption. Also, cost increases unnecessarily.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic

NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.

KKey Concepts to Remember

Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.

TExam Day Tips

Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.

Key takeaway

NAT direction and interface roles matter as much as the IP address mapping. Inside/outside designation controls which traffic is translated.

Real-world example

How this comes up in practice

A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.

What to study next

Got this wrong? Here's your next step.

Review the four NAT address types (inside local, inside global, outside local, outside global), PAT port overload, and static vs dynamic NAT use cases. Then practise related DBS-C01 NAT questions on configuration and troubleshooting.

Related DBS-C01 practice-question pages

Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.

Workload-Specific Database Design practice questions

Practise DBS-C01 questions linked to Workload-Specific Database Design.

Deployment and Migration practice questions

Practise DBS-C01 questions linked to Deployment and Migration.

Management and Operations practice questions

Practise DBS-C01 questions linked to Management and Operations.

Monitoring and Troubleshooting practice questions

Practise DBS-C01 questions linked to Monitoring and Troubleshooting.

Database Security practice questions

Practise DBS-C01 questions linked to Database Security.

DBS-C01 fundamentals practice questions

Practise DBS-C01 questions linked to DBS-C01 fundamentals.

DBS-C01 scenario practice questions

Practise DBS-C01 questions linked to DBS-C01 scenario.

DBS-C01 troubleshooting practice questions

Practise DBS-C01 questions linked to DBS-C01 troubleshooting.

Practice this exam

Start a free DBS-C01 practice session

Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.

10 questions 20 questions 30 questions 50 questions Timed 30

DBS-C01 practice-test guide →Study guide →Browse all practice tests

FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this DBS-C01 question test?

Monitoring and Troubleshooting — This question tests Monitoring and Troubleshooting — Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Migrate the storage to gp3 with a baseline of 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s throughput. — Option B is correct because the burst balance dropping indicates the gp2 volume is exhausting its burst credits. The baseline IOPS for a 500 GB gp2 volume is 1,500 IOPS, but the spikes reach 5,000 IOPS, burning credits. Converting to gp3 provides a baseline of 3,000 IOPS (or more) without burst credits, eliminating the burst balance issue. Option A increases volume size but does not change the burst behavior (larger gp2 still uses credits and needs even more IOPS). Option C adds read replicas but the issue is on the primary write instance. Option D increases instance size but the metric shows no CPU or connection bottleneck; the bottleneck is storage IOPS credit exhaustion.

What should I do if I get this DBS-C01 question wrong?

Are there clue words in this question I should notice?

Yes — watch for: "most likely", "primary". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.

What is the key concept behind this question?

Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.

About these practice questions

Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →

How Courseiva writes practice questions · Editorial policy

Keep practising

Question Discussion

Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.

Loading comments…

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.