DVA-C02 Troubleshooting and Optimization Practice Question
A developer is troubleshooting an Amazon RDS for MySQL instance that is experiencing high CPU utilization. The application performs many read operations. The developer wants to reduce the load on the database. What is the MOST effective solution?
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
✓
Create a read replica and direct read queries to it.
Creating a read replica allows read queries to be directed to the replica, offloading the read workload from the primary instance and reducing its CPU utilization. Option A is incorrect because upgrading to a larger instance class increases capacity but does not specifically address read-heavy workloads efficiently and is less cost-effective than scaling reads with replicas. Option C is incorrect because Multi-AZ provides high availability and automatic failover, not performance improvement or load reduction. Option D is incorrect because purchasing reserved instances reduces costs but does not affect CPU utilization.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Upgrade the DB instance to a larger instance class.
Why it's wrong here
Upgrading the DB instance to a larger class provides more CPU, memory, and I/O capacity, which can temporarily alleviate high CPU. However, this vertical scaling approach does not address the architectural inefficiency of a single instance handling a read-heavy workload. It is generally a less cost-effective and less scalable solution for read-intensive applications compared to distributing read traffic horizontally.
- ✓
Create a read replica and direct read queries to it.
Why this is correct
Creating an Amazon RDS read replica asynchronously replicates data from the primary DB instance, allowing read queries to be directed to the replica. This effectively offloads read traffic from the primary instance, significantly reducing its CPU utilization and improving overall database performance. Read replicas are specifically designed to scale read-heavy workloads independently, providing a highly efficient and cost-effective solution.
- ✗
Enable Multi-AZ for automatic failover.
Why it's wrong here
Enabling Multi-AZ deploys a synchronous standby replica in a different Availability Zone, primarily for high availability and disaster recovery purposes. In the event of a primary instance failure, RDS automatically fails over to the standby to maintain service continuity. However, the standby replica does not actively serve read traffic and therefore does not contribute to reducing CPU utilization on the primary instance during normal operations.
- ✗
Purchase reserved instances to reduce costs.
Why it's wrong here
Purchasing Reserved Instances for Amazon RDS is a billing optimization strategy that offers significant cost savings compared to On-Demand pricing, in exchange for a commitment to a specific instance type and region over a 1-year or 3-year term. This financial commitment has no impact whatsoever on the operational performance, CPU utilization, or scaling capabilities of the underlying DB instance. Reserved Instances are purely a cost management tool.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DVA-C02 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 DVA-C02 exam.