Identify Query Performance Issues with RDS Performance Insights
A DevOps engineer notices that an Amazon RDS for MySQL instance's CPU is consistently high during business hours. The engineer wants to identify the specific queries causing the high CPU. Which combination of services should be used to capture and analyze the queries? (Choose the best answer.)
Quick Answer
The answer is to enable RDS Performance Insights and analyze the top SQL queries. This is correct because Performance Insights directly captures database load and breaks it down by SQL query, wait events, and hosts, allowing you to identify the specific queries consuming the most CPU on your RDS for MySQL instance. On the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional DOP-C02 exam, this question tests your ability to distinguish between monitoring tools: CloudWatch Logs lacks query-level capture, Enhanced Monitoring provides OS metrics only, and X-Ray is for application tracing, not database queries. A common trap is confusing Enhanced Monitoring’s OS-level CPU with query-level CPU—remember that Performance Insights is the only service that surfaces top SQL by load. For a memory tip, think “PI for Queries, EM for OS” to recall that Performance Insights pinpoints problematic SQL, while Enhanced Monitoring shows instance health.
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse Enhanced Monitoring (OS-level metrics) with Performance Insights (query-level analysis), or assume audit logs or X-Ray can provide SQL-level performance data, when in fact they serve different purposes (compliance and tracing, respectively).
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
✓
Enable RDS Performance Insights and analyze the top SQL queries
RDS Performance Insights provides a database performance tuning feature that visualizes database load and identifies the specific SQL queries causing high CPU. It captures query-level metrics such as wait events, SQL digest, and host/user information, allowing the DevOps engineer to pinpoint the exact queries responsible for the CPU spike during business hours.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Enable RDS Performance Insights and analyze the top SQL queries
Why this is correct
Performance Insights samples the database load and attributes it to individual SQL statements, exposing the top queries by database load during the high-CPU window. This directly identifies the offending statements on the MySQL instance without requiring slow query log parsing.
- ✗
Enable RDS Enhanced Monitoring and view metrics in CloudWatch
Why it's wrong here
Enhanced Monitoring captures OS-level metrics such as CPU, memory and disk I/O, not SQL statement text, so it cannot name the offending queries. It is the right tool for host resource visibility, but query-level attribution requires Performance Insights or the slow query log.
- ✗
Enable AWS X-Ray tracing on the application and database
Why it's wrong here
X-Ray traces application requests across services and can show downstream database calls, but it does not capture the SQL statements executing inside the MySQL engine. It suits latency diagnosis in distributed applications, not identifying which queries drive RDS CPU.
- ✗
Enable RDS audit logs and stream them to Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Why it's wrong here
Audit logs record connections, user activity and DDL, not per-query execution statistics or CPU consumption, so they cannot rank the queries causing load. They suit compliance and security auditing; Performance Insights is required for query-level CPU attribution.
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Same concept, more angles
2 more ways this is tested on DOP-C02
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. A DevOps engineer is troubleshooting an issue where an Amazon RDS for MySQL instance is experiencing high latency. The engineer wants to identify which queries are causing the problem. Which AWS service should be used?
easy- ✓ A.Amazon RDS Performance Insights
- B.AWS CloudTrail
- C.Amazon CloudWatch Metrics
- D.VPC Flow Logs
Why A: Amazon RDS Performance Insights is a database performance tuning tool that visualizes database load (Average Active Sessions) broken down by SQL statement, wait event, user, and host. It directly identifies which queries are consuming the most DB load, making it the correct tool for diagnosing high-latency MySQL workloads. It retains up to 7 days of free performance data and up to 2 years with paid retention.
Variation 2. A DevOps engineer is troubleshooting a performance issue with an Amazon RDS for MySQL database. The engineer suspects that slow queries are causing high CPU utilization. Which TWO actions can the engineer take to identify the slow queries?
easy- A.Create an RDS event subscription for 'low storage' events.
- B.Monitor the 'CPUUtilization' metric in CloudWatch.
- ✓ C.Enable the slow query log and publish it to CloudWatch Logs.
- ✓ D.Enable Performance Insights to visualize database load and identify top SQL statements.
- E.Enable Enhanced Monitoring to view process list and SQL queries.
Why C: Enable the slow query log and publish it to CloudWatch Logs (Option C) allows you to capture and analyze slow SQL queries. Performance Insights (Option D) provides a dashboard to visualize database load and identify the top SQL statements causing performance issues. Option A is incorrect because event subscriptions for low storage notify about storage events, not slow queries. Option B is incorrect because monitoring CPUUtilization only indicates high CPU usage but does not identify specific slow queries. Option E is incorrect because Enhanced Monitoring provides OS-level metrics like CPU and memory, not the actual SQL queries.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DOP-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 DOP-C02 exam.