PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Question
A company uses AWS Systems Manager to automate patching of SAP EC2 instances. The patching fails for some instances with the error 'SSM Agent not running'. What should the administrator do to resolve this?
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
✓
Verify that the SSM Agent is installed and running on the instances.
The error 'SSM Agent not running' indicates that the AWS Systems Manager Agent is not installed or not running on the instance. The correct action is to verify and ensure the SSM Agent is installed and running. Option A (rebooting) is incorrect because rebooting does not resolve a missing or stopped agent. Option B (installing CloudWatch Agent) is unrelated to Systems Manager patching. Option C (configuring a VPC endpoint) addresses connectivity but not the agent status. Therefore, D is the correct answer.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Reboot the instances.
Why it's wrong here
Rebooting may not fix the agent issue.
- ✗
Install the Amazon CloudWatch Agent on the instances.
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch Agent is not required for SSM.
- ✗
Configure a VPC endpoint for Systems Manager.
Why it's wrong here
Network connectivity may be an issue, but the error is about agent.
- ✓
Verify that the SSM Agent is installed and running on the instances.
Why this is correct
SSM Agent must be running for patching.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PAS-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 PAS-C01 exam.