How to Alert on SAP HANA CPU Utilization with CloudWatch
An SAP Basis administrator is monitoring the health of an SAP HANA database on AWS. The administrator wants to receive alerts when the CPU utilization of the HANA instance exceeds 90% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which combination of AWS services should be used?
Quick Answer
This scenario is testing the standard three-part chain AWS uses for threshold-based alerting: a metric source, an alarm that evaluates that metric against a condition, and a notification mechanism that acts on the alarm state. Amazon CloudWatch collects the CPU utilization metric from the HANA instance continuously, which gives you the raw data needed to know whether the 90% threshold has been crossed. A CloudWatch Alarm adds the actual logic - it watches that metric and evaluates whether it has stayed above 90% for the specified duration, five consecutive minutes here, only transitioning to an alarm state once that sustained condition is met, which avoids false alerts from brief spikes. Amazon SNS is what turns that alarm state into something a person actually receives, fanning the notification out to email, SMS, or other subscribed endpoints. The distractor services in this kind of question typically belong to adjacent but different categories: tools like X-Ray handle distributed tracing rather than resource metrics, CloudTrail records API activity rather than performance data, Config handles configuration compliance rather than real-time monitoring, and SES handles email delivery generally rather than being the native integration point for CloudWatch Alarms. Whenever a question describes watching a metric and alerting someone after a sustained threshold is crossed, expect the answer to be built from CloudWatch metrics and Alarms paired with SNS specifically.
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 metrics and CloudWatch Alarms with Amazon SNS
Amazon CloudWatch collects the CPU utilization metric for the HANA instance. A CloudWatch Alarm can be configured to trigger when the metric exceeds 90% for 5 consecutive minutes, and the alarm action sends a notification via Amazon SNS (e.g., email or SMS). Option A is incorrect because AWS X-Ray is for distributed tracing, and CloudWatch Logs is for log data, not for CPU metrics or alarms. Option B is incorrect: AWS CloudTrail logs API calls and is not used for monitoring resource metrics; AWS Lambda could be used but is unnecessary for a simple threshold alarm. Option C is incorrect: AWS Config is for configuration compliance and auditing, not real-time metric monitoring; SES is an email service but not the standard integration for CloudWatch Alarms (SNS is used for notifications).
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 X-Ray and Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Why it's wrong here
X-Ray traces requests, not CPU metrics.
- ✗
AWS CloudTrail and AWS Lambda
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail logs API calls, not CPU metrics.
- ✗
AWS Config and Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)
Why it's wrong here
Config evaluates resource configurations, not performance metrics.
- ✓
Amazon CloudWatch metrics and CloudWatch Alarms with Amazon SNS
Why this is correct
CloudWatch monitors CPU, alarms trigger on threshold, SNS sends notifications.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on PAS-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. An SAP administrator needs to monitor the CPU utilization of an EC2 instance running SAP NetWeaver. The administrator wants to receive an alert when CPU utilization exceeds 90% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which AWS service should be used?
easy- A.AWS CloudTrail
- B.AWS Config
- C.Amazon VPC Flow Logs
- ✓ D.Amazon CloudWatch Alarms
Why D: Amazon CloudWatch Alarms (Option D) are the correct choice because they can monitor Amazon CloudWatch metrics, such as EC2 CPU utilization, and trigger actions (e.g., SNS notifications) when a specified threshold (e.g., 90% for 5 consecutive minutes) is breached. Option A (AWS CloudTrail) is incorrect because it logs API calls for auditing, not performance metrics. Option B (AWS Config) tracks resource configuration changes, not real-time metrics. Option C (Amazon VPC Flow Logs) captures network traffic metadata, not CPU utilization.
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.