Question 1mediummultiple choice
Full question →mediummultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A company hosts a web application behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in us-east-1. Users in Europe report high latency. The SysOps administrator decides to use AWS Global Accelerator to improve performance by directing traffic to the closest edge location. However, the application logs require the original client IP addresses of users. The ALB currently provides the client IP via the X-Forwarded-For header, but the development team warns that Global Accelerator may change the source IP. Which configuration should the administrator choose to meet both performance and logging requirements?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Distractor review
Configure Global Accelerator with an endpoint group that points directly to the ALB. The ALB will continue to receive the original client IP in the X-Forwarded-For header.
When Global Accelerator routes traffic to an ALB endpoint, it replaces the source IP with its own IP addresses. The original client IP is not preserved in the X-Forwarded-For header by default; the header will contain the Global Accelerator IPs.
B
Best answer
Place a Network Load Balancer (NLB) in front of the ALB, and configure Global Accelerator to point to the NLB. The NLB preserves the client IP, and the ALB can still see it in the X-Forwarded-For header.
Global Accelerator preserves the client source IP when the endpoint is an NLB. The NLB passes traffic to the ALB, which can see the original client IP in the X-Forwarded-For header. This satisfies both performance (using Global Accelerator) and logging requirements.
C
Distractor review
Enable Proxy Protocol v2 on the ALB to ensure client IP addresses are preserved through Global Accelerator.
Proxy Protocol is used with Network Load Balancers to preserve client IP. Application Load Balancers do not support Proxy Protocol; they rely on the X-Forwarded-For header. This option is not valid for ALBs.
D
Distractor review
Use Amazon CloudFront instead of Global Accelerator and configure it to forward the client IP in a custom header.
CloudFront, like Global Accelerator, does not preserve the original client IP when the origin is an ALB. It also adds a CDN layer which may not be necessary for this use case and introduces additional cost and complexity.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
- Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
- Underline the problem statement mentally.
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Related practice questions
Related SOA-C02 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A company uses Amazon CloudFront to deliver content to a global audience. The origin is an Application Load Balancer in us-east-1. The SysOps administrator wants to reduce costs by minimizing the number of requests that reach the origin server. Which action should the administrator take?
Question 2
A company runs a batch processing application on Amazon EC2 that runs for 2 hours every night. The workload can tolerate interruptions. Which EC2 purchasing option provides the lowest cost for this use case?
Question 3
A SysOps administrator needs to monitor the CPU utilization of an Amazon RDS DB instance and receive an alarm when CPU utilization exceeds 80% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which AWS service should be used to create this alarm?
Question 4
A company runs a critical web application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application uses session stickiness (sticky sessions) to maintain user sessions. The SysOps administrator notices that when instances are replaced during a scale-in or failure event, users lose their session data. The administrator needs to preserve session data across instance failures without losing stickiness benefits. What should the administrator do?
Question 5
A company runs a production web application on a single Amazon EC2 instance. The application experiences a predictable and steady workload 24/7. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize compute costs for this instance while ensuring it remains available during the expected workload. Which EC2 purchasing option should the administrator use?
Question 6
A company has a VPC with public and private subnets. The private subnets host application servers that need to make outbound HTTPS connections to the internet. The SysOps administrator must implement a solution that provides outbound internet connectivity while preventing inbound connections from the internet. Additionally, the solution must allow the company to control which domains the application servers can access. Which solution should the administrator implement?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SOA-C02 question test?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Place a Network Load Balancer (NLB) in front of the ALB, and configure Global Accelerator to point to the NLB. The NLB preserves the client IP, and the ALB can still see it in the X-Forwarded-For header. — AWS Global Accelerator preserves the original client IP address when the endpoint is a Network Load Balancer (NLB) or an EC2 instance, but not when using an Application Load Balancer. By adding an NLB in front of the ALB, the client IP is preserved through the NLB and can be forwarded to the ALB, which then passes it in the X-Forwarded-For header. Option B is incorrect because Global Accelerator will not preserve the client IP if the endpoint is directly an ALB. Option C is incorrect because enabling Proxy Protocol v2 on the ALB does not help; Proxy Protocol is used with NLBs. Option D is incorrect because CloudFront is a CDN and does not necessarily preserve client IP in the same manner, and it adds another layer of complexity.
What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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