Question 1mediummultiple choice
Full question →mediummultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A company runs a critical production database on Amazon RDS for MySQL with Multi-AZ deployment. The SysOps administrator needs to be automatically notified when a failover event occurs, and also capture the exact time and reason for the failover for compliance purposes. Which AWS service or feature should be used to capture the failover event details with the least operational overhead?
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
Best answer
Create an Amazon CloudWatch Events rule that matches the 'RDS DB Instance Event' for 'failover' and sends the event to an Amazon SNS topic for notification and logging.
This correctly uses CloudWatch Events / EventBridge to capture RDS events including failovers with detailed information such as time and cause. It requires minimal setup and is designed for this purpose.
B
Distractor review
Enable detailed monitoring on the RDS instance and stream the logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs where a metric filter can detect failover patterns.
Detailed monitoring provides performance metrics at a higher frequency, but it does not generate failover events. Failovers are not captured in standard logs; they are separate events.
C
Distractor review
Configure AWS CloudTrail to log all RDS API calls and analyze the logs for the 'Failover' event type.
CloudTrail logs API calls made to the RDS service (e.g., modifying a DB instance). The internal failover process is not an API call initiated by the user; it is an automated action and is not recorded in CloudTrail.
D
Distractor review
Use AWS Config to create a config rule that evaluates whether the 'DBInstanceStatus' changes to 'failover' and then trigger a remediation action.
AWS Config records configuration changes and compliance over time. A failover event does not change a persistent configuration unless the instance is modified. Config rules are not suitable for capturing transient events like failovers.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
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?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Create an Amazon CloudWatch Events rule that matches the 'RDS DB Instance Event' for 'failover' and sends the event to an Amazon SNS topic for notification and logging. — Amazon RDS integrates with Amazon CloudWatch Events (now part of Amazon EventBridge) to emit events for significant changes like failovers, backups, and maintenance. By creating a CloudWatch Events rule that matches the 'RDS DB Instance Event' for 'failover' type, you can trigger an SNS notification or log the event to CloudWatch Logs. This provides a low-overhead, serverless way to capture the failover details. AWS CloudTrail logs API calls but not internal RDS events like failovers, which are generated as events in the RDS console and via EventBridge. AWS Config records configuration changes but not transient events. Amazon Inspector is for security assessments and does not monitor failover events.
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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