- A
Amazon CloudWatch alarm with an Auto Scaling policy.
Why wrong: Auto Scaling is designed for EC2 instances, not for RDS DB instances. It cannot restart an RDS instance based on a CloudWatch metric.
- B
Amazon CloudWatch alarm with an Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) topic that triggers an AWS Lambda function to restart the instance.
Why wrong: While this could work, it requires writing and maintaining custom Lambda code, introducing operational overhead. The question asks for minimal custom code.
- C
Amazon CloudWatch alarm with an AWS Systems Manager Automation action.
Systems Manager Automation has a pre-built runbook 'AWS-RestartRDSInstance' that can be triggered directly from a CloudWatch alarm via the 'Systems Manager Automation' action. No custom code is needed.
- D
Amazon RDS event subscription that triggers an AWS Lambda function.
Why wrong: Event subscriptions are for database events (like failover, maintenance) not for metric-based thresholds. They would not trigger based on the DatabaseConnections metric.
SOA-C02 Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation Practice Question
This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of monitoring, logging, and remediation. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A SysOps administrator needs to automatically restart an Amazon RDS DB instance when the 'DatabaseConnections' metric exceeds a threshold of 200 for 5 consecutive minutes. The administrator wants a solution that uses minimal custom code and leverages AWS managed services. Which combination of services should be used?
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 alarm with an AWS Systems Manager Automation action.
Option C is correct because AWS Systems Manager Automation provides a built-in 'AWSSupport-StartRDSInstance' or 'AWSSystemsManager-RestartRDSInstance' runbook that can be triggered directly by a CloudWatch alarm action, requiring no custom code. This leverages a managed service to restart the RDS instance automatically when the 'DatabaseConnections' metric exceeds 200 for 5 consecutive minutes, meeting the minimal custom code requirement.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon CloudWatch alarm with an Auto Scaling policy.
Why it's wrong here
Auto Scaling is designed for EC2 instances, not for RDS DB instances. It cannot restart an RDS instance based on a CloudWatch metric.
- ✗
Amazon CloudWatch alarm with an Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) topic that triggers an AWS Lambda function to restart the instance.
Why it's wrong here
While this could work, it requires writing and maintaining custom Lambda code, introducing operational overhead. The question asks for minimal custom code.
- ✓
Amazon CloudWatch alarm with an AWS Systems Manager Automation action.
Why this is correct
Systems Manager Automation has a pre-built runbook 'AWS-RestartRDSInstance' that can be triggered directly from a CloudWatch alarm via the 'Systems Manager Automation' action. No custom code is needed.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Amazon RDS event subscription that triggers an AWS Lambda function.
Why it's wrong here
Event subscriptions are for database events (like failover, maintenance) not for metric-based thresholds. They would not trigger based on the DatabaseConnections metric.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often assume a Lambda function is always required for custom remediation actions, but AWS Systems Manager Automation provides a no-code alternative for many common operations like restarting RDS instances, which directly meets the 'minimal custom code' constraint.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Systems Manager Automation runbooks are AWS-managed documents that can perform actions like restarting RDS instances via the AWS API, and they can be invoked directly from a CloudWatch alarm action without any intermediate Lambda function. The CloudWatch alarm evaluates the 'DatabaseConnections' metric over a 5-minute period (using the 'statistic: Average' and 'period: 300') and, when the threshold of 200 is breached, sends an action to the Systems Manager Automation document, which executes the restart using IAM roles for authorization. This approach avoids the overhead of managing custom code and leverages AWS's built-in remediation capabilities.
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.
TExam Day Tips
- 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.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SOA-C02 question test?
Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation — This question tests Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Amazon CloudWatch alarm with an AWS Systems Manager Automation action. — Option C is correct because AWS Systems Manager Automation provides a built-in 'AWSSupport-StartRDSInstance' or 'AWSSystemsManager-RestartRDSInstance' runbook that can be triggered directly by a CloudWatch alarm action, requiring no custom code. This leverages a managed service to restart the RDS instance automatically when the 'DatabaseConnections' metric exceeds 200 for 5 consecutive minutes, meeting the minimal custom code requirement.
What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This SOA-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 SOA-C02 exam.
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