Question 1easymultiple choice
Full question →easymultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A SysOps administrator needs to monitor application logs in Amazon CloudWatch Logs for the occurrence of the string 'ERROR'. The administrator wants to create a custom metric that counts the number of 'ERROR' occurrences per 5-minute window and trigger an Amazon CloudWatch alarm when the count exceeds 10. Which action should the administrator take to create the custom metric?
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
Create a CloudWatch Events rule that triggers on 'ERROR' and publishes a metric.
Amazon CloudWatch Events (now part of Amazon EventBridge) detects patterns in AWS service events, not in application log content. It cannot parse log strings to create metrics.
B
Best answer
Create a metric filter on the CloudWatch Logs log group that matches the term 'ERROR'.
A metric filter is the correct way to define a pattern to look for in log events. CloudWatch Logs uses the filter to publish a numeric metric to CloudWatch, which can then be used for alarms.
C
Distractor review
Create a CloudWatch dashboard that displays the log group and set an alarm on the dashboard.
A CloudWatch dashboard only visualizes existing metrics or logs. It does not create new metrics from log data, and alarms cannot be set directly on dashboard widgets.
D
Distractor review
Enable AWS CloudTrail on the log group and select the 'ERROR' pattern.
AWS CloudTrail records API calls made within an AWS account, not application log entries. It cannot be used to extract metrics from CloudWatch Logs.
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 a metric filter on the CloudWatch Logs log group that matches the term 'ERROR'. — To extract a metric from CloudWatch Logs, you create a metric filter that defines a pattern to match (e.g., 'ERROR') and specifies the metric namespace, name, and value. CloudWatch Logs then publishes the metric to CloudWatch, where you can set an alarm. Option B is correct. CloudWatch Events (now Amazon EventBridge) are used for event-driven patterns, not for log-based metric extraction. A CloudWatch dashboard visualizes metrics but does not create them. An AWS CloudTrail trail records API activity, not application logs.
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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