SOA-C02 Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation Practice Question
This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of monitoring, logging, and remediation. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 monitor the CPU utilization of an Amazon RDS for MySQL DB instance. The administrator wants to receive a notification when the average CPU utilization exceeds 80% for 10 consecutive minutes. Which steps should the administrator take to set up this monitoring?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Create a CloudWatch alarm on the 'CPUUtilization' metric with a threshold of 80% and an SNS topic for notifications.
Option C is correct because Amazon RDS automatically publishes the 'CPUUtilization' metric to CloudWatch, and a CloudWatch alarm can be configured with a threshold of 80% for the 'Average' statistic over a period of 10 consecutive minutes (e.g., 10 evaluation periods of 1 minute each). The alarm can then trigger an SNS topic to send notifications when the threshold is breached. This directly meets the requirement without additional services.
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.
✗
Use CloudWatch Logs to monitor the database logs and create an alarm based on log patterns.
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch Logs is for log analysis, not direct metric monitoring.
✗
Enable Enhanced Monitoring and create an alarm on the 'CPUUtilization' metric in RDS console.
Why it's wrong here
Enhanced Monitoring provides additional metrics, but alarms are configured in CloudWatch, not RDS console.
✓
Create a CloudWatch alarm on the 'CPUUtilization' metric with a threshold of 80% and an SNS topic for notifications.
Why this is correct
This is the standard method for monitoring RDS CPU utilization.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Enable CloudTrail and create a metric filter for CPU utilization.
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail tracks API calls, not CPU metrics.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse Enhanced Monitoring (which provides OS-level metrics like memory and disk I/O) with the standard CloudWatch metrics, leading them to incorrectly think Enhanced Monitoring is required for CPU utilization alarms.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
The 'CPUUtilization' metric for RDS is published to CloudWatch every minute by default, and the alarm can use a period of 60 seconds with 10 consecutive datapoints (evaluation periods) to detect sustained high CPU. The SNS topic must be created beforehand and subscribed (e.g., via email or SMS) to deliver notifications. A common subtlety is that the alarm evaluates the 'Average' statistic, so brief spikes above 80% that don't persist for the full 10 minutes will not trigger the alarm.
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.
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: Create a CloudWatch alarm on the 'CPUUtilization' metric with a threshold of 80% and an SNS topic for notifications. — Option C is correct because Amazon RDS automatically publishes the 'CPUUtilization' metric to CloudWatch, and a CloudWatch alarm can be configured with a threshold of 80% for the 'Average' statistic over a period of 10 consecutive minutes (e.g., 10 evaluation periods of 1 minute each). The alarm can then trigger an SNS topic to send notifications when the threshold is breached. This directly meets the requirement without additional services.
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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Question Discussion
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