Question 1mediummultiple choice
Full question →mediummultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A SysOps administrator needs to monitor the CPU utilization of an Amazon EC2 instance fleet and send an alert when the average CPU utilization exceeds 80% for 10 consecutive minutes. The administrator also wants to automatically stop the instance if the CPU utilization remains above 90% for 30 minutes to prevent runaway costs. Which combination of AWS services should be used?
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
Amazon CloudWatch alarm + AWS Lambda + AWS Systems Manager Automation
While this combination could work, it is more complex than necessary. Systems Manager Automation is typically used for multi-step runbooks; for a simple stop action, Lambda with the EC2 stop API is sufficient and more straightforward.
B
Best answer
Amazon CloudWatch alarm + Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) + AWS Lambda
A CloudWatch alarm monitors the CPU metric and publishes to an SNS topic when the threshold is breached. The SNS topic triggers a Lambda function that calls the EC2 StopInstances API to stop the instance. This is a clean, low-overhead solution.
C
Distractor review
Amazon CloudWatch Logs + Amazon EventBridge + AWS Step Functions
CPU utilization is a metric, not a log. CloudWatch Logs is for log data, not metrics. EventBridge can trigger on metric alarms, but Step Functions is an orchestration service that adds unnecessary complexity for a simple stop action.
D
Distractor review
AWS CloudTrail + Amazon EventBridge + AWS CodePipeline
CloudTrail logs API actions, not CPU metrics. CodePipeline is a CI/CD service. This combination is not appropriate for monitoring and stopping instances based on CPU utilization.
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: Amazon CloudWatch alarm + Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) + AWS Lambda — Amazon CloudWatch alarms can monitor the CPUUtilization metric. When the alarm state is triggered, it can publish to an Amazon SNS topic, which in turn invokes an AWS Lambda function. The Lambda function can then perform the stop action on the instance. This provides a simple and effective automated remediation path.
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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