SOA-C02 Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation Practice Question
A SysOps administrator needs to monitor the disk space utilization on a fleet of EC2 instances running Windows Server. Which TWO steps should the administrator take to collect and visualize this data? (Choose TWO.)
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume default or detailed EC2 monitoring includes guest OS metrics like disk space, when in fact those metrics require the CloudWatch agent to be installed and configured on the instance.
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
✓
Install the CloudWatch agent on each EC2 instance to collect disk space metrics.
The CloudWatch agent is required to collect custom metrics like disk space utilization from EC2 instances running Windows Server. Default EC2 monitoring only collects hypervisor-level metrics (CPU, network, disk I/O), not guest OS metrics such as disk space. Installing the CloudWatch agent and configuring it to collect disk space metrics is the correct step. Creating a CloudWatch dashboard then allows visualization of those collected metrics.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable detailed monitoring on the EC2 instances.
Why it's wrong here
Detailed monitoring publishes EC2 hypervisor-level metrics at a one-minute frequency rather than the default five minutes, but the metric catalog remains unchanged: CPU utilization, network traffic, and disk I/O operations. Disk space is a guest OS metric that the hypervisor cannot observe because it resides inside the instance's file system. Therefore, enabling detailed monitoring only increases the resolution of the same limited metric set and does not include disk space utilization.
- ✓
Install the CloudWatch agent on each EC2 instance to collect disk space metrics.
Why this is correct
The CloudWatch agent is the correct solution because it runs inside the guest OS and directly reads file system utilization from the instance. You configure the agent with a JSON file to collect custom metrics such as disk_space_used, disk_space_free, and disk_space_utilization for each mount point, and it publishes these to CloudWatch under the custom namespace. The agent can be installed via Systems Manager or user data, and it also supports memory and log collection, making it the comprehensive approach for OS-level monitoring including disk space.
- ✗
Use AWS CloudTrail to log disk space changes.
Why it's wrong here
AWS CloudTrail records API calls made to AWS services, such as EC2 RunInstances, S3 PutObject, or IAM actions, and stores them for auditing and compliance. These API calls are all control-plane operations and have no visibility into the internal state of an EC2 instance, including disk space changes occurring on the guest operating system. CloudTrail is designed to answer 'who did what' at the AWS API level, not to collect system metrics, so it cannot provide disk space utilization data.
- ✗
Enable default EC2 monitoring to collect disk space metrics automatically.
Why it's wrong here
Default EC2 monitoring publishes basic hypervisor-level metrics every five minutes, but like detailed monitoring, it only includes CPU utilization, network in/out, and disk read/write operations. The hypervisor cannot interpret the guest operating system's file system, so disk space is never exposed as a standard EC2 metric. Relying solely on default monitoring leaves disk space entirely invisible, which is why the CloudWatch agent is necessary to bridge that gap.
- ✓
Create a CloudWatch dashboard to visualize the disk space metrics.
Why this is correct
A CloudWatch dashboard is a visualization tool that displays CloudWatch metrics in widgets and graphs, but it does not collect or generate any metric data itself. To show disk space on a dashboard, the CloudWatch agent must first send the custom disk metrics to CloudWatch, and then you add those metric namespaces to the dashboard widgets. Without the agent, the dashboard would show empty graphs or no data at all; therefore, creating a dashboard is a complementary step after metric collection is already configured.
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Variation 1. A SysOps administrator needs to monitor the disk space usage on an EC2 instance running Windows Server. Which actions are required to collect this metric? (Select TWO.)
easy- A.Install the CloudWatch Logs agent to monitor disk usage logs.
- B.Enable EC2 status checks to monitor disk health.
- C.Use Windows Performance Monitor to track disk space and send to CloudWatch.
- ✓ D.Create an IAM role with permissions to publish custom metrics and attach it to the instance.
- ✓ E.Install the CloudWatch agent on the instance and configure it to collect disk metrics.
Why D: Option E is correct because the CloudWatch agent is the AWS-supported tool that runs on a Windows Server EC2 instance and can be configured (via the wizard or a JSON config file) to collect disk metrics such as LogicalDisk % Free Space and publish them to CloudWatch. Option D is correct because the agent needs AWS credentials to call cloudwatch:PutMetricData, and attaching an IAM role with permissions to publish custom metrics to the instance provides those credentials without hardcoding keys. Option A is wrong because the CloudWatch Logs agent ships log files, not disk-space metrics, so it cannot collect this metric. Option B is wrong because EC2 status checks report instance and system reachability (hypervisor and network level), not guest OS disk space. Option C is wrong because Windows Performance Monitor alone does not send data to CloudWatch; you still need the CloudWatch agent to publish those counters as metrics.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.