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 memory utilization of an EC2 instance running a custom application. The instance is not using the default CloudWatch metrics for memory. What should the administrator do to collect memory metrics?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Install and configure the CloudWatch agent on the instance
The default CloudWatch metrics for EC2 include CPU, disk, and network utilization, but not memory utilization. To collect custom metrics like memory usage, you must install and configure the CloudWatch agent on the instance. The agent collects memory and disk metrics from the OS and sends them to CloudWatch as custom metrics.
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.
✗
Enable detailed monitoring on the EC2 instance
Why it's wrong here
Detailed monitoring provides more frequent CPU/disk/network metrics but not memory.
✗
Use AWS Trusted Advisor to check memory utilization
Why it's wrong here
Trusted Advisor provides cost optimization and security checks, not custom metrics.
✗
Use Amazon Inspector to monitor memory
Why it's wrong here
Inspector is for vulnerability assessments, not metrics collection.
✓
Install and configure the CloudWatch agent on the instance
Why this is correct
The CloudWatch agent can collect memory metrics and send them to CloudWatch.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates assume 'detailed monitoring' or other AWS services like Trusted Advisor or Inspector can capture OS-level metrics, but only the CloudWatch agent can collect memory and disk metrics from inside the instance.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
The CloudWatch agent uses the CollectD protocol and a JSON configuration file to specify which metrics to collect, including memory, swap, and disk usage. It can run on both Linux and Windows instances and supports sending metrics to CloudWatch via the PutMetricData API. In a real-world scenario, you might configure the agent to collect memory utilization every 60 seconds and set a CloudWatch alarm to trigger an Auto Scaling action when memory exceeds 80%.
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 healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.
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: Install and configure the CloudWatch agent on the instance — The default CloudWatch metrics for EC2 include CPU, disk, and network utilization, but not memory utilization. To collect custom metrics like memory usage, you must install and configure the CloudWatch agent on the instance. The agent collects memory and disk metrics from the OS and sends them to CloudWatch as custom metrics.
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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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.
Question Discussion
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