The answer is Amazon CloudWatch and Amazon CloudWatch Alarms. CloudWatch is the AWS service that collects and stores detailed metrics from RDS instances, including CPU utilization, while CloudWatch Alarms evaluate that metric against a defined threshold—such as CPU exceeding 90%—over a specified period of five consecutive minutes, and can trigger an action like an SNS notification. On the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate SOA-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of the native monitoring and alerting workflow for RDS, often appearing as a multi-select question where a common trap is to mistakenly include AWS Config or Trusted Advisor, which do not handle real-time metric-based alarms. Remember that CloudWatch is the single source of truth for all performance metrics, and the Alarm component is what performs the evaluation and notification—think of it as “CloudWatch collects, Alarms alert.” A useful memory tip: for any “monitor and alert” question involving RDS metrics, your two services are always CloudWatch and CloudWatch Alarms.
SOA-C02 Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation Practice Question
This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of monitoring, logging, and remediation. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 wants to monitor the CPU utilization of an Amazon RDS instance and receive an alert if it exceeds 90% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which TWO AWS services are required to set up this monitoring? (Choose TWO.)
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Amazon CloudWatch Alarms
Amazon CloudWatch is the service that collects and stores metrics such as CPU utilization from RDS instances. Amazon CloudWatch Alarms allow you to set a threshold (e.g., CPU > 90%) and evaluate it over a specified period (e.g., 5 consecutive minutes) to trigger an action, such as sending a notification via SNS.
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.
✗
Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)
Why it's wrong here
SNS is used to send notifications but is not required to set up the monitoring.
Enhanced Monitoring is not required for CPUUtilization metric.
✓
Amazon CloudWatch Alarms
Why this is correct
CloudWatch Alarms can monitor the metric and trigger an alert.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Amazon CloudWatch
Why this is correct
CloudWatch provides the CPUUtilization metric for RDS.
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 often confuse Enhanced Monitoring (which provides OS-level metrics) with the standard CloudWatch metrics (which already include CPU utilization), leading them to incorrectly select Enhanced Monitoring as a required service.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
CloudWatch collects RDS metrics at a standard 1-minute granularity (or 5-minute for basic monitoring) via the RDS agent integrated with the database instance. A CloudWatch Alarm evaluates the metric against the threshold using a statistic (e.g., Average) over the specified evaluation period (e.g., 5 consecutive minutes), and transitions to ALARM state only if the threshold is breached for the entire duration, preventing false positives from short spikes.
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: Amazon CloudWatch Alarms — Amazon CloudWatch is the service that collects and stores metrics such as CPU utilization from RDS instances. Amazon CloudWatch Alarms allow you to set a threshold (e.g., CPU > 90%) and evaluate it over a specified period (e.g., 5 consecutive minutes) to trigger an action, such as sending a notification via SNS.
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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