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.
Network Topology
A SysOps administrator examines the output of the describe-alarms command for the 'HighCPU' alarm. The alarm is in ALARM state. What action will be taken automatically?
Network Topology
A
Recover the EC2 instance using EC2 instance recovery.
Why wrong: EC2 instance recovery is only triggered by StatusCheckFailed alarms, not CPU utilization alarms.
B
Launch a new EC2 instance in an Auto Scaling group.
Why wrong: Launching a new instance in an Auto Scaling group would require the alarm to be part of a scaling policy, which is not specified.
C
Reboot the EC2 instance.
Why wrong: Rebooting is not an automatic action for CloudWatch alarms; it requires manual intervention or a separate automation.
D
Send a notification to an SNS topic.
Sending an SNS notification is a common and automatic action for CPU utilization alarms when an SNS topic is configured.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Send a notification to an SNS topic.
The 'HighCPU' alarm is a CPU utilization metric alarm. EC2 instance recovery actions are only valid for alarms based on StatusCheckFailed metrics, not for CPU alarms. Without specific configuration indicating an Auto Scaling policy, the most common automatic action for a CPU alarm is to send a notification to an SNS topic if one is configured. Therefore, the correct answer is D.
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.
✗
Recover the EC2 instance using EC2 instance recovery.
Why it's wrong here
EC2 instance recovery is only triggered by StatusCheckFailed alarms, not CPU utilization alarms.
✗
Launch a new EC2 instance in an Auto Scaling group.
Why it's wrong here
Launching a new instance in an Auto Scaling group would require the alarm to be part of a scaling policy, which is not specified.
✗
Reboot the EC2 instance.
Why it's wrong here
Rebooting is not an automatic action for CloudWatch alarms; it requires manual intervention or a separate automation.
✓
Send a notification to an SNS topic.
Why this is correct
Sending an SNS notification is a common and automatic action for CPU utilization alarms when an SNS topic is configured.
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 is that EC2 instance recovery is only valid for status check failures; a High CPU alarm is a metric alarm and would typically trigger an SNS notification or Auto Scaling action, but not recovery.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
EC2 instance recovery works by CloudWatch monitoring the StatusCheckFailed metric (which aggregates both instance status and system status checks). When the alarm triggers, AWS automatically moves the instance to a new healthy host, preserving its instance ID, private IP, Elastic IP, and EBS volumes. This is distinct from a reboot, which only restarts the OS on the same host, and from Auto Scaling, which launches a new instance with a different ID. The recovery action is specified in the alarm's 'AlarmActions' list as an ARN like 'arn:aws:automate:region:ec2:recover'.
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: Send a notification to an SNS topic. — The 'HighCPU' alarm is a CPU utilization metric alarm. EC2 instance recovery actions are only valid for alarms based on StatusCheckFailed metrics, not for CPU alarms. Without specific configuration indicating an Auto Scaling policy, the most common automatic action for a CPU alarm is to send a notification to an SNS topic if one is configured. Therefore, the correct answer is D.
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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