CV0-004 Operations and Support Practice Question
A cloud administrator needs to receive real-time notifications when CPU utilization exceeds 90% on a production server. Which AWS service should be used to trigger an alert based on a metric threshold?
⚠ Common exam trap
CV0-004 often tests the confusion between CloudWatch Alarms (which evaluate thresholds) and Amazon SNS (which delivers notifications), tempting candidates to pick SNS when the question asks what triggers the alert.
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
✓
CloudWatch Alarms
CloudWatch Alarms monitor CloudWatch metrics and trigger actions when a metric crosses a defined threshold, such as CPU utilization exceeding 90% for a specified number of evaluation periods. Alarms can send notifications via Amazon SNS, trigger Auto Scaling, or invoke Lambda functions. This makes CloudWatch Alarms the correct service for threshold-based alerting on 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.
- ✓
CloudWatch Alarms
Why this is correct
CloudWatch Alarms evaluate metric thresholds against a defined period and trigger actions when breached. Configuring an alarm on the EC2 CPUUtilization metric above 90% delivers the real-time notification the administrator requires, unlike dashboards or logs.
- ✗
Amazon SNS
Why it's wrong here
SNS is a notification delivery service, not a metric monitor.
- ✗
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config evaluates resource configuration compliance, not real-time CloudWatch metric thresholds, so it cannot alert on CPU exceeding 90%. It is tempting because it supports notifications and remediation, but it is correct for detecting configuration drift, not performance monitoring.
- ✗
AWS CloudTrail
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail records API activity for auditing, not resource performance metrics, so it cannot detect CPU exceeding 90%. It is tempting because CloudTrail provides event visibility across the account, and would be correct for tracking who changed or deleted resources rather than monitoring utilisation.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CompTIA exam blueprint
This CV0-004 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA 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 CV0-004 exam.