PCDOE Implementing service monitoring strategies Practice Question
A DevOps engineer is setting up alerting policies for a critical API service. They want to receive an alert if the error rate exceeds 5% for at least 5 minutes, but only during business hours (9 AM to 5 PM). Which approach should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the distinction between 'when the alert is evaluated' versus 'when notifications are sent' — candidates mistakenly think scheduling the condition itself (Option A) or toggling the entire policy (Option D) is valid, but the correct approach is to keep evaluation always on and only filter notifications.
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
✓
Create an alerting policy with a condition that triggers when the error rate is above 5% for 5 minutes, and configure the notification channel to only send notifications during business hours using a webhook receiver that checks time.
It uses a single alerting policy with a condition that triggers when the error rate exceeds 5% for 5 minutes, and then controls notification delivery via a webhook receiver that checks the current time. This approach ensures the alert is evaluated continuously (so the 5-minute window is respected) but only notifications are suppressed outside business hours, which is the most reliable way to meet the requirement without missing alert evaluations or relying on external scheduling.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Create a log-based metric for errors and use a condition with a threshold, then set the alert policy to only run during business hours using the 'condition' schedule.
Why it's wrong here
Alert policies do not have a built-in schedule for conditions.
- ✓
Create an alerting policy with a condition that triggers when the error rate is above 5% for 5 minutes, and configure the notification channel to only send notifications during business hours using a webhook receiver that checks time.
Why this is correct
This approach uses a custom notification channel to filter by time.
- ✗
Create two separate alert policies, one for business hours and one for off-hours, each with different thresholds.
Why it's wrong here
This would require manual management and not a single policy.
- ✗
Use Cloud Scheduler to enable and disable the alerting policy at the start and end of business hours.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Scheduler cannot enable/disable alert policies directly.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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