AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) — Question 540

A company has a large workload that runs every Friday evening. The workload runs on Amazon EC2 instances that are in two Availability Zones in the us-east-1 Region. Normally, the company must run no more than two instances at all times. However, the company wants to scale up to six instances each Friday to handle a regularly repeating increased workload.

Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

Answer options

• A. Create a reminder in Amazon EventBridge to scale the instances.
• B. Create an Auto Scaling group that has a scheduled action.
• C. Create an Auto Scaling group that uses manual scaling.
• D. Create an Auto Scaling group that uses automatic scaling.

Correct answer: B

Explanation

Scheduled scaling in an Auto Scaling group is the ideal solution for predictable, recurring traffic patterns as it automates the scale-out and scale-in actions with zero manual intervention. Manual scaling and EventBridge reminders require human effort every week, which increases operational overhead. Dynamic automatic scaling is designed to react to real-time performance metrics rather than a pre-determined calendar schedule, making it less efficient for known, routine events.