AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate — Question 236

A company is experiencing issues with legacy software running on Amazon EC2 instances. Errors occur when the total CPU utilization on the EC2 instances exceeds 80%. A short-term solution is required while the software is being rewritten. A SysOps administrator is tasked with creating a solution to restart the instances when the CPU utilization rises above 80%.

Which solution meets these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

Answer options

• A. Write a script that monitors the CPU utilization of the EC2 instances and reboots the instances when utilization exceeds 80%. Run the script as a cron job.
• B. Add an Amazon CloudWatch alarm for CPU utilization and configure the alarm action to reboot the EC2 instances.
• C. Create an Amazon EventBridge rule using the predefined patterns for CPU utilization of the EC2 instances. When utilization exceeds 80%, invoke an AWS Lambda function to restart the instances.
• D. Add an Amazon CloudWatch alarm for CPU utilization and configure an AWS Systems Manager Automation runbook to reboot the EC2 instances when utilization exceeds 80%.

Correct answer: B

Explanation

Option B is the best choice because it uses Amazon CloudWatch, which is designed for monitoring and automation, allowing for easy setup with minimal operational overhead. Options A and C involve more manual processes or additional services, increasing complexity, while option D requires an additional step with AWS Systems Manager, which is also more cumbersome than simply using CloudWatch alarms directly.