AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate (legacy) — Question 301

A user has launched multiple EC2 instances for the purpose of development and testing in the same region. The user wants to find the separate cost for the production and development instances. How can the user find the cost distribution?

Answer options

• A. The user should download the activity report of the EC2 services as it has the instance ID wise data
• B. It is not possible to get the AWS cost usage data of single region instances separately
• C. The user should use Cost Distribution Metadata and AWS detailed billing
• D. The user should use Cost Allocation Tags and AWS billing reports

Correct answer: D

Explanation

AWS Cost Allocation Tags allow users to categorize and track AWS costs by labeling resources with custom key-value pairs, such as environment type. Once these tags are activated, they appear in the AWS billing reports to enable precise cost distribution analysis. Other options, such as using EC2 activity reports or non-existent features like Cost Distribution Metadata, do not provide this structured billing breakdown.