Google Associate Cloud EngineerEnsuring successful operation of a cloud solutionMedium
A company is using Cloud Monitoring to oversee their Compute Engine instances. They need to set up an alert that triggers if the CPU utilization of any instance exceeds 80% for more than 5 minutes. The alert should notify the operations team via email. Which components are essential for configuring this alert policy?
- ALog Entry, Alert policy, Dashboard
- BMetric, Log-based metric, Notification channel
- CMetric, Threshold, Notification channel
- DUptime check, Alert policy, Notification channel
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Metric, Threshold, Notification channel
An alert policy fundamentally requires a metric to monitor (e.g., CPU utilization), a threshold to define the alert condition (e.g., >80% for 5 minutes), and a notification channel to send the alert (e.g., email).
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Log Entry is raw log data, not a metric. A Dashboard is for visualization, not for triggering alerts. While 'Alert policy' is correct, the other components are misplaced.
- B. Log-based metrics are for logs, not direct CPU utilization metrics. While a notification channel is correct, 'Log-based metric' is not the primary component for CPU.
- D. Uptime checks monitor external endpoints, not internal VM metrics like CPU utilization. While 'Alert policy' and 'Notification channel' are relevant, 'Uptime check' is incorrect for this scenario.
Cloud Monitoring Alert Policy
A configuration in Google Cloud Monitoring that defines conditions under which an alert should be triggered and how notifications should be sent.
- Monitors specific metrics
- Triggers when a threshold is crossed
- Uses notification channels for delivery
Memory trick: Measure the Metric, hit the Threshold, send the Notification.