AWS Certified Data Engineer – AssociateData Operations and MonitoringEasy

A media company uses AWS DataSync to transfer large volumes of media files from an on-premises Network File System (NFS) to Amazon S3 for archival and processing. The transfers run daily during off-peak hours. Recently, the company noticed that some transfer tasks are failing intermittently, and they need to quickly identify the root cause of these failures. Which AWS service would be MOST effective for diagnosing and troubleshooting DataSync task failures?

  1. AAmazon EventBridge to monitor DataSync task state changes.
  2. BAWS Health Dashboard for service-level events.
  3. CAWS CloudTrail to review API calls related to DataSync.
  4. DAWS CloudWatch Logs for DataSync task execution logs.
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D. AWS CloudWatch Logs for DataSync task execution logs.

AWS CloudWatch Logs for DataSync task execution logs will provide detailed information about why a DataSync task failed, including specific error messages, file transfer issues, network problems, or permission errors. This is the most direct source for troubleshooting task failures.

Why the other options are wrong

  • A. EventBridge can notify about task state changes (e.g., FAILED), but it doesn't provide the underlying diagnostic details needed for root cause analysis.
  • B. AWS Health Dashboard provides information about AWS service health and scheduled events, but it won't give specific details about an individual DataSync task failure unless it's due to a widespread service outage.
  • C. CloudTrail logs API calls, which is useful for auditing and security, but less granular for diagnosing the specific reasons behind a transfer task's internal failure.

DataSync Troubleshooting with CloudWatch Logs

Utilizing AWS CloudWatch Logs to access detailed execution logs generated by AWS DataSync tasks, enabling identification of specific errors and root causes for transfer failures.

  • DataSync tasks send logs to CloudWatch Logs.
  • Logs contain information on file transfers, errors, network issues, and agent health.
  • Essential for diagnosing transfer failures and performance issues.

Memory trick: DataSync fails? CloudWatch Logs will tell you its tales.

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