AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – AssociateMonitoring, Logging, and RemediationEasy
A SysOps administrator needs to collect detailed system-level metrics (e.g., memory utilization, disk space, process list) from a fleet of Amazon EC2 instances running a custom application. These metrics are not available by default in Amazon CloudWatch. The solution should be scalable and easily deployable across new instances. What is the most appropriate solution?
- AInstall the CloudWatch agent on each EC2 instance and configure it to collect custom metrics.
- BDevelop a custom script to periodically push metrics to Amazon SQS and then to CloudWatch.
- CEnable enhanced monitoring for EC2 instances through the AWS Management Console.
- DUse AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store to store metric collection scripts and run them via Lambda.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. Install the CloudWatch agent on each EC2 instance and configure it to collect custom metrics.
The CloudWatch agent is specifically designed to collect detailed system-level metrics, including memory, disk, and process information, from EC2 instances that are not collected by default. It is easily deployable and scalable, integrating directly with CloudWatch.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. Developing custom scripts and using SQS adds unnecessary complexity and operational overhead compared to the managed CloudWatch agent.
- C. Enhanced monitoring (or detailed monitoring) for EC2 instances only provides 1-minute interval basic metrics (CPU, network, disk I/O) but not memory, disk space, or process lists.
- D. Systems Manager Parameter Store is for configuration management, not direct metric collection. Running scripts via Lambda for EC2 instances is an indirect and less efficient approach for this use case.
Unified CloudWatch Agent
The unified CloudWatch agent collects system-level metrics (e.g., memory, disk, network, process) and log files from EC2 instances and on-premises servers, sending them to Amazon CloudWatch and CloudWatch Logs.
- Collects both metrics and logs.
- Supports custom metrics beyond default EC2 metrics.
- Deployable via Systems Manager for automation.
- Consolidates older CloudWatch Logs agent and CloudWatch monitoring scripts.
Memory trick: Agent reports, CloudWatch sorts.