Cloud-Deployment-and-Operations WGUCloud Deployment and Operations Questions and Answers

The Wait event view in Amazon RDS Performance Insights provides information on hardware resources (e.g., CPU, I/O, memory) that may be causing bottlenecks by showing wait times for database operations. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 7.2, Performance Insights) states, "The Wait event view in Performance Insights identifies resource bottlenecks (e.g., I/O wait times) by analyzing wait states, helping optimize database performance on hardware resources." Users, Hosts, and Statement views focus on different aspects and do not directly address hardware bottlenecks.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

To protect critical data on EBS volumes with a maximum tolerable data loss of one hour, the company should schedule automated volume snapshots using CloudWatch Events. Snapshots capture the state of the volume at a point in time, and regular scheduling (e.g., every hour) ensures data loss is limited to the snapshot interval. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 7.3, EBS and Snapshots) states, "Automated EBS snapshots can be scheduled using CloudWatch Events rules to create backups at defined intervals, ensuring an RPO of one hour by capturing volume data regularly." Local storage, Cloud Control backups, and Block Express are not viable solutions for this automated snapshot requirement.

In Amazon CloudWatch, custom metrics are organized and grouped using namespaces. A namespace is a container for CloudWatch metrics that allows you to isolate and categorize metrics from different applications or services. According to the WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 4.1, CloudWatch Metrics), each custom metric must be assigned to a namespace, which acts as a unique identifier to prevent naming collisions and facilitate metric management. Options like Service, Date, and Value are not used for grouping metrics in this context.

The multivalue routing policy in Amazon Route 53 allows up to 8 healthy records to be returned in response to DNS queries, enabling load balancing across multiple resources. To ensure the maximum allowed number of records is utilized, the administrator should create 8 records. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 3.1, Route 53 Routing Policies) specifies, "Multivalue answer routing supports up to 8 healthy resource record sets per response, requiring the creation of 8 records to maximize the policy's capability." Options A, C, and D exceed or fall short of this limit.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

In Amazon CloudFront, the caching TTL is controlled by the minimum and maximum TTL settings, with the maximum TTL (in seconds) capping the cache duration. The current Max TTL is 172800 seconds (48 hours), and the Cache-Control setting of 432000 seconds (120 hours) is ignored because it exceeds the Max TTL. To cache objects for up to 120 hours, the Max setting must be configured to 432000 seconds. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 4.4, CloudFront Caching) states, "The maximum TTL in CloudFront settings (e.g., 172800 seconds) overrides any higher Cache-Control value; to allow 120 hours (432000 seconds), the Max TTL must be set accordingly." Adjusting Min, expiration, or Cache-Control alone does not resolve this.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Recovery Point Objective (RPO) measures the maximum acceptable data loss, while Recovery Time Objective (RTO) measures the maximum acceptable downtime. The company requires an RPO of up to 3 hours (acceptable data loss) and an RTO of 1 hour (service restoration time). The correct option is RPO 4 hours, RTO 1 hour, as it meets the RPO requirement (allowing up to 3 hours of data loss is within 4 hours) and satisfies the RTO of 1 hour. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 8.1, Disaster Recovery) states, "RPO defines the maximum data loss tolerance (e.g., 3 hours), and RTO defines the maximum downtime (e.g., 1 hour); a configuration of RPO 4 hours and RTO 1 hour aligns with these thresholds." Other options fail to meet both criteria simultaneously.

Amazon Route 53 is the AWS solution that sends DNS queries to separate AWS compute instances by leveraging routing policies to distribute traffic across multiple resources. It acts as a scalable Domain Name System (DNS) service, directing queries to healthy instances based on configurations like latency or weighted routing. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 3.1, Route 53) states, "Route 53 uses DNS to route end-user requests to multiple AWS compute instances, supporting features like health checks and traffic distribution." Elastic Beanstalk, CloudWatch, and EC2 Auto Scaling do not perform DNS query routing.

To meet the requirements, the administrator should use an Amazon RDS Multi-AZ DB instance for multiple Availability Zones and failover support, and an Amazon Aurora DB instance with Aurora Replica for a read-only connection. The RDS Multi-AZ configuration automatically provisions a standby instance in a different AZ for failover, while Aurora Replicas provide read-only instances for scaling read traffic. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 7.1, RDS and Aurora) states, "RDS Multi-AZ deploys a standby instance across AZs for failover, and Aurora Replicas are read-only instances that enhance performance by offloading read traffic from the primary instance." Options A and D are incorrect as multi-master replication and Multi-AZ clusters do not align with the read-only requirement.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

CloudWatch should be used to identify and shut down idle EC2 instances by monitoring metrics such as CPU utilization or network activity. Custom alarms can be set to trigger an AWS Lambda function or Systems Manager automation to terminate idle instances, optimizing costs. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 4.1, CloudWatch Metrics) states, "CloudWatch can monitor EC2 instance metrics like CPUUtilization; an alarm can be configured to invoke a Lambda function to terminate idle instances, ensuring cost efficiency." CloudFront, CloudSearch, and CloudTrail are not designed for this monitoring and automation task.

To ensure the route table with a default outbound route via an internet gateway takes effect, the administrator must create a subnet association, linking the route table to specific subnets within the VPC. This association applies the routing rules to the subnet's traffic. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 3.2, VPC Routing) states, "A route table must be associated with a subnet (subnet association) to enforce routing rules, such as the default route to an internet gateway, ensuring outbound traffic follows the defined path." Propagation, tags, and edge associations do not activate the route.

The latency routing policy in Amazon Route 53 should be used to direct customer requests to the website with the shortest round-trip time (RTT). This policy routes traffic to the AWS region with the lowest latency based on the user's location, optimizing performance. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 3.1, Route 53 Routing Policies) states, "The latency-based routing policy in Route 53 measures RTT to direct users to the region with the lowest latency, improving user experience across multiple websites." Geolocation, geoproximity, and weighted policies do not prioritize RTT in this manner.

Amazon RDS Performance Insights supports retention periods of 7 days and 1 year for storing performance data, depending on the configuration and edition. The default retention is 7 days for standard monitoring, while enabling enhanced monitoring or the Performance Insights extended retention feature allows data to be retained for up to 1 year. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 7.2, Performance Insights) states, "Performance Insights offers a 7-day retention period by default, with an option to extend to 1 year for detailed historical analysis, supporting cost and performance optimization." Options A (1 day) and D (2 years) are not supported retention periods.

The AWS monitoring feature used to process events with AWS Lambda is CloudWatch Events, specifically through the use of rules. Rules define the events to monitor (e.g., based on event patterns) and specify targets like AWS Lambda functions to process those events. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 4.3, CloudWatch Events) explains that rules are the core component for event-driven architectures, enabling automation by linking events to Lambda for processing. Metrics, targets, and logs are related but not the primary feature for this function.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Spot Instances are the most suitable EC2 instance type for this workload pattern, offering the lowest cost for short, interruptible tasks like 3D rendering, where work can be redistributed if interrupted. This aligns with the company’s cost-plus pricing model. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 7.3, EC2 Instance Types) states, "Spot Instances provide significant cost savings (up to 90% off On-Demand) for fault-tolerant, short-term workloads like rendering, where interruptions can be handled by redistributing tasks to other nodes." On-Demand, Dedicated, and Reserved Instances are more expensive and less flexible for this use case.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

To make the EC2 instance accessible via a public DNS hostname like ec2-public-54.18.127.233.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com, the administrator must set the VPC attribute enableDnsHostnames to true. This enables the automatic assignment of public DNS hostnames to instances with public IP addresses in the VPC. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 3.2, VPC Configuration) states, "Setting enableDnsHostnames to true in the VPC configuration ensures that EC2 instances with public IPs receive a public DNS hostname (e.g., ec2-public-..compute.amazonaws.com), facilitating internet accessibility." Resource tags, disabling DNS support, and resource-based names do not enable this functionality.

AWS Systems Manager should be used to schedule the patching of EC2 instances and on-premises servers with security updates, utilizing features like Patch Manager and maintenance windows. This service supports hybrid environments and automated patch deployment. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 5.2, Systems Manager Patch Manager) states, "Systems Manager provides Patch Manager to schedule and deploy security updates to EC2 instances and on-premises servers during maintenance windows, ensuring consistent patching across hybrid environments." EventBridge, Config, and App Runner do not offer this patching capability.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Maximizing the time to live (TTL) of the cache in Amazon CloudFront reduces the frequency of requests to the origin server by serving content from edge locations for a longer period, lowering latency and costs. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 4.4, CloudFront Caching) states, "A higher TTL in CloudFront caching minimizes origin requests by keeping objects in edge caches longer, reducing load on the origin server and optimizing performance and cost." Facilitating high request volumes, improving disaster recovery, and enhancing security are not primary benefits of maximizing TTL.