SAP-C03 practice question: Safe remediation, auto scaling and automatic recovery (2 of 2)
Operational Excellence and Automation A free question from our original SAP-C03 practice exam. Try it, then open the answer to see why each option is right or wrong.
A news site's traffic rises sharply every weekday at 7 AM when the morning newsletter goes out, and the spike lasts about an hour. The web tier runs on an Auto Scaling group, and the team currently scales only on CPU, so the group reacts after the pages are already slow.
The team wants capacity ready before the spike each morning, and it still wants the group to follow unexpected traffic during the rest of the day without over-provisioning.
Which scaling configuration meets these requirements at the LOWEST cost?
Choose one answer.
AA. Set the group's minimum and desired capacity to the peak number of instances all day, so that the fleet is always large enough for the morning spike.
BB. Add a scheduled action that raises the minimum capacity before 7 AM each weekday, and keep a target tracking policy so the group follows unexpected traffic during the rest of the day.
CC. Add a step scaling policy that adds instances when average CPU passes 60 percent and removes them when CPU falls below 30 percent, with larger steps for sharper rises in load and no schedule.
DD. Run the web tier on a larger instance type, so each instance handles the morning spike without any scaling.
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: B
A. Wrong: Keeping the peak capacity all day pays for idle instances for most of the day. The option removes the scaling that the team needs for the rest of the day.
B. Right: Correct. The scheduled action has capacity in place before the newsletter, and target tracking adds or removes instances for other traffic. The fleet is sized to demand at each time of day, so the cost stays low.
C. Wrong: A step policy reacts after CPU rises, so the pages are slow again before the new instances are ready. The option does not prepare the capacity before the spike.
D. Wrong: Larger instances cost more every hour, including the quiet hours. The option does not follow demand and raises the cost.
Explanation
A scheduled action prepares capacity before the known weekday spike, and target tracking follows unplanned traffic, so the group is sized to demand at each time of day. Constant peak capacity, reactive step scaling and larger instances each pay for idle capacity or respond too late.
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