SAP-C02 Practice Question 98: Target Tracking CPU Scaling

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional (SAP-C02) · Test 10 · question 8 of 10

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The web tier of an application runs in an EC2 Auto Scaling group. Load changes throughout the day in ways that the team cannot predict, and the team wants the group to keep average CPU utilization around 50 percent, scaling out and in automatically, without creating and tuning CloudWatch alarms and step thresholds by hand.

Which scaling approach should the solutions architect choose?

Show answer and explanation

Answer:

C. A target tracking scaling policy with an average CPU utilization target of 50 percent

With target tracking, *"you select a metric and a target value to represent the ideal average utilization or throughput level for your application. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling creates and manages the CloudWatch alarms that invoke scaling events when the metric deviates from the target."* AWS compares it to *"how a thermostat maintains a target temperature"*: the group scales out when CPU exceeds 50 percent and scales in when it drops below, *"without manual intervention"* (option C).

- A is wrong because scheduled actions follow a fixed time table and cannot react to unpredictable load. - B is wrong because step scaling requires the team to create the alarms and define the step adjustments, which is the manual tuning the team wants to avoid. AWS suggests it only if you want greater control. - D is wrong because manual changes are reactive and slow, and do not scale in automatically.

Reference: Target tracking scaling policies for Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

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