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Difficulty: MediumCloudWatch Metrics and Alarms

A SysOps Administrator is troubleshooting a CloudWatch alarm designed to initiate an automated remediation workflow when a custom application metric, `DatabaseQueryLatency`, exceeds 200 ms200\text{ ms}. The application runs on Amazon EC2 instances with standard monitoring enabled. The alarm is configured with a 1-minute evaluation period and is intended to trigger an AWS Systems Manager (SSM) Automation runbook. However, the administrator notices that the alarm remains in the `INSUFFICIENT_DATA` state even when latency is high, and the runbook is never executed.

Which TWO actions should the administrator take to resolve these issues?

  1. Modify the CloudWatch alarm to specify the exact dimensions, such as `InstanceId` and `DatabaseName`, that are published with the custom metric.Answer
  2. Create an Amazon EventBridge rule that detects when the CloudWatch alarm transitions to the `ALARM` state, and configure it to target the Systems Manager Automation runbook.Answer
  3. C
    Enable detailed monitoring on the Amazon EC2 instances to allow the custom application metric to be evaluated at 1-minute intervals.
  4. D
    Configure the Systems Manager Automation runbook ARN directly within the CloudWatch alarm actions configuration.
  5. E
    Increase the Auto Scaling group cooldown period to match the 1-minute CloudWatch alarm evaluation period.

Answer

The correct actions are to configure the CloudWatch alarm with the exact dimensions published with the custom metric, and to create an Amazon EventBridge rule to route the alarm state change event to the Systems Manager Automation runbook.
The correct actions are configuring the alarm with the exact dimensions associated with the custom metric, which resolves the dimension mismatch causing the INSUFFICIENT_DATA state, and implementing an Amazon EventBridge rule to handle the alarm state change, which correctly connects the alarm to the Systems Manager Automation target.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze why the CloudWatch alarm is in the INSUFFICIENT_DATA state.
Identify that CloudWatch custom metrics require exact matching dimensions to retrieve data points.
A custom metric published with dimensions like InstanceId and DatabaseName will not match an alarm configured without those exact dimensions, causing an INSUFFICIENT_DATA state.
2
Determine the correct integration pathway to invoke the Systems Manager Automation runbook from a CloudWatch alarm.
Create an Amazon EventBridge rule that triggers when the alarm state transitions to ALARM, with the SSM Automation runbook as the target.
CloudWatch alarms cannot directly target SSM Automation runbooks; an intermediate event routing mechanism is required.

Key Concept

CloudWatch custom metrics require matching dimensions to alarm properly, and automated remediation workflows using Systems Manager Automation runbooks must be triggered via Amazon EventBridge.
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Topics

CloudWatch Metrics and Alarms

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