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Difficulty: HardCloudWatch Metrics and Alarms

A SysOps Administrator is troubleshooting an issue where an automated remediation workflow fails to run. The application publishes a custom metric named `DatabaseConnections` to CloudWatch at `1-minute1\text{-minute}` intervals. The administrator configured a CloudWatch alarm to trigger a Systems Manager (SSM) Automation runbook to reboot the database instance if `DatabaseConnections` exceeds `100100` for `33` consecutive periods of `1-minute1\text{-minute}`. However, during periods of high load, the alarm remains in the `INSUFFICIENT_DATA` state, and the runbook is never executed.

Which two configuration changes should the SysOps Administrator make to resolve this issue and successfully execute the remediation workflow? (Select TWO.)

  1. Update the CloudWatch alarm configuration to include the exact dimensions specified by the application when publishing the metric.Answer
  2. Create an Amazon EventBridge rule that monitors for the CloudWatch alarm state transition to ALARM and targets the Systems Manager Automation runbook.Answer
  3. C
    Enable Detailed Monitoring on the EC2 instances to decrease the publishing interval of the custom metric from `55` minutes to `11` minute.
  4. D
    Configure the CloudWatch alarm's ALARM action to directly target the Systems Manager Automation runbook.
  5. E
    Decrease the Auto Scaling group cooldown period to ensure the reboot action is not blocked during metric evaluation.

Answer

To resolve the issue, the SysOps Administrator must update the CloudWatch alarm configuration to include the exact dimensions specified by the application when publishing the metric, and create an Amazon EventBridge rule that monitors for the CloudWatch alarm state transition to ALARM and targets the Systems Manager Automation runbook.
To resolve the `INSUFFICIENT_DATA` state, the CloudWatch alarm must align with the exact dimensions defined by the application when publishing the metric. Additionally, because CloudWatch Alarms cannot directly invoke Systems Manager Automation runbooks, an Amazon EventBridge rule must be created to detect the alarm state transition to `ALARM` and route the execution to the runbook.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze why the CloudWatch alarm remains in the `INSUFFICIENT_DATA` state despite metrics being published.
Identify that CloudWatch custom metrics require exact matching of dimensions, namespace, and metric name to retrieve data. If dimensions are missing or mismatched on the alarm, no data is found.
Resolves the metric retrieval issue causing the `INSUFFICIENT_DATA` state.
2
Analyze the pathway to trigger the remediation runbook.
Identify that CloudWatch Alarms do not support direct execution of Systems Manager Automation runbooks as alarm actions.
Requires an EventBridge rule to intercept the alarm state change and target the SSM Automation runbook.

Key Concept

Integrating CloudWatch Alarms with EventBridge for Automated SSM Remediation and Aligning Custom Metric Dimensions
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Topics

CloudWatch Metrics and Alarms

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