Question 530
Cost Explorer shows months of charges for unattached gp2 EBS volumes left after test instance deletion. The data owner has confirmed the volumes are obsolete. What is the cost-corrective action?
- Detach the already-unattached volumes again and retain them indefinitely as a precaution despite recorded data-owner approval.
- Switch the obsolete unattached gp2 volumes to gp3 while leaving every unneeded volume allocated.
- Enable AWS Data Lifecycle Manager to create new snapshots of the unused volumes and omit deletion of the existing orphan storage.
- Inventory and validate unused volumes and snapshots, then delete the approved unattached volumes and apply lifecycle governance to prevent recurrence.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Unattached EBS volumes continue to incur provisioned storage charges; reviewed deletion removes the measured idle resource cost.
Incorrect Answers
A:Detached EBS volumes continue incurring storage charges; deletion after verified data-retention approval is needed to stop costs.
B:gp3 may reduce some unit cost but the stale volumes still accrue charges; delete confirmed obsolete volumes.
C:Snapshot lifecycle can help recoverability but adds more stored data and does not eliminate the known orphaned volume charge.
Question 531
A legacy fleet uses gp2 EBS volumes sized large primarily to get adequate IOPS. Measurements show many volumes now have much more capacity than the workload stores, and gp3 can satisfy the required IOPS and throughput. What optimization is appropriate?
- Enable EBS Elastic Volumes modification to increase gp2 storage size further, expecting higher size always reduces IOPS cost.
- Switch every gp2 volume to magnetic standard storage regardless of measured transaction latency and throughput.
- Evaluate migration from oversized gp2 to gp3 with independently configured performance and safe modification testing.
- Move all durable database volumes onto instance store solely because it has no separate EBS volume charge.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:gp3 decouples volume size from provisioned IOPS and throughput, which can reduce waste driven by gp2 size-dependent performance.
Incorrect Answers
A:Oversizing gp2 wastes capacity when gp3 can independently provision required IOPS and throughput without equivalent storage size.
B:A cheaper but slower tier can violate workload I/O requirements; gp3 provides tunable performance with appropriate validation.
D:Instance store is ephemeral and can lose data on host replacement; it is not a safe default replacement for persistent database storage.
Question 532
Two production RDS DB instances run around the clock with predictable compute usage for the next year. A finance review finds most compute charges are on-demand. Which reservation strategy should be evaluated for the stable DB baseline?
- Purchase EC2 Reserved Instances for the application hosts and assume they also reduce RDS database-instance compute charges.
- Purchase the maximum available RDS reservation for the entire fleet irrespective of the measured stable baseline and engine compatibility.
- Evaluate RDS Reserved DB Instances for eligible engine, Region and instance configurations, sizing commitments to expected stable usage.
- Use an S3 Storage Lens report to determine how many RDS compute-hours will be discounted by a reservation.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:Reserved DB Instances can discount steady eligible RDS usage; choosing appropriate terms and configurations avoids overcommitment.
Incorrect Answers
A:EC2 reservations do not automatically apply to managed RDS DB instance usage; RDS has its own eligible reservation program.
B:Reservation discounts require appropriate eligible attributes and sizing; excessive commitments can cause underutilization.
D:S3 Storage Lens measures object-storage characteristics, not RDS DB instance usage and reservation utilization.
Question 533
Billing reports show a constant Elastic IP charge from unused allocated addresses that are not associated with any EC2 or network interface. Application owners confirm these public addresses are obsolete. What action directly reduces this cost?
- Remove Route 53 records pointing to the obsolete public IPs but retain their address allocations for no verified future use.
- Inventory and release approved unused public IPv4 allocations, retaining only addresses required for live networking.
- Disassociate every currently used public IPv4 address from working EC2 instances while retaining the unused allocated addresses.
- Purchase a Compute Savings Plan to offset idle Elastic IP allocation charges without releasing the addresses.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:Unneeded allocated public IPv4 addresses can accrue cost; deallocation stops billing for confirmed obsolete assignments.
Incorrect Answers
A:DNS changes do not release billed public IPv4 addresses; the unused allocations must be returned.
C:This disrupts active workloads while leaving the actual idle allocations billed; release only approved obsolete addresses.
D:Compute Savings Plans do not eliminate the charge for idle public IPv4 allocations; inventory and release is the direct fix.
Question 534
Cost reports show hourly charges from a NAT gateway in a retired test VPC. VPC Flow Logs and gateway metrics show no production traffic, and owners confirm the VPC no longer needs outbound translation. What should the architect do?
- Validate the retired routes and dependencies, remove the unused NAT gateway and release any now-unneeded public IPv4 allocation.
- Replace the unused NAT gateway with two NAT gateways in separate AZs for redundancy in the retired VPC.
- Detach the NAT gateway Elastic IP but leave the NAT gateway resource and billable gateway-hours running.
- Change the default private-subnet route away from the obsolete NAT gateway but retain the resource indefinitely.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:A NAT gateway continues incurring hourly charges even when idle; safe deletion after dependency verification eliminates that idle gateway cost.
Incorrect Answers
B:Extra gateways increase cost while the test VPC has no approved outbound translation demand.
C:Removing an EIP alone does not necessarily delete the NAT gateway or its hourly charges; decommission the unused gateway and review routes.
D:Correcting routes can eliminate traffic but does not stop hourly charges for an undeleted gateway.
Question 535
An EC2 platform team has hundreds of owner-created EBS-backed AMIs from old test releases. No deployment or recovery plan needs the obsolete AMIs, and finance has traced most remaining storage charges to their associated EBS snapshots. The team wants to remove the unused images without deleting snapshots still referenced by other approved AMIs. Which cleanup is appropriate?
- Delete only Name tags from the obsolete AMIs and assume the tagged snapshots are automatically removed from EBS storage billing.
- Disable launch permissions for those AMIs while leaving both their registrations and all underlying snapshots retained indefinitely.
- After checking remaining launch and recovery dependencies, deregister the obsolete owned AMIs and delete eligible associated snapshots, preserving any snapshots referenced by other AMIs or protected backups.
- Purchase EC2 Compute Savings Plans to discount unused EBS snapshot storage regardless of whether the old recovery images are ever needed.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:EC2 supports deregistering owned EBS-backed AMIs and optionally removing associated snapshots; AWS protects snapshots shared by other registered AMIs and requires handling AWS Backup-owned resources through the owning service.
Incorrect Answers
A:Tags are inventory metadata; deleting them neither deregisters AMIs nor deletes chargeable EBS snapshots.
B:Restricting launch rights can prevent new use but does not remove the snapshot bytes that continue to incur storage charges.
D:Savings Plans discount eligible compute spend, not the underlying storage cost of obsolete EBS-backed AMI snapshots.
Question 536
A health analytics team keeps a quarterly compliance snapshot of a decommissioned EBS volume. The snapshot is restored only for audits, retained for at least 18 months, and the business accepts restoration taking many hours. Cost analysis shows storing these historical snapshots in the standard snapshot tier is expensive. Which change fits these conditions?
- Keep every quarterly EBS snapshot in the standard tier because snapshots cannot be stored in a lower-cost archive tier.
- Archive eligible long-retained snapshots to the EBS Snapshots Archive tier, including its full-snapshot conversion, minimum retention, and restore delay in the cost model.
- Use EBS Fast Snapshot Restore in every Availability Zone for all old quarterly snapshots to lower their long-term standard snapshot storage rate.
- Copy each complete snapshot into another Region and retain both standard-tier copies indefinitely, assuming a second full backup is cheaper than archival.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:EBS Snapshots Archive trades lower long-term storage charges for full-snapshot billing and restore time; a multi-month audit record with a relaxed restore target can fit after modeling the minimum period.
Incorrect Answers
A:The standard tier is suitable for frequent incremental snapshots, but archiving eligible rarely accessed snapshots is supported and can reduce long-term retention cost.
C:Fast snapshot restore can improve the first-read performance of new volumes, but incurs its own availability charges and does not lower standard snapshot byte-storage pricing.
D:Additional standard-tier snapshot copies typically increase retained storage costs rather than using the supported archive pricing tradeoff.
Question 537
A public-facing API currently requires one public IPv4 address for every front-end instance. Clients increasingly support IPv6; traffic logs show a large share could connect over IPv6 without translating to IPv4. The team wants to reduce paid public IPv4 address consumption while preserving dual-stack access during transition. What architecture should be evaluated?
- Enable dual-stack application endpoints and appropriate IPv6 addressing/routing and security rules; consolidate required remaining IPv4 entry points behind supported load balancers.
- Enable dual stack but keep a dedicated billable public IPv4 address on every instance and add an additional spare IPv4 address per AZ without consolidation.
- Remove every IPv4 endpoint immediately without testing whether remaining clients can reach the service through IPv6.
- Turn off public IPv6 connectivity but retain all per-instance public IPv4 addresses and claim lower address consumption.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Dual-stack endpoints reduce per-instance public IPv4 reliance while preserving legacy client reachability during a measured IPv6 adoption path; address inventory still needs governance.
Incorrect Answers
B:Dual-stack addressing alone does not reduce paid public IPv4 allocations if the existing per-instance IPv4 footprint remains unchanged.
C:Immediate IPv4-only client exclusion violates the requirement to preserve reachability during migration.
D:Disabling IPv6 prevents the stated migration benefit while the paid public IPv4 footprint stays the same.
Question 538
A company runs a long-lived production Amazon RDS MySQL DB instance on a major engine version that passed the RDS end of standard support. Monthly bills now contain RDS Extended Support charges in addition to DB compute and storage. A compatible application upgrade and maintenance window are available, but operations requires a rehearsed rollback and data backup plan. What cost-corrective action should architecture prioritize?
- Test and schedule an upgrade to an RDS-supported major engine version after verifying application and extension compatibility, and review Extended Support enrollment behavior before changing it.
- Turn off RDS Extended Support enrollment immediately before testing the major version upgrade, expecting the unsupported version to remain running unchanged.
- Install the newest minor patch release within the same unsupported major engine version and assume Extended Support charges disappear.
- Buy a new Reserved DB Instance while keeping the unsupported major engine indefinitely, assuming the reservation removes every Extended Support fee.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:RDS Extended Support adds charges for engine versions beyond standard support; a carefully tested major-version upgrade removes the source of those lifecycle fees, while changing enrollment prematurely can trigger an automatic upgrade.
Incorrect Answers
B:Disabling enrollment for an engine already past standard support can trigger an automatic major version upgrade, violating the requirement for a controlled tested change.
C:Minor-version maintenance may improve security within the same unsupported major line but does not move the database back into a standard-supported major engine lifecycle.
D:A capacity discount can affect eligible DB instance compute costs but does not substitute for engine lifecycle remediation or automatically waive Extended Support charges.
Question 539
An engineering account retired an RDS test database eleven months ago. Finance still sees storage charges for dozens of manual snapshots and retained automated backups from that decommissioned database; the data owner confirms the backups are obsolete and no retention hold applies. What cleanup should operations perform?
- Modify the storage autoscaling setting of a new RDS instance without deleting the old manual snapshots and retained automated backups.
- Identify and delete the approved obsolete manual snapshots and retained automated backups through their supported RDS/AWS Backup ownership workflows, preserving any mandated recovery points.
- Delete the RDS DB instance again but never remove separately retained manual snapshots and backups.
- Disable CloudTrail logging for the engineering account while leaving all obsolete recovery points stored.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:Retained manual and automated backups can remain billable after DB deletion; reviewed deletion through the correct owning service removes obsolete retained storage.
Incorrect Answers
A:An unrelated active database storage setting does not remove previously retained recovery points and their billed bytes.
C:Repeated deletion of a DB instance does not automatically clear all manually retained recovery points from the deleted workload.
D:Audit logging has no effect on billed retained RDS backup data and disabling it reduces investigative evidence.
Question 540
An AWS Organizations consolidated-billing family has an existing underutilized Compute Savings Plan purchased by the tooling account. Two production member accounts have steady eligible On-Demand EC2 usage, but the management account disabled Savings Plans discount sharing for both the plan owner and those receiving accounts. Finance wants to use the already-purchased commitment across permitted accounts before considering another purchase. Which setting should the payer review?
- Create a Cost Category for production accounts but leave Savings Plans benefit sharing disabled for both the plan owner and the receiving accounts.
- In the management account Billing preferences, activate supported Savings Plans discount sharing for the purchasing and receiving accounts, subject to approved organization or group sharing scope.
- Convert the existing Compute Savings Plan into an Availability-Zone-specific EC2 On-Demand Capacity Reservation so both accounts automatically use its commitment.
- Purchase a second identical Compute Savings Plan in the production account while leaving the already-owned underutilized commitment and sharing configuration unchanged.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:AWS Billing sharing preferences govern how eligible unused commitment discounts apply across consolidated accounts: the plan owner and receiving member accounts must be sharing-active, and the chosen organization/group scope must permit use.
Incorrect Answers
A:Cost Categories can help define sharing groups, but labels alone do not override disabled RI/Savings Plans discount sharing settings for the owner and recipients.
C:On-Demand Capacity Reservations are capacity guarantees for supported EC2 attributes, not a conversion of a compute-spend discount into cross-account Savings Plans eligibility.
D:An additional plan adds commitment cost and leaves the unshared original plan idle; enabling eligible discount sharing addresses the identified billing configuration first.
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional SAP-C02 Practice Tests