AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Practice Exam

What is required to scale an Auto Scaling Group based on CPU utilization?

1. Set a fixed number of instances in the Auto Scaling Group.

2. Use CloudWatch alarms to trigger the scaling action.

3. Manually adjust the number of instances based on observed performance.

4. Configure the ASG to scale based on demand.

The correct answer is: Configure the ASG to scale based on demand.

To scale an Auto Scaling Group (ASG) based on CPU utilization, it is essential to configure the ASG to scale automatically based on demand. This means that the system will add or remove instances in response to the current CPU utilization levels without requiring manual intervention. By setting policies that define how the ASG should react to specific metrics, such as CPU utilization, it ensures that any fluctuation in workload can be addressed promptly. This approach allows for efficient resource management, as the ASG can dynamically respond to varying levels of demand, maintaining performance while optimizing costs. It enables the system to quickly scale up when CPU usage is high, ensuring that applications remain responsive, and to scale down when demand decreases, thereby saving costs on resources. While using CloudWatch alarms is an integral part of monitoring, it is specifically the configuration of the ASG to scale based on demand that directly influences the scaling actions. CloudWatch alarms can trigger these actions, and manually adjusting instances is less efficient and not aligned with the automated scaling capability that the ASG provides.