Free WGU Cloud-Deployment-and-Operations Practice Exam with Questions & Answers | Set: 2

Amazon RDS Performance Insights supports retention periods of 7 days and 1 year for storing performance data, depending on the configuration and edition. The default retention is 7 days for standard monitoring, while enabling enhanced monitoring or the Performance Insights extended retention feature allows data to be retained for up to 1 year. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 7.2, Performance Insights) states, "Performance Insights offers a 7-day retention period by default, with an option to extend to 1 year for detailed historical analysis, supporting cost and performance optimization." Options A (1 day) and D (2 years) are not supported retention periods.

AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) is used to protect a server from Layer 7 (application layer) attacks, such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting, by filtering HTTP/HTTPS traffic based on defined rules. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 6.2, AWS WAF) states, "WAF protects web applications at Layer 7 by inspecting and blocking malicious requests, such as those involving SQL injection or XSS, when integrated with ALB or CloudFront." Shield protects against DDoS (Layer 3/4), CloudWatch monitors metrics, and KMS key rotation manages encryption, none of which address Layer 7 attacks.

A Private Hosted Zone in Amazon Route 53 should be used to restrict DNS resolution to instances within a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), ensuring that the zone is only accessible internally. This isolates DNS services from public internet access. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 3.1, Route 53 Hosted Zones) states, "A Private Hosted Zone in Route 53 limits DNS resolution to resources within a specified VPC, preventing external access and enhancing security for internal services." Public Hosted Zones, DNS Zones, and Lightsail DNS Zones do not provide this VPC-specific restriction.

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) should be used to horizontally scale Amazon EC2 instances by distributing incoming traffic across multiple instances, improving availability and fault tolerance. ELB works in conjunction with Auto Scaling groups to add or remove instances based on demand. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 3.2, Elastic Load Balancing) notes, "Elastic Load Balancing distributes traffic across EC2 instances, enabling horizontal scaling as part of an Auto Scaling group to handle increased load efficiently." Elastic IPs, elastic network interfaces, and Elastic Beanstalk do not provide this scaling functionality.

Systems Manager Automation documents can be created using JSON or YAML file formats to define workflows and actions based on AWS Config rules. These formats allow administrators to specify the steps and parameters for automation tasks, such as remediation actions triggered by Config rule evaluations. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 5.1, Systems Manager Automation) states that both JSON and YAML are supported formats for writing Automation documents, providing flexibility in scripting automation logic. XML and CSV are not supported formats for this purpose.

If a patch baseline is not explicitly defined in Patch Manager, it is attached to the default patch group. This default group applies a preconfigured baseline with AWS-recommended patches, ensuring basic compliance for instances without custom baselines. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 5.2, Patch Manager) states, "If no custom patch baseline is defined, instances are associated with the default patch group, which uses AWS-provided baseline settings for automatic patch approval." Options A, C, and D are not valid attachments for patch baselines.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

A Billing alarm in Amazon CloudWatch should be used to monitor estimated AWS charges by setting thresholds on cost metrics and triggering notifications when exceeded. This helps manage budgets effectively. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 7.4, Cost Monitoring) states, "Billing alarms in CloudWatch monitor estimated charges against a defined threshold, sending alerts via SNS to prevent cost overruns." Cognito handles user authentication, Pricing Calculator estimates costs pre-deployment, and Forecast predicts usage, none of which monitor real-time charges.

The Enterprise support plan provides a technical account manager (TAM) and full use of Trusted Advisor, offering proactive guidance and comprehensive access to all checks. This plan is designed for large-scale, mission-critical workloads. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 6.4, AWS Support Plans) states, "The Enterprise support plan includes a dedicated Technical Account Manager and full Trusted Advisor access, providing 24/7 support and proactive optimization recommendations." Developer, Standard, and Business plans offer limited or no TAM support and partial Trusted Advisor access.

The `Ref` function in an AWS CloudFormation template is used to obtain values of components defined within the template, such as resource IDs, parameters, or outputs. This function allows dynamic referencing of resources during stack creation. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 5.3, CloudFormation Functions) states, "The `Ref` function is used to reference the logical IDs of resources, parameters, or mappings defined in the template, enabling dynamic value retrieval (e.g., `Ref: MyEC2Instance` returns the instance ID)." ImportValue is used for cross-stack references, Cidr for IP range calculations, and GetAZs for availability zone lists, making them unsuitable here.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Spot Instances are the most suitable EC2 instance type for this workload pattern, offering the lowest cost for short, interruptible tasks like 3D rendering, where work can be redistributed if interrupted. This aligns with the company’s cost-plus pricing model. The WGU Cloud Deployment and Operations Study Guide (Section 7.3, EC2 Instance Types) states, "Spot Instances provide significant cost savings (up to 90% off On-Demand) for fault-tolerant, short-term workloads like rendering, where interruptions can be handled by redistributing tasks to other nodes." On-Demand, Dedicated, and Reserved Instances are more expensive and less flexible for this use case.