SOA-C02 Question 128
Select 3Your organization uses an Auto Scaling group for a web application running on Amazon EC2 instances. Recently, traffic to the application has spiked unpredictably, and the current Auto Scaling configuration is not responding fast enough to handle the load. As a SysOps administrator, what steps should you take to ensure the Auto Scaling group can handle traffic spikes more effectively?
- A
Enable a higher cooldown period for the Auto Scaling group to avoid over-scaling.
- B
Configure a target tracking scaling policy based on average CPU utilization.
- C
Pre-warm the load balancer to handle sudden traffic spikes.
- D
Increase the maximum number of instances in the Auto Scaling group.
- E
Set up a scheduled scaling policy to scale out during peak traffic hours.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answers: B, C, D
Explanation
To handle unpredictable traffic spikes effectively, it is crucial to use a target tracking scaling policy that adjusts resources based on real-time metrics like CPU utilization. Additionally, pre-warming the load balancer ensures it can handle sudden surges in requests, and increasing the maximum instance count allows the Auto Scaling group to scale out further when needed. A higher cooldown period or scheduled scaling policies are not well-suited for addressing unpredictable traffic patterns.
- A. Incorrect.
A higher cooldown period would slow down the response of the Auto Scaling group and is not appropriate when dealing with unpredictable traffic spikes. This would worsen the application's ability to handle the load.
- B. Correct.
A target tracking scaling policy based on average CPU utilization is an effective way to dynamically adjust the number of instances in response to traffic changes. It ensures the group scales based on real-time metrics.
- C. Correct.
Pre-warming the load balancer is a best practice for handling sudden traffic spikes, especially when the load balancer needs to manage a large number of simultaneous requests.
- D. Correct.
Increasing the maximum number of instances allows the Auto Scaling group to scale out further during traffic spikes, ensuring there are enough resources to handle the load.
- E. Incorrect.
While a scheduled scaling policy can help during predictable traffic patterns, it does not address the issue of unpredictable traffic spikes, which require dynamic scaling policies instead.