Exam AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate SAA-C03 topic 1 question 24 discussion

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The requested result is a graph, so... A - can't be as the result is a report B - can't be as it is limited to 14 days visibility and the graph has to cover 2 months C - seems to provide graphs and the best option available, as... D - could provide graphs, BUT involves operational overhead, which has been requested to be minimised.

B. Use Cost Explorer's granular filtering feature to perform an in-depth analysis of EC2 costs based on instance types. Explanation: Cost Explorer provides an easy way to analyze AWS costs and usage visually. It allows you to filter data by multiple parameters, such as instance types, regions, and time periods. It also enables you to drill down and identify specific cost drivers, such as unwanted vertical scaling. This option is suitable because it provides granular insights with minimal operational overhead, as it is a built-in AWS tool specifically designed for cost analysis.

The correct answer is: B. Use Cost Explorer's granular filtering feature to perform an in-depth analysis of EC2 costs based on instance types. Explanation: Cost Explorer provides an easy way to analyze AWS costs and usage visually. It allows you to filter data by multiple parameters, such as instance types, regions, and time periods. It also enables you to drill down and identify specific cost drivers, such as unwanted vertical scaling. This option is suitable because it provides granular insights with minimal operational overhead, as it is a built-in AWS tool specifically designed for cost analysis. Why Other Options Are Less Suitable: C. AWS Billing and Cost Management Dashboard: It provides a high-level view of costs, but it lacks the specific filtering capabilities needed for a granular, instance-type-level analysis over time.

Option B: Use AWS Cost Explorer, a tool that makes it easy to view your costs and break them down into categories like EC2 instance types, time periods, and more. With Cost Explorer, you can easily filter the information to see which EC2 instance types caused the increase in costs over the last two months. This lets you do an in-depth analysis without much effort.

I would have gone for Ans B but apparently the right one is Ans C. I’m not convinced because neither B or C actually determine the root cause – they just point you in the right direction and then you’ll need to do some further analysis around resource demand (CPU, storage, network, etc), data/network traffic, what function/ instructions are actually being processed, along with taking a view of the scaling algorithms. On that basis I’d have said Ans B because it requires the LEAST overhead to get to the next step which is the one that matters: the root analysis for vertical scaling.

AWS Cost explorer will provide your usage and cost by main graph. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cost-management/latest/userguide/ce-what-is.html

I think the highest priority is "with the LEAST operational overhead?". B is very good for "perform an in-depth analysis" but C overwhelming win on cost.

Both B and D has their merits and achieve the ask of a question. Infact Option D would give more streamlined and automated approach and will be very less overhead once setup.

Not sure why it's B -- how can cost explorer identify the root cause of the vertical scaling?

Note that If Hourly granularity is required then the correct option might not be B as cost explorer hourly granular details are provided only for past 14 days. reference link - https://aws.amazon.com/aws-cost-management/aws-cost-explorer/features/#:~:text=Cost%20Explorer%20allows%20customers%20to,or%20understand%20peak%20hour%20usage.

Cost and usage report is the right tool for analyzing and understanding your bill. Cost explorer is mostly used for monitoring usage/expenditure over time to forecast and decide on more suitable plan/ package.

The answer is B. You can enable Cost Explorer for your account using this procedure on the Billing and Cost Management console. You can't enable Cost Explorer using the API. After you enable Cost Explorer, AWS prepares the data about your costs for the current month and the last 12 months, and then calculates the forecast for the next 12 months. The current month's data is available for viewing in about 24 hours. The rest of your data takes a few days longer. Cost Explorer updates your cost data at least once every 24 hours.

Cost Explorer

The option that provides the least operational overhead for generating a graph comparing the last 2 months of EC2 costs based on instance types is: D. Use AWS Cost and Usage Reports to create a report and send it to an Amazon S3 bucket. Use Amazon QuickSight with Amazon S3 as a source to generate an interactive graph based on instance types. This option leverages the AWS Cost and Usage Reports to export detailed billing information to an Amazon S3 bucket. Then, using Amazon QuickSight, you can easily create interactive graphs and perform in-depth analysis based on instance types. This approach provides flexibility and customization in analyzing the cost data with minimal operational overhead.

B is least operational overhead A: Can't do that C: Not granular enough D: Too much operational overhead

Answer-B