Question #750
A company uses AWS Organizations to manage its multiple AWS accounts. The company requires a consolidated report of all Amazon EC2 instances across the organization that have consistently low CPU utilization or excess memory capacity. They also need automated recommendations for resizing these instances to optimize costs. Which solution meets these requirements with the LEAST administrative effort?
Deploy a third-party monitoring solution from AWS Marketplace on all EC2 instances to collect CPU and memory metrics. Aggregate the data in an Amazon RDS database. Develop a custom application to analyze the data and generate resizing recommendations based on EC2 instance specifications and pricing.
Use AWS Systems Manager to install the Amazon CloudWatch agent on all EC2 instances. Access AWS Cost Explorer's resource optimization feature from the organization\u2019s management account to obtain recommendations. Implement the provided suggestions to resize underutilized instances across all accounts.
Utilize AWS Systems Manager to deploy the Amazon CloudWatch agent on each EC2 instance. Log into each member account to run AWS Cost Explorer's resource optimization tool individually. Apply the recommendations per account to resize the identified instances.
Install the Amazon CloudWatch agent on all instances using AWS Systems Manager. Configure an AWS Lambda function to process CloudWatch metrics and identify underutilized instances. Store the results in Amazon DynamoDB and use Amazon QuickSight to visualize the data. Manually compare findings with EC2 pricing to determine resizing options.
Explanation
Option B is correct because:
1. AWS Systems Manager automates agent installation (CloudWatch) across all EC2 instances.
2. AWS Cost Explorer's resource optimization (available at the organization level) aggregates data from all accounts and provides pre-built recommendations for resizing underutilized instances.
3. No custom development or manual analysis is required.
Other options are incorrect because:
- A requires third-party tools, RDS, and custom code.
- C forces manual per-account operations.
- D relies on custom Lambda/DynamoDB/QuickSight workflows and manual pricing checks.
Key Points:
- Use AWS-native tools (Systems Manager, Cost Explorer) for cross-account automation.
- Cost Explorer's resource optimization feature provides pre-computed cost-saving recommendations.
- Management accounts in AWS Organizations can access consolidated data.
Answer
The correct answer is: B