What should the database specialist do to achieve this?

Explanations:

While CloudWatch Events can monitor API calls logged by CloudTrail, it is not an effective method to detect issues directly related to RDS performance or downtime. This option is more suited for security auditing rather than database monitoring.

Subscribing to an RDS event subscription and configuring it with an SNS topic allows the database specialist to receive notifications on events like failovers, backups, or configuration changes, directly addressing the requirement to be notified of potential downtime or configuration changes.

Amazon SES is not the appropriate service for creating notifications based on CloudWatch Events. SES is primarily for sending email messages, while CloudWatch Events is used for triggering actions based on specified events.

Configuring Amazon CloudWatch alarms on RDS metrics like FreeStorageSpace is a key approach for proactive monitoring of the database’s health. It enables notifications when thresholds are breached, such as low storage space, which could lead to database downtime.

AWS Trusted Advisor provides general best practice recommendations but does not specifically focus on real-time monitoring of RDS events or configurations. It is not designed for sending alerts on issues that would cause database downtime.