DVA-C02 Troubleshooting and Optimization Practice Question
A company is using Amazon S3 to store log files. The logs are rarely accessed after 30 days but must be retained for 7 years for compliance. Which THREE actions should the company take to optimize storage costs?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use S3 Lifecycle policy to transition objects to S3 Glacier after 1 year.
Transitioning objects to S3 Glacier after 1 year reduces storage costs for long-term retention while maintaining compliance. Option D is correct because lifecycle policies can expire objects after 7 years, meeting the retention requirement. Option E is correct because transitioning to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days optimizes costs for infrequently accessed logs. Option A is wrong because deleting objects after 30 days violates the 7-year retention requirement. Option B is wrong because S3 One Zone-IA lacks the durability needed for compliance data and is not cost-effective if logs are accessed frequently in the first 30 days.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use S3 Lifecycle policy to delete objects after 30 days.
Why it's wrong here
Deleting objects after 30 days via an S3 Lifecycle expiration action irreversibly removes log data far before the required retention period ends, resulting in non-compliance. Lifecycle expiration performs a permanent delete with no recovery option, so this approach is unsuitable for records that must be retained for several years. It also does not address cost optimization from a compliance-safe perspective.
- ✗
Store objects in S3 One Zone-IA from the start.
Why it's wrong here
S3 One Zone-IA stores objects only in a single Availability Zone; if that AZ fails or is destroyed, the data is permanently lost. This storage class is intended for easily reproducible or non-critical data, not for compliance-bound logs that require S3's 99.999999999% durability. It also does not fulfill retention requirements—it only reduces costs for infrequent access while sacrificing resilience.
- ✓
Use S3 Lifecycle policy to transition objects to S3 Glacier after 1 year.
Why this is correct
Transitioning logs to S3 Glacier after one year is correct because it aligns cost with access patterns: logs older than a year are rarely retrieved but must still be retained. Glacier provides secure, durable, long-term archival at much lower storage cost than Standard or Standard-IA, while still allowing retrieval within minutes for audits. This lifecycle transition does not delete the objects, so it preserves all logs until the eventual expiration date.
- ✓
Enable S3 Lifecycle policy to expire objects after 7 years.
Why this is correct
Enabling S3 Lifecycle expiration after 7 years is the proper way to automate deletion of logs once the regulatory retention window has passed. This action permanently removes objects from all storage classes, meeting data minimization requirements without manual intervention. It also stops storage cost accrual after the data is no longer needed, and it should be combined with earlier transitions to optimize cost during the retention period.
- ✓
Use S3 Lifecycle policy to transition objects to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days.
Why this is correct
Transitioning logs to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days is correct because logs are frequently accessed in the first month for monitoring and troubleshooting, but access drops sharply afterward. Standard-IA offers the same durability and low-latency retrieval as S3 Standard at a lower storage price, with the trade-off of retrieval fees and a 30-day minimum storage duration—both acceptable given the multi-year retention. This lifecycle action serves as a cost-efficient intermediate step before eventual archival to Glacier.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DVA-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the DVA-C02 exam.