Question 1,701 of 1,621
ANS-C01 Network Management and Operations Practice Question
A network engineer needs to analyze network traffic between EC2 instances in the same VPC to troubleshoot a performance issue. Which AWS feature should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse VPC Flow Logs (network-level traffic metadata) with CloudTrail (API-level logging) or X-Ray (application tracing), failing to recognize that only Flow Logs provide the raw IP flow data needed for network performance analysis.
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
✓
VPC Flow Logs.
VPC Flow Logs capture IP traffic metadata (source/destination IP, ports, protocol, packet/byte counts) for network interfaces in a VPC, making them the correct tool for analyzing network traffic between EC2 instances to troubleshoot performance issues. Unlike other options, Flow Logs operate at the network layer (Layer 3/4) and can be published to CloudWatch Logs or S3 for detailed traffic analysis.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Config.
Why it's wrong here
Config tracks resource configuration, not traffic.
- ✗
AWS CloudTrail.
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail logs API activity, not network flows.
- ✗
AWS X-Ray.
Why it's wrong here
AWS X-Ray traces application-layer requests to identify latency and errors in distributed services, but it cannot capture raw network-level traffic such as packets, throughput, or retransmissions between EC2 instances. The scenario requires analysing network performance metrics like bandwidth or packet loss, which X-Ray does not provide. It is tempting because X-Ray is used for debugging performance in microservices, but it operates at the application layer, not the network layer that VPC traffic analysis demands.
- ✓
VPC Flow Logs.
Why this is correct
Flow logs capture IP traffic metadata.
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 |
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
This ANS-C01 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 ANS-C01 exam.
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