SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question

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 AWS CloudTrail to capture log file changes.

  Why it's wrong here

  CloudTrail records AWS API activity, not application log file contents, so it captures nothing from the local file. It is tempting because it is a managed, agentless audit service, but it is designed for API call auditing, whereas the CloudWatch agent tails and ships the application's log file.

• ✗

  Modify the application to write logs to stdout and use the awslogs driver.

  Why it's wrong here

  Writing to stdout requires modifying the application, which the stem explicitly forbids. It is tempting because the awslogs driver is the standard container logging path, but it only applies to containers and demands code changes, whereas the CloudWatch agent reads the existing file unmodified.

• ✓

  Install and configure the Amazon CloudWatch agent on the EC2 instance.

  Why this is correct

  Installing the CloudWatch agent lets it tail the existing local log file and stream entries to CloudWatch Logs, so centralised management is achieved with zero application changes — satisfying the no-code-modification constraint. This is more operationally efficient than custom forwarding scripts, since the agent handles rotation, buffering and delivery natively.

• ✗

  Set up an Amazon S3 bucket and use an AWS Lambda function to periodically copy log files.

  Why it's wrong here

  Periodic Lambda copying introduces polling latency and duplicates files rather than streaming them, and requires custom code to manage. It is tempting as a serverless, code-free-on-the-instance approach, but the CloudWatch agent tails the file continuously and ships it without application changes or polling.

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