SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company has a multi-account AWS environment. The security team wants to centrally manage VPC flow logs for all accounts. They already have a centralized logging account. What is the MOST scalable solution?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers think CloudWatch Logs can natively publish to a cross-account log group, but it cannot; S3 with bucket policies is the correct scalable approach for multi-account VPC Flow Logs.
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 a CloudFormation StackSet to deploy VPC Flow Logs to an S3 bucket in the central account using bucket policies.
Using a CloudFormation StackSet allows you to deploy VPC Flow Logs consistently across multiple accounts and regions, publishing them to a centralized S3 bucket in the logging account. Bucket policies grant cross-account write access, making this approach highly scalable without per-account agent management or CloudWatch Logs cross-account limitations.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Deploy a third-party log collector agent on each EC2 instance.
Why it's wrong here
Agent-based is not scalable for VPC flow logs.
- ✗
Configure AWS Transit Gateway to aggregate flow logs.
Why it's wrong here
Transit Gateway does not aggregate flow logs centrally.
- ✓
Use a CloudFormation StackSet to deploy VPC Flow Logs to an S3 bucket in the central account using bucket policies.
Why this is correct
StackSet can create flow logs with cross-account delivery to a central S3 bucket.
- ✗
Enable VPC Flow Logs in each account and publish to a CloudWatch Logs group in the central account.
Why it's wrong here
Cross-account CloudWatch Logs subscription is complex and has limits.
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
Related to this question
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on SAP-C02
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company is using AWS Organizations with a centralized logging account. They want to collect VPC Flow Logs from all member accounts into a single S3 bucket in the logging account. Which TWO steps are required to achieve this?
medium- ✓ A.Create a bucket policy in the logging account that grants the member accounts permission to write flow logs.
- B.Attach an SCP to the logging account that allows PutObject to the bucket.
- ✓ C.Configure the bucket policy to include a condition that the principal is the VPC Flow Logs service.
- D.Use AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM) to share the bucket with member accounts.
- E.Attach an SCP to the member accounts that allows them to create flow logs.
Why A: A bucket policy in the logging account is required to grant cross-account permissions for VPC Flow Logs delivery. Without this policy, the VPC Flow Logs service in member accounts cannot write to the centralized S3 bucket, even if the member account has its own IAM permissions. Option C is correct because the bucket policy must include a condition that restricts the principal to the VPC Flow Logs service (e.g., `aws:SourceArn` or `aws:SourceAccount`) to prevent unauthorized writes from other services or accounts.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SAP-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 SAP-C02 exam.