SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company has a multi-account AWS environment with a central logging account. They want to ensure that all VPC Flow Logs are enabled for every VPC in every account and that the logs are sent to a central S3 bucket. What combination of services should they use to automatically enforce this?
⚠ Common exam trap
The SAP-C02 exam often tests the misconception that a reactive approach (like daily Lambda scans) or a deployment-only approach (like StackSets) is sufficient, when the real requirement is continuous enforcement and prevention of disabling — which demands a combination of AWS Config with remediation and an SCP.
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 AWS Config rules with automatic remediation to enable VPC Flow Logs that publish to a central S3 bucket, and use an SCP to prevent disabling Flow Logs.
AWS Config rules can continuously evaluate whether VPC Flow Logs are enabled for every VPC, and automatic remediation (via an SSM automation document or Lambda) can enable them if they are missing, publishing directly to a central S3 bucket. An SCP (Service Control Policy) then prevents any IAM action that would disable or modify the Flow Log configuration, ensuring enforcement is permanent and cannot be bypassed by account administrators.
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 Lambda to scan all VPCs daily and enable Flow Logs if missing, sending logs to the central bucket.
Why it's wrong here
Reactive and not real-time; also, Lambda must have cross-account access, increasing complexity.
- ✗
Use AWS Config rules with automatic remediation to enable VPC Flow Logs, and a CloudWatch Events rule to copy logs to the central bucket.
Why it's wrong here
Config rules can trigger remediation, but copying logs via CloudWatch Events is not efficient; Flow Logs can be published directly to S3.
- ✗
Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy a VPC with Flow Logs enabled in each account.
Why it's wrong here
This only works if VPCs are created via CloudFormation; existing VPCs would not be covered.
- ✓
Use AWS Config rules with automatic remediation to enable VPC Flow Logs that publish to a central S3 bucket, and use an SCP to prevent disabling Flow Logs.
Why this is correct
Config rules can detect VPCs without Flow Logs and remediate by enabling them; SCPs prevent tampering.
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 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.