SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company has multiple AWS accounts that are centrally managed using AWS Organizations. The security team requires that all API activity be logged and retained for 7 years. The logs must be stored in a central Amazon S3 bucket that is in the management account. Which solution meets these requirements with the least operational overhead?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often assume they must enable CloudTrail in each account individually or use replication/streaming services, failing to recognize that an organization trail in the management account automatically centralizes log delivery from all accounts with minimal configuration.
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
✓
Enable AWS CloudTrail in the management account with organization trail, and configure the trail to deliver logs to an S3 bucket in the management account.
Enabling an organization trail in the management account automatically applies CloudTrail to all accounts in the AWS Organization, delivering logs to a single S3 bucket in the management account without any per-account configuration or additional replication mechanisms. This meets the 7-year retention requirement with the least operational overhead, as the trail is centrally managed and logs are stored directly in the central bucket.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable CloudTrail in each account and use S3 Cross-Region Replication to copy logs to a central bucket.
Why it's wrong here
Replication adds complexity and cost.
- ✗
Use Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose to stream CloudTrail logs from each account to a central S3 bucket.
Why it's wrong here
Unnecessary complexity; CloudTrail can deliver directly to S3.
- ✗
Enable CloudTrail in each account individually and configure log file delivery to a bucket in that account.
Why it's wrong here
Logs are not centrally stored.
- ✓
Enable AWS CloudTrail in the management account with organization trail, and configure the trail to deliver logs to an S3 bucket in the management account.
Why this is correct
Organization trail delivers logs from all accounts to a central bucket.
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.