SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a new application that will run on Amazon EC2 instances. The application writes logs to local disk, and the logs must be aggregated centrally for analysis. The company wants a solution that requires minimal configuration and can handle high log volume. Which TWO AWS services should the company use?
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
✓
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Amazon CloudWatch Logs (option D) can collect logs from EC2 instances via the CloudWatch agent with minimal configuration and at scale. Amazon CloudWatch Logs Insights (option E) provides a query engine to interactively search and analyze the aggregated logs. Option A (Amazon S3) is used for log storage, not for real-time collection or analysis. Option B (AWS Lambda) can process logs but is not designed for high-volume log ingestion without additional setup. Option C (Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose) is for streaming data to destinations like S3 or Redshift, but it requires more configuration and is not the simplest solution for EC2 log collection.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon S3
Why it's wrong here
S3 can store logs but does not provide built-in analysis tools.
- ✗
AWS Lambda
Why it's wrong here
Lambda is a compute service for running code in response to events, not a log aggregation destination; it cannot natively receive, store, or buffer high-volume log streams from EC2 instances writing to local disk. The temptation arises because Lambda can process log data when triggered by services like CloudWatch Logs or Kinesis, but in this scenario the logs are written to local disk, requiring an agent to ship them first—Lambda itself provides no ingestion endpoint or durable storage for raw log files.
- ✗
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
Why it's wrong here
Firehose is for streaming data to destinations, not for direct EC2 log collection.
- ✓
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Why this is correct
CloudWatch Logs can collect logs from EC2 instances using the CloudWatch agent.
- ✓
Amazon CloudWatch Logs Insights
Why this is correct
CloudWatch Logs Insights enables querying and analyzing log data stored in CloudWatch Logs.
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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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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