SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company uses AWS Organizations with 50 accounts. The network team wants to centrally manage VPC flow logs for all accounts, storing them in a central S3 bucket in the security account. The flow logs must be encrypted with a KMS key managed by the security account. What is the MOST efficient way to configure this?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to choose AWS Config rules (Option C) thinking they can enforce resource creation, but Config is a detective control, not a provisioning tool, and cannot directly create flow logs without additional automation.
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 CloudFormation StackSets to deploy a stack that creates VPC flow logs with the required configuration in all accounts
AWS CloudFormation StackSets allows you to deploy a single CloudFormation template across multiple accounts and regions in an AWS Organization. By defining the VPC flow log resource with the central S3 bucket ARN and the KMS key from the security account (using a cross-account KMS key policy), StackSets can automatically create flow logs in all member accounts with the required encryption, making it the most efficient and centralized approach.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Manually create VPC flow logs in each account and point to the central S3 bucket
Why it's wrong here
Manual creation across 50 accounts is error-prone and does not scale, and each account's flow log role must still be granted access to the security account's KMS key and bucket policy. Manual setup is tempting for small account counts, but it is correct only where centralised, policy-driven provisioning is unavailable.
- ✓
Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy a stack that creates VPC flow logs with the required configuration in all accounts
Why this is correct
CloudFormation StackSets deploys the flow-log stack across every organisation account in one operation, including the security-account KMS key ARN and central bucket destination. This satisfies the efficiency constraint by avoiding manual per-account configuration across 50 accounts.
- ✗
Use AWS Config rules to enforce flow log creation across accounts
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config rules detect and flag non-compliant accounts; they do not themselves create flow logs, deliver them to the central bucket, or use the security account's KMS key. Config is tempting for organisation-wide governance, but it is the correct choice for auditing compliance, not for provisioning the logging configuration.
- ✗
Use AWS Systems Manager Automation to create flow logs in each account
Why it's wrong here
Systems Manager Automation runs per-account scripts, so it cannot create flow logs across 50 accounts or apply the security account's KMS key centrally. It suits one-off remediation tasks inside a single account. AWS Organizations integration with CloudWatch Logs delivers organisation-wide flow logs to the central bucket directly.
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.