Question 1hardmultiple choice
Full question →hardmultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A SysOps administrator manages Amazon EC2 instances in multiple AWS accounts. The administrator needs to collect and analyze network traffic logs to identify the top IP addresses generating the most traffic to the instances. The administrator must centralize this analysis in a single monitoring account that has cross-account access to the logs. Which combination of AWS services should the administrator use?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Distractor review
Enable VPC Flow Logs in each account, publish them to an Amazon S3 bucket, and use Amazon Athena to query for top IPs.
This approach can work, but Athena requires running queries manually or scheduling them, and does not provide a real-time, continuous top-contributors view. Contributor Insights offers a managed, real-time solution.
B
Distractor review
Use AWS Config rules across accounts to aggregate network traffic data and generate a report in Amazon QuickSight.
AWS Config tracks resource configuration changes, not network traffic. It cannot provide information about IP addresses generating traffic.
C
Best answer
Set up CloudWatch Contributor Insights rules in the central monitoring account, with cross-account log ingestion from each account's VPC Flow Logs published to CloudWatch Logs.
CloudWatch Contributor Insights can analyze log data from CloudWatch Logs across accounts using cross-account observability. It continuously identifies top contributors like source IP addresses, providing a dashboard without manual queries.
D
Distractor review
Use Amazon CloudWatch Logs Insights with a saved query in the central account and schedule it to run every hour using EventBridge.
Logs Insights is great for ad-hoc queries, but it does not continuously run and update a top-N list by default. You would need to build a custom solution, whereas Contributor Insights is purpose-built for this.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
Related practice questions
Related SOA-C02 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A company uses Amazon CloudFront to deliver content to a global audience. The origin is an Application Load Balancer in us-east-1. The SysOps administrator wants to reduce costs by minimizing the number of requests that reach the origin server. Which action should the administrator take?
Question 2
A company runs a batch processing application on Amazon EC2 that runs for 2 hours every night. The workload can tolerate interruptions. Which EC2 purchasing option provides the lowest cost for this use case?
Question 3
A SysOps administrator needs to monitor the CPU utilization of an Amazon RDS DB instance and receive an alarm when CPU utilization exceeds 80% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which AWS service should be used to create this alarm?
Question 4
A company runs a critical web application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application uses session stickiness (sticky sessions) to maintain user sessions. The SysOps administrator notices that when instances are replaced during a scale-in or failure event, users lose their session data. The administrator needs to preserve session data across instance failures without losing stickiness benefits. What should the administrator do?
Question 5
A company runs a production web application on a single Amazon EC2 instance. The application experiences a predictable and steady workload 24/7. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize compute costs for this instance while ensuring it remains available during the expected workload. Which EC2 purchasing option should the administrator use?
Question 6
A company has a VPC with public and private subnets. The private subnets host application servers that need to make outbound HTTPS connections to the internet. The SysOps administrator must implement a solution that provides outbound internet connectivity while preventing inbound connections from the internet. Additionally, the solution must allow the company to control which domains the application servers can access. Which solution should the administrator implement?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SOA-C02 question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Set up CloudWatch Contributor Insights rules in the central monitoring account, with cross-account log ingestion from each account's VPC Flow Logs published to CloudWatch Logs. — Amazon CloudWatch Contributor Insights allows you to analyze log data (from CloudWatch Logs) and create rules that identify top contributors, such as the most frequent IP addresses. Combined with cross-account log ingestion using CloudWatch Logs subscription filters or cross-account observability, you can centralize logs from multiple accounts into a single account. VPC Flow Logs can be published to CloudWatch Logs, and then Contributor Insights rules can analyze them. Option C is correct. AWS Config is for resource configuration tracking. Amazon Athena can query S3 logs, but requires more setup. CloudWatch Logs Insights is for ad-hoc queries, not continuous top-N analysis.
What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
Discussion
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