AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – AssociateMonitoring, Logging, and RemediationMedium
A company requires a cost-effective solution for long-term archiving of audit logs from various AWS services (CloudTrail, VPC Flow Logs, S3 Access Logs) for compliance purposes. The logs need to be retained for 10 years, with infrequent access expected after the first year. Which storage solution is most appropriate?
- AAmazon S3 One Zone-IA
- BAmazon S3 Standard-IA
- CAmazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive
- DAmazon EBS Snapshots
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive
Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive is the lowest-cost Amazon S3 storage class for archiving data that is rarely accessed, making it ideal for long-term retention of audit logs (10 years) with infrequent access expectations after the initial period. Its cost-effectiveness outweighs its longer retrieval times for data that is rarely needed.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. S3 One Zone-IA is for infrequently accessed data in a single Availability Zone, offering slightly lower cost than Standard-IA but still more expensive than Glacier Deep Archive for this use case and less resilient.
- B. S3 Standard-IA is for infrequently accessed data that requires rapid access, making it more expensive than Glacier Deep Archive for very long-term, rarely accessed archives.
- D. Amazon EBS Snapshots are for backing up EBS volumes, not for archiving diverse AWS service logs for compliance. They are block-level storage, not object storage.
S3 Glacier Deep Archive
The lowest-cost Amazon S3 storage class for long-term archiving of data that is accessed rarely, suitable for compliance archives retained for 7-10+ years.
- Lowest cost S3 storage class.
- Designed for data accessed once or twice a year.
- Retrieval times typically within 12 hours.
- Ideal for compliance, regulatory, and disaster recovery archiving.
Memory trick: Deep Archive buries the logs for 10 years, super cheap, super deep.