AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate

Explanation

Correct Answer: C

Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose is the most efficient and low-overhead solution for streaming data from CloudWatch Logs to Amazon OpenSearch Service. Here's why:

Why Option C is Correct:

1. Direct Integration: CloudWatch Logs can directly stream logs to Kinesis Data Firehose using subscription filters.
2. Managed Service: Kinesis Data Firehose is a fully managed service that automatically handles data delivery, buffering, batching, compression, and encryption.
3. Near-real-time Delivery: Firehose can deliver data to OpenSearch Service with low latency (typically within 60 seconds).
4. Least Operational Overhead: No server management, no code to write, and minimal configuration required.
5. Automatic Scaling: Firehose automatically scales to handle varying data volumes.

Why Other Options are Not Optimal:

Option A: Incorrect because CloudWatch Logs subscriptions cannot directly stream to OpenSearch Service. CloudWatch Logs subscriptions can only stream to Kinesis Data Streams, Kinesis Data Firehose, or Lambda functions.

Option B: While this would work, it has higher operational overhead because:

• Requires writing and maintaining Lambda function code
• Needs to handle error handling, retries, and scaling
• Requires monitoring and troubleshooting of the Lambda function
• Additional cost for Lambda execution

Option D: This has the highest operational overhead because:

• Requires installing and configuring agents on each application server
• Needs ongoing agent maintenance and updates
• More complex architecture with additional components
• Higher operational burden for managing agents across multiple servers

Key Benefits of Kinesis Data Firehose:

• Fully Managed: No servers to provision or manage
• Automatic Buffering: Handles data batching and buffering automatically
• Data Transformation: Optional data transformation using Lambda
• Error Handling: Built-in error handling and retry mechanisms
• Cost-Effective: Pay only for the data you process

Recommended Architecture:

1. Create a CloudWatch Logs subscription filter
2. Configure the subscription to stream to Kinesis Data Firehose
3. Set up Firehose delivery stream with OpenSearch Service as destination
4. Configure buffering, compression, and error handling in Firehose

This solution provides near-real-time log delivery with minimal operational overhead, meeting the requirement most effectively.