Which of the following options is the MOST reliable way of collecting and preserving the log files?

Explanations:

Running the cron jobs more frequently (every 5 minutes) may help reduce the amount of log data lost during outages, but it does not provide a robust solution for preserving logs. If an instance stops unexpectedly before the next cron job runs, logs could still be lost. Additionally, running cron jobs too frequently may lead to increased overhead and resource consumption.

While using Amazon CloudWatch Events to trigger Systems Manager Run Command could potentially invoke log collection scripts more frequently, it still relies on a cron-like approach. If an instance stops unexpectedly, the logs generated since the last collection may still be lost, and this option does not ensure real-time logging or redundancy.

The Amazon CloudWatch Logs agent streams log messages directly to CloudWatch Logs in real-time. Configuring the agent with a batch count of 1 ensures that every log message is sent immediately, significantly reducing the risk of losing logs during outages or scaling events. This approach offers a reliable and continuous logging solution.

Triggering AWS Lambda to SSH into each running instance to collect logs could introduce latency and additional complexity. If an instance goes down, the logs generated since the last successful connection will still be lost. Moreover, SSHing into instances for log collection is not the most efficient or reliable method for log management compared to using the CloudWatch Logs agent.