To ensure the Microsoft Defender for Servers agent is automatically installed on new AWS EC2 instances, which component should you configure first?

The native cloud connector is the correct answer because it establishes the foundational connection between Azure Security Center (now Microsoft Defender for Cloud) and your AWS environment. This connector enables Defender for Cloud to discover AWS resources, including EC2 instances, and subsequently deploy the necessary agents (like the Defender for Servers agent) for security monitoring and protection. The classic cloud connector is an older, deprecated method. The Azure Monitor agent and Log Analytics agent are deployed after the connection is established via the native cloud connector; they are components that collect data, not the initial connection mechanism for AWS.