SAA-C03 Amazon EFS Practice Question
A warehouse integration service must use shared file storage across Linux EC2 instances in multiple Availability Zones. The storage must remain available during an AZ failure. Which service should be used? The team wants the control to be enforceable during normal operations.
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse EBS multi-attach (which is limited to specific instance types and a single AZ) with the cross-AZ shared file system capability that only EFS provides, or they mistakenly think S3 with a FUSE mount is a reliable POSIX file system for production workloads.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Amazon EFS with mount targets in multiple Availability Zones
Amazon EFS provides a fully managed, POSIX-compliant NFS file system that can be mounted concurrently on multiple Linux EC2 instances across different Availability Zones. By creating mount targets in each AZ, the file system remains accessible even if one AZ fails, because the other mount targets continue to serve traffic. EFS also supports lifecycle policies and IAM enforcement to control access during normal operations, meeting the requirement for enforceable control.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Amazon EFS with mount targets in multiple Availability Zones
Why this is correct
EFS is regional file storage and supports mount targets across AZs.
- ✗
S3 mounted as a POSIX file system without a file gateway
Why it's wrong here
S3 is object storage and does not provide native POSIX shared file semantics.
- ✗
Instance store volumes
Why it's wrong here
Instance store is ephemeral and tied to a single instance.
- ✗
An EBS volume attached to all instances
Why it's wrong here
A standard EBS volume is zonal and cannot be attached broadly as shared file storage.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SAA-C03 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SAA-C03 exam.