PAS-C01 Migration Practice Question
A company is migrating a fleet of 200 on-premises Windows servers to AWS. The servers run a mix of custom applications and Microsoft SQL Server databases. The migration plan includes using AWS Server Migration Service (SMS) for the servers and AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for the databases. During the initial replication, several servers fail with the error 'Unable to create AMI: Insufficient permissions'. The IAM role used by SMS has the following policy: {"Version":"2012-10-17","Statement":[{"Effect":"Allow","Action":["ec2:Describe*","ec2:CreateImage","ec2:RegisterImage","s3:PutObject","s3:GetObject","s3:ListBucket"],"Resource":"*"}]}. Which change should be made to resolve the error?
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
✓
Add ec2:CreateSnapshot action to the policy
SMS requires the ec2:CreateSnapshot permission to create snapshots of volumes before creating AMIs. The error 'Unable to create AMI: Insufficient permissions' indicates that this permission is missing from the IAM policy. Option A is incorrect because removing s3:PutObject would not resolve the error; the issue is about EC2 permissions, not S3. Option B is incorrect because the error is not related to network connectivity; a VPC endpoint for EC2 would not grant the necessary permissions. Option D is incorrect because ec2:ImportImage is used for importing virtual machine images, not for creating AMIs from existing instances via SMS.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Remove the s3:PutObject action from the policy
Why it's wrong here
SMS needs s3:PutObject to store temporary data.
- ✗
Configure a VPC endpoint for EC2
Why it's wrong here
The error is about permissions, not network connectivity.
- ✓
Add ec2:CreateSnapshot action to the policy
Why this is correct
SMS requires CreateSnapshot to create snapshots before creating AMIs.
- ✗
Add ec2:ImportImage action to the policy
Why it's wrong here
SMS does not use ImportImage; it uses CreateImage from snapshots.
Visual reference
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
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 1,616 original PAS-C01 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PAS-C01 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 PAS-C01 exam.