PAS-C01 Technology Practice Question
A company is running SAP HANA on AWS and needs to perform a backup to S3 using the SAP HANA BACKUP command. The backup fails with an error indicating that the S3 bucket cannot be accessed. The EC2 instance has an IAM role assigned with the necessary S3 permissions. What is the most likely cause of the failure?
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
✓
The S3 bucket policy denies access from the instance's VPC.
SAP HANA backup to S3 requires a properly configured S3 bucket and the backup tool must be able to write to it. The error is likely due to the bucket policy blocking the request. IAM role permissions are correct, but bucket policies can override them.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The S3 bucket is in a different region.
Why it's wrong here
Cross-region access is possible with proper permissions.
- ✗
The instance does not have internet access.
Why it's wrong here
SAP HANA backup to S3 can use a VPC endpoint, but if using internet, NAT is needed. However, the error is about bucket access, not connectivity.
- ✗
The IAM role does not have the correct trust policy.
Why it's wrong here
The trust policy is for assuming the role, not for S3 access.
- ✓
The S3 bucket policy denies access from the instance's VPC.
Why this is correct
A bucket policy can explicitly deny access even if IAM allows.
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 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.