PAS-C01 Technology Practice Question
An administrator needs to back up an SAP HANA database running on an EC2 instance. The backup must be stored in a durable, cost-effective storage solution. Which AWS service is best suited for storing the backup files?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse Amazon S3 Glacier as a primary backup target due to its low cost, overlooking that SAP HANA backups require immediate accessibility for restoration, which S3 Glacier's retrieval delays cannot satisfy.
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 S3
Amazon S3 is the best choice for storing SAP HANA backup files because it offers 99.999999999% durability, is cost-effective for long-term backup storage, and integrates natively with SAP HANA via the Backint agent for direct backup to S3. S3 provides scalable object storage that can handle the large volume of SAP HANA data without requiring manual provisioning or lifecycle management.
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 S3
Why this is correct
S3 is durable, scalable, and cost-effective for backup files.
- ✗
Amazon S3 Glacier
Why it's wrong here
Glacier is for archival, retrieval time is longer.
- ✗
Amazon EFS
Why it's wrong here
EFS is for file storage, not optimized for backup.
- ✗
Amazon EBS snapshots
Why it's wrong here
Snapshots are for volumes, not file-level backups.
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.