PAS-C01 Technology Practice Question
An SAP administrator needs to ensure that all changes to an SAP system's AWS resources are tracked and that alerts are sent when SSH access to EC2 instances is modified. Which AWS service should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common trap in AWS SAP on AWS Specialty exams is confusing AWS Config (which tracks configuration state and compliance) with AWS CloudTrail (which records API calls). This question specifically requires tracking API modifications (e.g., changes to security group rules for SSH) and sending alerts, which is a CloudTrail capability, not just configuration compliance.
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
✓
AWS CloudTrail
AWS CloudTrail is the correct service because it records API activity across your AWS infrastructure, including changes to EC2 security groups that control SSH access. By enabling CloudTrail, you can monitor for events like AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress and trigger alerts via CloudWatch Events or Lambda when SSH (port 22) rules are modified, meeting the audit and alerting requirements.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
Tracks configuration changes, not API calls.
- ✗
Amazon CloudWatch
Why it's wrong here
Monitors metrics and logs.
- ✗
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why it's wrong here
Provides recommendations, not auditing.
- ✓
AWS CloudTrail
Why this is correct
Records API calls for auditing.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This PAS-C01 question is part of Courseiva's 1,616-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. 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.