PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Question
An SAP HANA database on AWS is configured with automatic backups to Amazon S3. The backup process is failing with the error 'Access Denied'. The administrator has confirmed the S3 bucket exists and the IAM role attached to the EC2 instance has the correct permissions. What could be the issue?
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 has a bucket policy that denies access to the IAM role
If the bucket policy denies access even if the IAM role allows, the explicit deny in the bucket policy overrides. The error indicates a permissions issue. The role might lack proper trust policy only if it can't assume, but the error suggests access denied to S3. The bucket policy is likely the cause. KMS key issues would give a different error. VPC endpoint issues would cause connectivity errors.
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 has a bucket policy that denies access to the IAM role
Why this is correct
A bucket policy with an explicit deny overrides IAM permissions.
- ✗
The IAM role's trust policy does not allow the EC2 service
Why it's wrong here
If the role cannot be assumed, the instance would not have credentials; the error would be different.
- ✗
The S3 bucket is encrypted with AWS KMS and the role lacks kms:Decrypt permissions
Why it's wrong here
KMS errors typically show 'Access Denied' but with a different context; bucket policy is more likely.
- ✗
The VPC does not have an S3 VPC endpoint configured
Why it's wrong here
Missing VPC endpoint would cause a timeout or connectivity error, not Access Denied.
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.