PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
An SAP system is running on an EC2 instance with an instance profile that grants access to an S3 bucket. The application is unable to read a specific object from the bucket. What is the first step to troubleshoot the issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often jump to checking the S3 bucket policy first, forgetting that the instance profile's IAM policy is the primary gatekeeper for EC2-based access, and bucket policies only come into play if the IAM policy allows the action.
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
✓
Check the IAM policy attached to the instance profile
The instance profile grants the EC2 instance permissions to access the S3 bucket via IAM roles. If the application cannot read a specific object, the most likely cause is that the IAM policy attached to the instance profile does not include the necessary permissions (e.g., s3:GetObject) for that object. Checking the IAM policy is the first logical step because it directly controls the identity-based access for the instance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Check the security group associated with the instance
Why it's wrong here
Security groups do not control access to S3.
- ✗
Check the network ACLs
Why it's wrong here
NACLs are for VPC subnet traffic, not S3 access.
- ✓
Check the IAM policy attached to the instance profile
Why this is correct
The instance profile's IAM role must have s3:GetObject permission for the object.
- ✗
Check the S3 bucket policy
Why it's wrong here
Bucket policy might be blocking access, but first step is to check IAM permissions.
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.