PAS-C01 Migration Practice Question
Exhibit
Refer to the exhibit. $ aws s3 cp s3://my-sap-backup/backup.hdb /mnt/restore/backup.hdb Error: An error occurred (AccessDenied) when calling the GetObject operation: Access Denied
Refer to the exhibit. An administrator is trying to restore an SAP HANA backup from an S3 bucket but receives an AccessDenied error. The administrator has full EC2 and S3 permissions via an IAM role attached to the EC2 instance. What is the most likely cause?
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 from the instance's IAM role
The AccessDenied error indicates an authorization failure. Since the IAM role grants full EC2 and S3 permissions, the issue is likely an explicit deny in the S3 bucket policy that overrides the IAM allow. Option A (different region) would cause a redirect error, not AccessDenied. Option B (SSE-C) would produce an encryption-related error. Option C (wrong command syntax) would result in a syntax error. Therefore, option D is correct: the bucket policy denies access from the instance's IAM role.
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 than the EC2 instance
Why it's wrong here
Cross-region access works; the error would not be AccessDenied.
- ✗
The backup file is encrypted with SSE-C and the key is not provided
Why it's wrong here
If SSE-C were used, the error would mention the key requirement.
- ✗
The administrator used the wrong S3 command syntax
Why it's wrong here
The syntax is correct; the error is an access issue.
- ✓
The S3 bucket has a bucket policy that denies access from the instance's IAM role
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
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every PAS-C01 question from scratch — 1,616 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or 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.