How should a solutions architect configure access to meet these requirements?
Create a private hosted zone by using Amazon Route 53.
Set up a gateway VPC endpoint for Amazon S3 in the VPC.
Configure the EC2 instances to use a NAT gateway to access the S3 bucket.
Establish an AWS Site-to-Site VPN connection between the VPC and the S3 bucket.
Explanations:
A private hosted zone in Amazon Route 53 is used for DNS resolution within a VPC. It does not facilitate direct access to S3 from EC2 instances and does not restrict internet traffic for S3 access.
Setting up a gateway VPC endpoint for Amazon S3 allows EC2 instances in the VPC to access S3 directly over the Amazon network, ensuring that traffic does not traverse the internet, which meets the requirement of private access.
Using a NAT gateway allows EC2 instances in a private subnet to access the internet but does not provide a private path to S3. S3 access through a NAT gateway would still route traffic over the internet.
Establishing a Site-to-Site VPN connection is unnecessary for accessing S3 within the same AWS infrastructure. S3 is accessible directly via the VPC endpoint, making the VPN setup an over-complication for this requirement.
I would say the answer is:
Set up a gateway VPC endpoint for Amazon S3 in the VPC.