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:
Creating a private hosted zone with Amazon Route 53 does not enable private connectivity to S3. It is mainly used for private DNS resolution within a VPC.
Setting up a gateway VPC endpoint for Amazon S3 allows EC2 instances to access the S3 bucket without using the internet, ensuring private connectivity.
Configuring a NAT gateway still routes traffic through the internet, which does not meet the requirement for private access.
A Site-to-Site VPN connection is used for secure communication between on-premises networks and AWS, not for internal VPC-to-S3 communication.
As I see it, the answer is:
Set up a gateway VPC endpoint for Amazon S3 in the VPC.