PAS-C01 Practice Test 22 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company is running an SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance with an EBS gp3 volume. The workload is write-intensive and latency-sensitive. Which configuration change would provide the most consistent I/O performance?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Use an EBS io2 Block Express volume with provisioned IOPS. An SAP HANA database is extremely sensitive to I/O latency and requires consistent, high IOPS for write-intensive workloads. EBS io2 Block Express volumes provide up to 256,000 provisioned IOPS with 99.999% durability, delivering the predictable low-latency performance that gp3 volumes cannot guarantee under sustained write pressure. This makes D the correct choice for consistent I/O performance.

Answer

Switch to an EBS st1 (throughput-optimized HDD) volume

Answer

Enable EBS Multi-Attach for the gp3 volume

Answer

Increase the size of the existing gp3 volume to increase baseline throughput

Question 2

An SAP system running on AWS is experiencing high latency in the application layer. The system uses a load balancer to distribute traffic across multiple EC2 instances. Which THREE actions could help diagnose the latency issue? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Monitor the EC2 instance CPU and memory utilization using Amazon CloudWatch metrics.. High application-layer latency in an SAP system on AWS can stem from insufficient CPU or memory resources on the EC2 instances. Amazon CloudWatch metrics for CPU utilization and memory utilization (via the CloudWatch agent) directly reveal whether the instances are resource-constrained, which is a common cause of slow request processing. Monitoring these metrics helps isolate whether the latency is due to compute bottlenecks rather than network or load balancer issues.

Answer

Check AWS Config rules for any non-compliant resources.

Answer

Review VPC Flow Logs to check for packet loss or throttling.

Question 3

An SAP system running on AWS is experiencing high CPU usage on the application server during peak hours. The system is already using the largest instance type available in the current generation. What is the most cost-effective solution to handle the peak load?

Accepted Answer

Add an additional SAP application server in the same Availability Zone. SAP on AWS supports horizontal scaling by adding more application servers to distribute the load, which is the most cost-effective approach when the current instance type is already the largest available. Option C correctly adds an additional SAP application server in the same Availability Zone, leveraging SAP's native architecture to handle peak CPU usage without incurring the cost of a larger, potentially unavailable instance.

Answer

Upgrade to a larger instance type from a different instance family

Answer

Purchase Reserved Instances to reduce cost and allocate more resources

Answer

Use Auto Scaling to automatically add instances during peak hours

Question 4

An SAP administrator notices that the SAP HANA database performance has degraded significantly during peak hours. The HANA instance is running on an r5.8xlarge EC2 instance with EBS gp2 volumes. Monitoring shows high I/O wait times on the data volume. Which change is MOST likely to improve performance?

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes with high IOPS.. The performance degradation is due to high I/O wait times on the data volume, indicating that the EBS volume's IOPS limit is being saturated. Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes provide up to 256,000 IOPS per volume with consistent sub-millisecond latency, which directly addresses the I/O bottleneck for SAP HANA workloads. In contrast, gp3 volumes are capped at 16,000 IOPS, which is insufficient for peak-hour demands on an r5.8xlarge instance.

Answer

Enable Multi-AZ deployment for SAP HANA.

Answer

Upgrade the EC2 instance to a larger size like r5.16xlarge.

Answer

Change the EBS volume type from gp2 to gp3 with 3000 IOPS.

Question 5

An SAP customer has a mission-critical system running on AWS. They need to ensure that the SAP application can survive an Availability Zone failure without manual intervention. The SAP application is stateless. The database is SAP HANA with System Replication. What is the most comprehensive architecture to achieve automatic failover?

Accepted Answer

Deploy the SAP application in an Auto Scaling group across multiple AZs and configure SAP HANA System Replication with automatic failover using AWS resources. It combines stateless SAP application auto-scaling across multiple Availability Zones (AZs) with SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) configured for automatic failover. HSR uses synchronous replication to keep the standby HANA database in sync, and when combined with AWS services like Amazon Route 53 health checks or a cluster manager (e.g., Pacemaker), the failover occurs automatically without manual intervention. This architecture ensures both the application and database tiers survive an AZ failure seamlessly.

Answer

Use Amazon Route 53 health checks to switch DNS to a standby instance in another AZ

Answer

Deploy the SAP application in an Auto Scaling group across two AZs and use Amazon RDS Multi-AZ for HANA

Answer

Deploy the SAP application behind an Application Load Balancer and use SAP HANA System Replication with manual failover scripts

Question 6

An SAP administrator attaches the above IAM policy to a user. What actions can the user perform?

Accepted Answer

Describe, start, and stop EC2 instances, but not terminate them.. The IAM policy explicitly allows ec2:Describe*, ec2:StartInstances, and ec2:StopInstances actions, but does not include ec2:TerminateInstances. Therefore, the user can describe, start, and stop EC2 instances, but cannot terminate them. The Deny effect on ec2:TerminateInstances is not present, but the absence of an Allow means the action is implicitly denied.

Answer

Perform all EC2 actions including terminate.

Answer

Only describe EC2 instances.

Answer

Only start and stop instances.

Question 7

Which TWO are best practices for securing SAP on AWS?

Accepted Answer

Use security groups to control traffic between SAP components.. Security groups act as a virtual firewall for EC2 instances, allowing you to control inbound and outbound traffic at the instance level. For SAP on AWS, using security groups to restrict traffic between SAP components (e.g., between the SAP application server and database server) is a best practice because it enforces least-privilege access and reduces the attack surface. IAM roles for EC2 instances enable secure, automated access to AWS services (like S3 for backups or CloudWatch for monitoring) without embedding long-term credentials in the instance, which is critical for compliance and operational security.

Answer

Place all SAP systems in the default VPC.

Answer

Attach public IP addresses to all SAP EC2 instances for easy management.

Answer

Disable security groups and rely on SSH key pairs only.

Question 8

A company operates an SAP system on AWS with a shared SAP HANA database across multiple SAP applications. The database size is 5 TB. The operations team wants to implement a disaster recovery strategy with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 2 hours. Which solution meets these requirements with the least operational overhead?

Accepted Answer

Configure SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) to a secondary instance in another AWS Region. SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) to a secondary instance in another AWS Region meets the RPO of 15 minutes and RTO of 2 hours with the least operational overhead because HSR provides synchronous or near-synchronous replication at the database level, ensuring minimal data loss and fast failover. It is natively supported by SAP HANA, requires no additional third-party tools, and integrates directly with AWS for cross-Region networking via VPC peering or Direct Connect, making it the most efficient and low-maintenance DR solution for a shared 5 TB HANA database.

Answer

Use AWS DMS to replicate data to an S3 bucket in a different Region

Answer

Use SAP HANA backup to S3 and restore in another Region

Answer

Use AWS CloudEndure Disaster Recovery to replicate the entire server

Question 9

The exhibit shows the block device mapping of an EC2 instance running SAP HANA. The root volume (/dev/xvda) has DeleteOnTermination set to true, and the data volume (/dev/sdf) has DeleteOnTermination set to false. If the instance is terminated, what happens to the data volume?

Accepted Answer

Only the root volume is deleted; the data volume remains.. The DeleteOnTermination attribute controls whether a volume is deleted when its associated EC2 instance is terminated. For the root volume (/dev/xvda), this attribute is set to true, so it will be deleted upon termination. For the data volume (/dev/sdf), it is set to false, meaning the volume will be detached from the instance and preserved in your AWS account, allowing you to reattach it to another instance or take snapshots. Therefore, only the root volume is deleted, and the data volume remains.

Answer

Only the data volume is deleted; the root volume remains.

Answer

Both volumes are detached and moved to Amazon S3.

Answer

Both volumes are deleted.

Question 10

An SAP Basis team is planning to migrate an SAP ERP system from on-premises to AWS. The system currently uses Oracle Database and runs on a physical server with 256 GB RAM. The team wants to minimize downtime and ensure the migration is supported by SAP. Which AWS service or feature should they use to perform the migration?

Accepted Answer

Use SAP's Software Provisioning Manager (SWPM) to perform a homogeneous system copy to AWS.. SAP explicitly supports homogeneous system copies using Software Provisioning Manager (SWPM) for migrating SAP systems to AWS. This method allows the team to perform a database-level export/import while keeping the same operating system and database platform (Oracle), minimizing downtime by using SAP's validated tools and processes. AWS provides no native service that is SAP-certified for this specific migration scenario, making SWPM the only supported approach.

Answer

Use AWS VM Import/Export to migrate the physical server as an AMI.

Answer

Use AWS CloudEndure Migration to replicate the entire server to AWS.

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to replicate the Oracle database to Amazon RDS for Oracle.

Question 11

An SAP system on AWS needs to be highly available across two Availability Zones. The application tier runs on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The database tier uses an RDS Multi-AZ deployment. What additional step is REQUIRED to ensure complete high availability for the application tier?

Accepted Answer

Launch EC2 instances in at least two different Availability Zones.. For the application tier to be highly available across two Availability Zones, EC2 instances must be distributed across at least two AZs so that if one AZ fails, the Application Load Balancer can route traffic to instances in the other AZ. Option B directly addresses this requirement. Without instances in multiple AZs, the application tier remains a single point of failure, even if the ALB and RDS Multi-AZ are configured correctly.

Answer

Use a larger EC2 instance type.

Answer

Enable EBS Multi-Attach for the root volumes.

Answer

Configure an Auto Scaling group with a dynamic scaling policy.

Question 12

Which THREE factors should be considered when choosing an EC2 instance type for an SAP HANA production system? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Amount of memory (RAM) required.. SAP HANA is an in-memory database that loads all data into RAM for processing, making memory the primary determinant of instance sizing. The amount of RAM required directly dictates the EC2 instance family and size, as SAP HANA certified instances are specifically validated for memory-to-vCPU ratios and total memory capacity.

Answer

GPU capabilities for parallel processing.

Answer

Support for EBS optimization.

Question 13

A company is running a critical SAP HANA database on AWS. The database administrator wants to ensure that the SAP HANA backup files are stored in a secure, durable, and cost-effective manner. They need to retain backups for 7 years to meet compliance requirements. Which AWS service should be used for long-term backup storage?

Accepted Answer

Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive. Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive is the correct choice because it provides the lowest-cost storage for long-term retention of data that is accessed infrequently, with retrieval times of 12-48 hours. For a 7-year compliance retention requirement, this service offers secure, durable (99.999999999% durability), and cost-effective storage for SAP HANA backup files, which do not need immediate access.

Answer

AWS Backup

Answer

Amazon EBS Snapshots

Answer

Amazon S3 Standard

Question 14

A company needs to set up a disaster recovery solution for SAP on AWS with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 2 hours. Which strategy is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Use cross-region backup and restore with AWS Backup.. Cross-region backup and restore with AWS Backup is the most appropriate strategy because it meets both the RPO of 15 minutes and RTO of 2 hours for SAP on AWS. AWS Backup supports continuous backups for SAP HANA databases with a 15-minute RPO via Backint integration, and restoring from a cross-region backup can complete within 2 hours for typical SAP workloads. This approach provides the required recovery point and time objectives while maintaining data durability across AWS Regions.

Answer

Deploy all SAP components in a single AWS Region.

Answer

Use Multi-AZ deployment for the database.

Answer

Set up a pilot light environment with database replication.

Question 15

An SAP administrator created the IAM policy shown in the exhibit for a team managing SAP HANA instances. What is the effective permission for the team regarding an EC2 instance with the tag 'Environment=Production'?

Accepted Answer

The team can start and stop the instance, but cannot terminate it.. The IAM policy explicitly denies the 'ec2:TerminateInstances' action for instances with the tag 'Environment=Production', while allowing 'ec2:StartInstances' and 'ec2:StopInstances' via a separate Allow statement. Since an explicit Deny overrides any Allow, the team can start and stop the instance but cannot terminate it.

Answer

The team can start, stop, and terminate the instance.

Answer

The team cannot start, stop, or terminate the instance.

Answer

The team can only describe the instance.