PAS-C01 Practice Test 33 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company is running an SAP S/4HANA system on AWS with the primary application server on an EC2 instance in Availability Zone us-east-1a. The company requires that the SAP application server automatically restarts on a healthy host if the underlying hardware fails, without manual intervention. The application server is stateless and stores no data locally. Which solution should a SAP on AWS specialist implement?

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

Accepted Answer

Enable EC2 Auto Recovery by configuring a CloudWatch alarm that triggers the recover action on the instance.. The requirement is automatic restart on a healthy host when the underlying hardware fails. EC2 Auto Recovery, triggered by a CloudWatch alarm on status checks, is the native AWS feature that recovers an instance while preserving its network identity. Other options either do not react to hardware failure, add unnecessary components, or rely on periodic actions that do not guarantee recovery.

Answer

Configure an Auto Scaling group with a minimum and maximum size of 1, and attach an Application Load Balancer to distribute traffic.

Answer

Place the instance in a cluster placement group and enable detailed monitoring.

Answer

Create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) of the instance and configure a scheduled Lambda function to launch a new instance every hour.

Question 2

A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS with the primary HANA database on an r6i.8xlarge EC2 instance in eu-west-1a and a secondary HANA database on an r6i.8xlarge instance in eu-west-1b. The company uses an overlay IP address and a pacemaker cluster with the `fence_aws` STONITH agent. During a recent failover test, the pacemaker cluster failed to fence the primary node, causing a split-brain condition. Which action should the solutions architect take to ensure that the `fence_aws` agent can successfully fence the primary node?

Accepted Answer

Attach an IAM instance profile to the EC2 instances that grants permissions for `ec2:DescribeInstances`, `ec2:StopInstances`, and `ec2:StartInstances`.. The `fence_aws` STONITH agent requires IAM permissions to stop or start EC2 instances during failover. Without an instance profile granting `ec2:DescribeInstances`, `ec2:StopInstances`, and `ec2:StartInstances`, the agent cannot fence the failed node, leading to split-brain. Attaching the correct IAM role ensures the agent can perform its actions.

Answer

Configure the `fence_aws` agent to use the AWS CLI with credentials stored in the root user's `~/.aws/credentials` file on each node.

Answer

Enable AWS Shield Advanced on the EC2 instances to allow the `fence_aws` agent to isolate the failed node.

Answer

Modify the security group of the EC2 instances to allow inbound traffic on port 2224 from the cluster nodes, enabling the `fence_aws` agent to communicate.

Question 3

A company is migrating an SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) system to AWS. The SAP application servers will run on Amazon EC2 instances, and the database will be SAP HANA on an EC2 instance. The company wants to minimize downtime during the migration. Which AWS service should be used to replicate the on-premises SAP system to AWS with minimal disruption?

Accepted Answer

SAP HANA system replication with a secondary instance on AWS. For minimal downtime migration of SAP HANA to AWS, SAP HANA system replication is the recommended method. It continuously replicates data from the on-premises primary to a secondary HANA instance on AWS, allowing a rapid cutover with minimal data loss. Other AWS services either do not support SAP HANA or do not provide the necessary application consistency.

Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS)

Answer

AWS Application Migration Service (AWS MGN)

Answer

AWS Server Migration Service (AWS SMS)

Question 4

A company runs SAP HANA on an Amazon EC2 instance in a single Availability Zone (AZ) and wants to add cross-AZ high availability. They plan to use an overlay IP address managed by AWS. Which TWO configurations are required to enable automatic failover of the overlay IP to the secondary instance? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Assign a secondary private IP address to the primary instance's elastic network interface (ENI).. The overlay IP for SAP HANA HA is a secondary private IP address on the primary instance's ENI. During failover, automation reassigns that secondary private IP to the secondary instance's ENI using EC2 API calls. This makes the IP follow the active HANA node. Enabling source/destination check, adding route table entries, or using a Network Load Balancer do not accomplish the required IP reassignment.

Answer

Configure a Network Load Balancer with the secondary instance as the target for the overlay IP.

Answer

Create a route in the route table directing the overlay IP to the secondary instance's ENI.

Answer

Enable source/destination check on the secondary EC2 instance.

Question 5

A company runs an SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP system on AWS with the central services instances (ASCS and ERS) deployed in two Availability Zones for high availability. The SAP application servers and the SAP HANA database are in the same VPC. The company wants to ensure that if the primary ASCS instance fails, the ERS instance takes over automatically without manual intervention. Which configuration should they implement?

Accepted Answer

Install and configure an SAP-certified high-availability cluster solution (such as SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension or Red Hat Enterprise Linux High Availability Add-On) on both instances, with a virtual IP and SAP resource agents managing the ASCS and ERS roles.. Automatic failover of SAP central services requires an SAP-certified cluster solution that manages the ASCS and ERS instances as a resource group. The cluster monitors the ASCS instance and, upon failure, promotes the ERS instance to take over the ASCS role, moving the virtual IP address. This is the only option that provides seamless, automatic failover without manual intervention. Other options either do not provide SAP-aware failover or are intended for different use cases.

Answer

Configure an AWS Network Load Balancer with a target group containing both ASCS and ERS instances, and use a TCP listener on the SAP enqueue port.

Answer

Deploy the ASCS and ERS instances in an Auto Scaling group with a minimum capacity of one and a maximum capacity of two, and use a launch template that installs the SAP central services.

Answer

Use AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery to replicate the ASCS instance to another Availability Zone and configure a recovery plan to launch a replacement instance.

Question 6

An SAP system uses Amazon EFS for shared file storage for transport directories. The system is deployed across multiple Availability Zones. Which EFS performance mode is most suitable for this workload?

Accepted Answer

General Purpose performance mode.. General Purpose performance mode is the most suitable for SAP transport directories because it provides the lowest latency for file operations, which is critical for the frequent, small I/O operations typical of SAP transport processes. Max I/O mode, while offering higher throughput for large sequential I/O, introduces higher latency that can degrade SAP performance. General Purpose mode is the default and recommended mode for most EFS workloads, including SAP shared file systems.

Answer

Max I/O performance mode.

Answer

Provisioned Throughput mode.

Answer

Bursting Throughput mode.

Question 7

A company runs SAP NetWeaver on AWS with application servers on Amazon EC2 instances and a shared file system for SAP transports and interfaces. The storage team wants to use Amazon EFS with encryption at rest and automatic throughput scaling. Which combination of settings should they choose to meet these requirements with minimal administrative effort?

Accepted Answer

Create an Amazon EFS file system with General Purpose performance mode and Elastic throughput mode; enable encryption at rest using an AWS KMS key; mount targets in each Availability Zone.. Amazon EFS Elastic throughput mode automatically adjusts throughput based on the workload, eliminating the need to provision or manage throughput capacity. General Purpose performance mode provides low latency suitable for SAP shared file systems. Encryption at rest with an AWS KMS key meets security requirements, and mount targets in each Availability Zone ensure the file system is accessible from all application servers with high availability.

Answer

Create an Amazon EFS file system with Max I/O performance mode and Provisioned throughput mode; enable encryption at rest using an AWS KMS key; mount targets in each Availability Zone.

Answer

Create an Amazon FSx for Windows File Server file system with Multi-AZ deployment; enable encryption at rest with an AWS KMS key; use SMB protocol for SAP application servers.

Answer

Create an Amazon EFS file system with General Purpose performance mode and Bursting throughput mode; enable encryption at rest using an AWS KMS customer managed key; mount targets in each Availability Zone.

Question 8

A company is running an SAP NetWeaver application server on an Amazon EC2 instance. The application server needs to store SAP transport files and interface files on a shared file system that is accessible from multiple EC2 instances. The company wants a fully managed, scalable, and POSIX-compliant file system that supports NFSv4.1. Which AWS service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS). Amazon EFS is a fully managed, scalable, POSIX-compliant file system that supports NFSv4.1 and can be mounted on multiple EC2 instances. It is well-suited for shared SAP transport and interface files, providing high availability and automatic scaling. Other options either use the wrong protocol (SMB), are not POSIX-compliant (S3), or are optimized for different workloads (Lustre).

Answer

Amazon S3 with AWS Transfer Family

Answer

Amazon FSx for Lustre

Answer

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

Question 9

An SAP S/4HANA system runs on AWS with the application servers on Amazon EC2 and the database on an Amazon RDS for SAP HANA instance in a private subnet. A solutions architect must ensure that the application servers can reach the database without traversing the public internet, while allowing the database to initiate outbound connections only to an Amazon S3 gateway endpoint for backups. What should the architect do?

Accepted Answer

Deploy the application servers and the RDS instance in the same VPC but different subnets, use security group references to allow database access from the application security group, and attach an S3 gateway endpoint with a route table entry for the database subnet.. Placing both tiers in one VPC but separate subnets enables security-group-based segmentation, and referencing the application security group ensures only those instances can reach the database. An S3 gateway endpoint attached to the database subnet's route table provides private, endpoint-only access to Amazon S3, eliminating the need for internet or NAT egress. Together these choices satisfy both the inbound restriction and the outbound limitation without introducing unnecessary VPC peering or public exposure.

Answer

Deploy the application servers and the RDS instance in the same subnet, and use a network ACL to allow outbound traffic only to the S3 public IP address ranges.

Answer

Create a VPC peering connection between the application VPC and the database VPC, and attach an internet gateway to the database VPC for S3 access.

Answer

Place the application servers and the RDS instance in the same VPC and subnet, and rely on the default security group to control traffic.

Question 10

A company runs SAP NetWeaver ABAP on Amazon EC2 instances across two Availability Zones. The ASCS instance is managed by an Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling group with a desired capacity of 1, and an Elastic Load Balancer distributes traffic to the application servers. During a recent AZ failure, the ASCS instance was replaced in the surviving AZ, but the SAP enqueue server did not start because its lock table was stored on an Amazon EBS volume in the failed AZ. Which change should the solutions architect make to ensure the enqueue server can start in the surviving AZ?

Accepted Answer

Place the lock table on a replicated Amazon EBS volume using a solution such as SAP enqueue replication or a third-party cluster agent that replicates the volume to the standby AZ.. The enqueue server requires a consistent lock table on a block device that is available in the surviving AZ. Replicating the EBS volume with SAP enqueue replication or a cluster agent places a current copy of the lock table in the standby AZ, so the replacement ASCS instance can attach it and start the enqueue server. Shared file systems and ephemeral storage do not meet the latency or persistence requirements for this component.

Answer

Use a Multi-AZ Amazon FSx for Windows File Server file system and mount it at the enqueue server's lock table directory.

Answer

Configure the Auto Scaling group to launch the ASCS instance with an instance store volume for the lock table.

Answer

Replace the EBS volume with an Amazon EFS file system mounted at the enqueue server's lock table directory.

Question 11

A company runs SAP HANA on a single Amazon EC2 instance with a secondary instance in another Availability Zone for high availability. The primary instance fails, and the SAP HANA system is restarted on the secondary instance using the same Amazon EBS snapshot. The system takes an unexpectedly long time to become available. Analysis shows that the EBS volumes were created from a snapshot and had not been fully initialized before the failover. Which action should the company take to reduce recovery time in future failovers?

Accepted Answer

Enable fast snapshot restore on the snapshot used for the secondary instance's volumes.. EBS volumes created from snapshots exhibit their worst performance immediately after creation because data must be pulled from Amazon S3 on first access. Fast snapshot restore pre-initializes the snapshot, ensuring that volumes created from it deliver full performance immediately. For a standby SAP HANA instance that must start quickly during failover, enabling fast snapshot restore on the snapshot used for its volumes is the most effective way to reduce recovery time.

Answer

Create the secondary instance's EBS volumes as io2 Block Express volumes instead of gp3.

Answer

Use Amazon EBS Multi-Attach to attach the primary instance's volumes to both instances simultaneously.

Answer

Increase the size of the EBS volumes on the secondary instance to improve baseline performance.

Question 12

A company is running a distributed SAP NetWeaver ABAP system on AWS. The ASCS instance runs on an EC2 instance in Availability Zone us-east-1a, and the database runs on an EC2 instance in us-east-1b. The company wants to implement high availability for the ASCS instance using an overlay IP address and a cluster solution. Which combination of AWS services and configurations should be used to achieve automatic failover of the ASCS instance to a standby EC2 instance in us-east-1b?

Accepted Answer

Use a cluster solution such as SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension or Red Hat Enterprise Linux High Availability Add-On, configure an overlay IP address with Amazon EC2 secondary private IP addresses, and use a cluster agent to manage the ASCS resource and enqueue replication.. SAP ASCS high availability on AWS requires a cluster solution that can manage the ASCS resource, an overlay IP address implemented as a secondary private IP, and enqueue replication for lock consistency. The cluster agent monitors the ASCS process and triggers failover to the standby node. This configuration provides automatic failover and is supported by SAP and AWS. Other options do not provide the necessary overlay IP or cluster management.

Answer

Use AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery to replicate the ASCS instance to another Availability Zone and perform a failover when the primary instance fails.

Answer

Use an Application Load Balancer with a target group containing both ASCS instances, and configure health checks on the SAP start service port.

Answer

Use an Network Load Balancer with a TCP listener for the ASCS ports, and configure the ASCS instances as targets in multiple Availability Zones.

Question 13

A company is running SAP HANA on an Amazon EC2 instance with multiple Amazon EBS volumes. The database is experiencing occasional I/O latency spikes during peak load. The storage administrator wants to ensure consistent, low-latency performance for the HANA data and log volumes. The volumes are currently using gp3. Which change should the administrator make to meet the requirement?

Accepted Answer

Migrate the HANA data and log volumes to io2 Block Express volumes.. io2 Block Express volumes are designed for high-performance, low-latency database workloads like SAP HANA. They provide consistent sub-millisecond latency and high IOPS, which addresses the latency spikes seen with gp3. While gp3 can be tuned for higher IOPS, it does not offer the same level of consistent performance as io2 Block Express. RAID 0 and fast snapshot restore do not solve the latency issue.

Answer

Attach additional gp3 volumes and create a RAID 0 array for the data and log volumes.

Answer

Enable EBS fast snapshot restore on the gp3 volumes.

Answer

Increase the size of the gp3 volumes to gain more baseline IOPS.

Question 14

A company is migrating an SAP BusinessObjects environment to AWS. The migration must ensure that the legacy reporting system remains accessible during the transition. Which AWS service can help facilitate this by allowing the company to redirect traffic gradually?

Accepted Answer

Amazon Route53 with weighted routing policies. Amazon Route53 with weighted routing policies can gradually shift traffic from on-premises to AWS by assigning weights to DNS records. Option A (Amazon CloudFront) is a content delivery network, not for traffic shifting. Option B (Elastic Load Balancer) distributes traffic within AWS, not for gradual migration. Option C (AWS Global Accelerator) improves performance but does not provide weighted routing. Option D (Amazon Route53 with weighted routing policies) is correct because it allows incremental traffic redirection during migration.

Answer

Amazon CloudFront

Answer

Elastic Load Balancer (ELB)

Answer

AWS Global Accelerator

Question 15

A company runs an SAP NetWeaver application server on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The SAP GUI clients connect to the application servers using the SAP GUI for Windows. The company wants to enable session persistence so that users remain connected to the same application server during their session. Which ALB feature should be configured?

Accepted Answer

Enable sticky sessions using duration-based cookies on the target group.. Application Load Balancer sticky sessions use duration-based cookies to bind a client to a specific target for the duration of the session. This is the correct way to enable session persistence for SAP GUI clients connecting through an ALB. It ensures that all requests from a client during the session are routed to the same application server, maintaining the user's session state.

Answer

Configure the ALB to use the least outstanding requests routing algorithm.

Answer

Enable cross-zone load balancing on the ALB.

Answer

Configure a Network Load Balancer (NLB) with a TCP listener and enable sticky sessions.