PAS-C01 Practice Test 42 — 15 Questions

Question 1

An SAP system is experiencing performance issues during peak hours. The SAP application servers are running on EC2 instances behind a Network Load Balancer (NLB). The NLB is configured to use cross-zone load balancing. The issue is that one application server receives significantly more traffic than others. What is the most likely cause?

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

Accepted Answer

The flow hash algorithm is causing an uneven distribution of client traffic. The Network Load Balancer (NLB) uses a flow hash algorithm based on the 5-tuple (source IP, source port, destination IP, destination port, and protocol) to route traffic. This algorithm is designed to maintain session stickiness, but it can cause uneven distribution if a small number of clients generate a disproportionate amount of traffic, as each client's flows are consistently sent to the same target. Cross-zone load balancing distributes traffic across all targets in all enabled Availability Zones, but it does not alter the flow hash algorithm's per-flow routing, so one server can still receive more flows if its hash bucket is overloaded.

Answer

The application servers have different instance sizes, causing the NLB to send more traffic to larger instances

Answer

The NLB is using round-robin algorithm and one server is slower

Answer

The health check is failing on the other servers

Question 2

A company is running SAP HANA on AWS and needs to backup the database. Which TWO services can be used together to create a backup strategy that meets the requirement of point-in-time recovery? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon EBS snapshots. Amazon EBS snapshots (B) provide point-in-time backups of SAP HANA data volumes, and AWS Backup (C) can orchestrate and manage these snapshots, enabling a comprehensive backup strategy with point-in-time recovery. AWS Database Migration Service (A) is for database migration, not backup. Amazon S3 Lifecycle policies (D) manage object transitions, not database backups. AWS Storage Gateway (E) is for hybrid cloud storage, not SAP HANA backup.

Answer

AWS Database Migration Service

Answer

Amazon S3 Lifecycle policies

Answer

AWS Storage Gateway

Question 3

An SAP system running on AWS is configured with a Multi-AZ RDS for SAP HANA database. The primary database fails, but the automatic failover does not occur. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

Multi-AZ is not supported for RDS for SAP HANA. Multi-AZ for RDS for SAP HANA is not supported; RDS for SAP HANA does not have Multi-AZ capability. Option A is incorrect because Multi-AZ is not a paid option; it incurs costs but is not disabled by billing. Option B is incorrect because RDS for HANA does not use EBS snapshots for replication. Option D is incorrect because RDS does not use Elastic IPs.

Answer

The Multi-AZ configuration was not paid for

Answer

The standby instance was not configured with EBS snapshots

Answer

The primary instance does not have an Elastic IP attached

Question 4

An SAP system running on AWS experienced a database failure. The recovery plan uses cross-Region Amazon RDS snapshots. The RPO is 15 minutes and the RTO is 2 hours. Which AWS service should be used to automate snapshot replication across Regions?

Accepted Answer

AWS Backup. AWS Backup can automate cross-Region snapshot copying with scheduling. Option A is incorrect because AWS CloudFormation is used for infrastructure as code, not for automating snapshot replication. Option C is incorrect because Amazon RDS automated backups are region-specific and cannot be cross-Region. Option D is incorrect because Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication is for objects, not RDS snapshots.

Answer

AWS CloudFormation

Answer

Amazon RDS automated backups

Answer

Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication

Question 5

Refer to the exhibit. An SAP HANA administrator runs the command to check the attached volume. The volume is attached to an instance but the database is reporting low IOPS. What should the administrator check next?

Accepted Answer

Check if the EC2 instance is EBS-optimized and has sufficient network bandwidth.. The volume is provisioned with 10,000 IOPS (io1), but the database still reports low IOPS. The most likely cause is that the EC2 instance is not EBS-optimized, which limits the dedicated bandwidth for EBS traffic and can throttle performance. Checking EBS optimization and network bandwidth is the proper next step. Option A is wrong because volume size does not directly determine IOPS; provisioning size does not increase IOPS. Option C is wrong because changing to gp2 would reduce maximum IOPS (gp2 burst credits would not sustain 10,000 IOPS). Option D is wrong because NVMe drivers are required for EBS volumes on Nitro-based instances; if the instance uses Nitro, the NVMe driver must be installed and configured properly. However, low IOPS is more likely due to EBS optimization than driver issues.

Answer

Check if the volume size is sufficient; increase to 1 TB.

Answer

Check if the volume type should be changed to gp2 for better burst performance.

Answer

Check if the instance is using the NVMe driver for the EBS volume.

Question 6

An SAP administrator needs to back up SAP HANA database to Amazon S3. Which AWS service or feature should be used to automate this backup?

Accepted Answer

SAP HANA Backup and Recovery with Backint. The SAP HANA Backup and Recovery feature can back up directly to S3 via the Backint agent. Option A is incorrect because EBS snapshots capture the entire volume, not just the HANA database, and are not SAP HANA-aware. Option C is incorrect because AWS Backup supports some databases but not SAP HANA directly. Option D is incorrect because S3 Lifecycle policies manage object retention, not backup initiation.

Answer

Amazon EBS snapshots

Answer

AWS Backup

Answer

S3 Lifecycle policies

Question 7

Which THREE factors should be considered when selecting an EC2 instance type for an SAP HANA production system during migration? (Choose 3.)

Accepted Answer

Memory (RAM) size relative to the HANA workload. Options A, D, and E are correct because SAP HANA is memory-intensive and requires sufficient RAM (A), high network throughput and low latency for data replication and client access (D), and must be run on instance types certified by SAP for HANA workloads (E). Option B is incorrect because GPU acceleration is not a requirement for standard SAP HANA production systems. Option C is incorrect because while EBS-optimized is recommended for consistent performance, it is not a primary selection factor compared to the others.

Answer

GPU acceleration capabilities

Answer

EBS-optimized by default

Question 8

Refer to the exhibit. A CloudFormation template is used to launch an SAP application server. The stack creation succeeds, but the application server fails to start correctly. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The UserData script may not be executed due to timing issues; the sleep command may be insufficient.. The UserData script includes a 'sleep 30' command, which may not be sufficient if the instance takes longer to become ready, causing the application server to fail to start correctly. Option A is incorrect because missing an output parameter does not affect the startup of the application server; outputs are for stack information. Option B is incorrect because the r5.2xlarge instance type is supported for SAP application servers on AWS. Option C is incorrect because AMI IDs can contain numeric characters; the example AMI ID is valid.

Answer

The template is missing an output parameter to verify the instance status.

Answer

The instance type r5.2xlarge is not supported for SAP application servers.

Answer

The AMI ID is invalid because it contains numeric characters.

Question 9

An SAP application must be highly available across two Availability Zones in a single Region. The SAP Central Services (ASCS) and ERS are to be deployed on EC2 instances. Which AWS service should be used to manage the floating IP address for the ASCS instance?

Accepted Answer

Amazon Route 53 with failover routing. In an SAP on AWS deployment, the ASCS instance requires a floating IP address for clients to connect to the active instance. Amazon Route 53 with failover routing can manage this by using health checks to automatically update DNS records to point to the secondary ASCS instance in case of failure. This provides a DNS-based failover mechanism for the floating IP. Option A (Network Load Balancer) is incorrect because while an NLB can front-end the ASCS service, it does not manage a floating IP; it provides a static IP but requires a load balancer configuration. Option B (AWS Global Accelerator) is designed for global traffic and not for intra-region floating IP management for SAP ASCS. Option D (Elastic IP address) can be remapped manually but does not provide automatic failover without additional scripting.

Answer

Network Load Balancer

Answer

AWS Global Accelerator

Answer

Elastic IP address

Question 10

A company is migrating an on-premises SAP HANA database to AWS. They want to use AWS DMS for ongoing replication. Which TWO prerequisites must be met before starting the replication? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

The source database must have binary logging enabled (for CDC).. For ongoing replication (CDC) with AWS DMS, binary logging must be enabled on the source database (Option B). Additionally, the source database must be accessible from the DMS replication instance (Option C). Option A is incorrect because the source does not need to be running on EC2; any supported database can be used. Option D is incorrect because the target database in this migration scenario is SAP HANA on AWS, not Amazon RDS for Oracle. Option E is incorrect because AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) is used for schema conversion, not a prerequisite for DMS replication.

Answer

The source database must be running on an EC2 instance.

Answer

The target database must be Amazon RDS for Oracle.

Answer

The schema must be converted using AWS SCT first.

Question 11

A company is migrating an SAP HANA database to AWS using the SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) with asynchronous mode. The database size is 5 TB. The migration must be completed within 8 hours. Which AWS resource is most critical to ensure the initial data synchronization completes within the time window?

Accepted Answer

EC2 instance with high network bandwidth and Enhanced Networking. The initial data synchronization in SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) is network-intensive, as it transfers the full 5 TB database from the source to the target. High network bandwidth (e.g., using Enhanced Networking with ENA) directly reduces transfer time, making it the most critical resource to meet the 8-hour window. While EBS gp3 volumes (Option C) provide sufficient IOPS, they are secondary because the bottleneck is network throughput, not storage performance. Option B (EBS snapshots) is not used in HSR, and Option D (S3 multipart upload) is irrelevant for HSR.

Answer

EBS snapshots for the initial data copy

Answer

EBS gp3 volumes with sufficient IOPS

Answer

Amazon S3 multipart upload for initial data

Question 12

A financial services company runs a multi-tier application on AWS. The application consists of an Application Load Balancer (ALB), a fleet of EC2 instances for the web tier, and an Amazon RDS for MySQL database for the backend. The operations team uses AWS CloudFormation to manage infrastructure. During a recent deployment, a change to the database security group caused an outage because the web tier lost connectivity to the database. The team wants to prevent similar incidents in the future. They need a solution that allows them to review and approve changes to critical resources before deployment, while still enabling rapid deployment for non-critical changes. The team uses AWS CodePipeline for CI/CD. Which approach should the team implement?

Accepted Answer

Use CloudFormation Change Sets in the pipeline and add a manual approval step for any change that modifies the database security group.. CloudFormation Change Sets allow you to preview how proposed changes will affect your resources before execution. By integrating a manual approval step in the CodePipeline that triggers specifically when the change set modifies the database security group, the team can review and approve critical changes while allowing non-critical changes to proceed automatically. This directly addresses the requirement to prevent outages from unapproved security group modifications.

Answer

Use AWS Config rules to automatically remediate non-compliant changes before they are applied.

Answer

Use AWS Service Catalog to create a portfolio of approved stacks and require all deployments to use the portfolio.

Answer

Use AWS CloudTrail to monitor changes to the security group and trigger a rollback if unauthorized changes are detected.

Question 13

A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS and needs to ensure that the system can automatically recover from an Availability Zone failure. The solution must use synchronous replication for zero data loss. Which AWS architecture meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

SAP HANA System Replication with synchronous replication. SAP HANA System Replication with synchronous replication across Availability Zones ensures zero data loss and automatic failover. Option A is incorrect because EBS snapshots are asynchronous and do not provide zero data loss. Option B is incorrect because Multi-AZ RDS is not supported for HANA. Option C is incorrect because cluster placement groups are within a single AZ and do not provide cross-AZ failover.

Answer

EBS snapshots taken every 5 minutes

Answer

Multi-AZ RDS for SAP HANA

Answer

Cluster placement group spanning two AZs

Question 14

A company is planning to migrate a legacy Oracle database to Amazon RDS for Oracle. The database is 500 GB and has a 24/7 workload. The company needs minimal downtime. Which AWS service should be used for the migration?

Accepted Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS). AWS Database Migration Service (DMS). AWS DMS supports homogeneous migrations (Oracle to Oracle) and can perform minimal-downtime migrations by using change data capture (CDC) to replicate ongoing changes after the initial full load. Option A (AWS CLI) is not a migration service; it's a command-line tool for managing AWS services. Option B (AWS Schema Conversion Tool) is used for converting schema when migrating between different database engines, not for data migration itself. Option C (AWS Snowball) is a physical data transfer device for large datasets, but it does not support minimal-downtime online migrations for a 24/7 workload.

Answer

AWS Command Line Interface (CLI)

Answer

AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT)

Answer

AWS Snowball

Question 15

A company is migrating a highly critical SAP HANA database to AWS. They need to ensure data consistency and minimal downtime. Which approach should they use?

Accepted Answer

Use SAP HANA system replication and AWS Launch Wizard. Using SAP HANA system replication (HSR) with AWS Launch Wizard ensures minimal downtime by providing real-time data replication to an AWS-hosted HANA instance, with Launch Wizard automating the setup and configuration. Option A (AMI) is incorrect because an AMI snapshots the entire server state but does not guarantee HANA data consistency and requires downtime. Option B (AWS DMS with ongoing replication) is not the best fit because DMS may not fully support HANA-specific replication features and can introduce complexity. Option C (export to S3 and import) is incorrect because it incurs significant downtime for export/import and does not provide continuous replication.

Answer

Create an AMI of the on-premises HANA server and launch it on AWS

Answer

Use AWS DMS with ongoing replication

Answer

Export HANA data to S3 and import into a new HANA instance