PAS-C01 Practice Test 45 — 15 Questions

Question 1

An SAP administrator needs to monitor the CPU utilization of an EC2 instance running SAP HANA. Which AWS service should be used to set an alarm when CPU utilization exceeds 90% for 5 minutes?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch. Amazon CloudWatch (Option D) is the correct answer because it is the AWS monitoring service that can create alarms on EC2 metrics such as CPUUtilization. When the CPU utilization exceeds a threshold (e.g., 90%) for a specified duration (e.g., 5 minutes), CloudWatch can trigger an alarm and notify via SNS. Option A (AWS CloudTrail) is incorrect because it records API activity, not performance metrics. Option B (AWS Trusted Advisor) is incorrect because it provides best practice recommendations, not real-time monitoring or alarms. Option C (AWS Config) is incorrect because it tracks resource configuration changes, not operational metrics.

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

AWS Trusted Advisor

Answer

AWS Config

Question 2

A company runs SAP HANA on AWS and needs to back up the database to Amazon S3. Which TWO AWS services can be used to automate the backup process?

Accepted Answer

AWS Lambda. AWS Backup can be used to automate backups of SAP HANA databases to S3, providing a managed backup service with scheduling and retention policies. AWS Lambda can run custom scripts to orchestrate backups, for example, using the SAP HANA backup API to back up to S3. Options C, D, and E are incorrect: CloudFormation is for infrastructure provisioning, CloudTrail is for auditing API calls, and S3 Transfer Acceleration is a feature to speed up uploads, not a service for automating backups.

Answer

AWS CloudFormation

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration

Question 3

A company runs SAP on AWS and uses CloudWatch for monitoring. They want to set up an alarm that notifies the operations team when the CPU utilization of their SAP application server exceeds 90% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which THREE components are required to achieve this? (Select THREE.)

Accepted Answer

A CloudWatch alarm configured with the metric and threshold.. Options B, C, and E are correct. Option B: A CloudWatch alarm is required to define the threshold and trigger when CPU utilization exceeds 90% for 5 consecutive minutes. Option C: An Amazon SNS topic is needed to send notifications to the operations team. Option E: A CloudWatch metric for CPU utilization is the data source for the alarm. Option A is incorrect because CloudTrail logs API calls, not needed for this monitoring setup. Option D is incorrect because Lambda is not required; the alarm can directly trigger SNS.

Answer

AWS CloudTrail to log the alarm actions.

Answer

An AWS Lambda function to process the alarm.

Question 4

An SAP HANA database is running on an EC2 instance with an attached gp2 volume of 500 GiB. The exhibit shows the volume attributes. The database performance is degrading during peak hours. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The volume's burst balance has been depleted due to sustained high I/O.. Gp2 volumes use a burst bucket that provides credits for I/O above the baseline of 3 IOPS per GiB. For a 500 GiB volume, the baseline is 1500 IOPS. Sustained high I/O consumes burst credits, and once depleted, performance drops to baseline, causing degradation. Option A is incorrect: IOPS are not solely size-dependent; gp2 offers 3 IOPS/GiB baseline, and 500 GiB provides 1500 baseline IOPS, which may be sufficient. Option B is incorrect: EBS optimization is an EC2 instance feature, not a volume attribute; the issue is with the volume itself. Option D is incorrect: while gp3 offers higher baseline performance, the immediate cause here is burst balance depletion, not volume type.

Answer

The volume is sized too small; it needs to be at least 1 TB to provide sufficient IOPS.

Answer

The volume is not EBS-optimized.

Answer

The volume type is gp2 and should be changed to gp3 for better performance.

Question 5

Which THREE steps should be taken when troubleshooting a slow-running SAP HANA database on AWS? (Select THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Review HANA SQL plan cache for slow queries. To troubleshoot a slow-running SAP HANA database on AWS, start by reviewing the HANA SQL plan cache to identify slow queries (B). Check CloudWatch metrics for CPU utilization and disk I/O to detect resource bottlenecks (C). Verify HANA memory allocation and check for memory pressure, as memory issues are a common cause of slowdowns (E). Scaling up the EC2 instance (A) is premature without analysis, and reviewing IAM roles (D) is unrelated to performance troubleshooting.

Answer

Immediately scale up the EC2 instance type

Answer

Review IAM roles attached to the instance

Question 6

An SAP administrator is troubleshooting connectivity between an SAP application server (security group sg-12345) and an SAP HANA database server. The inbound rule on the database security group is shown in the exhibit. Which additional configuration is required for the application server to communicate with the database?

Accepted Answer

Modify the network ACL to allow inbound traffic on port 3300.. The security group inbound rule already references the application server's security group (sg-12345), which allows traffic from any instance with that security group. However, network ACLs (NACLs) are stateless and must allow both inbound and outbound traffic separately. If the NACL does not have an inbound rule allowing traffic on port 3300 (the default HANA database port), the traffic will be blocked at the subnet level despite the security group rule. Modifying the NACL to allow inbound traffic on port 3300 is required. Option A is incorrect because the security group rule already allows traffic from the application server's IP via the security group reference. Option B is incorrect because the application server's security group only controls outbound traffic to the database; the inbound rule on the database SG is already sufficient. Option D is incorrect because the NACL must be configured properly; the security group rule alone does not guarantee connectivity if the NACL blocks the traffic.

Answer

Add an inbound rule allowing traffic from the application server's IP address.

Answer

Add an inbound rule to the application server's security group.

Answer

No additional rule is needed; the rule allows traffic from sg-12345.

Question 7

An SAP administrator receives an alert that the SAP application server is not responding. The administrator checks the EC2 console and sees that the instance state is 'running' but the status checks have failed. Which step should be taken first to restore the SAP application?

Accepted Answer

Use the EC2 console to stop and start the instance, which will move it to new underlying hardware.. When status checks fail, the instance may have underlying hardware issues. Stopping and starting the instance (Option B) moves it to new hardware, which can resolve hardware-related failures and restore the SAP application. Option A is incorrect because terminating the instance loses the existing configuration and EBS volumes (unless termination protection is disabled and volumes are set to survive). Option C is incorrect because rebooting only restarts the OS; it does not change the underlying hardware, so hardware issues persist. Option D is incorrect because creating a new instance and attaching existing volumes is more time-consuming and complex; the simpler stop/start action should be attempted first.

Answer

Terminate the instance and launch a new one using the same AMI.

Answer

Reboot the EC2 instance from the AWS Management Console.

Answer

Create a new EC2 instance from the latest AMI and attach the existing EBS volumes.

Question 8

A company is using this CloudFormation template to provision infrastructure for an SAP HANA migration. When the stack is created, the RDS instance fails to launch. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

Amazon RDS does not support the SAP HANA engine.. Amazon RDS does not support SAP HANA as a database engine. SAP HANA must be installed on EC2 instances or on bare metal. Option A is incorrect because the template references the InstanceType parameter correctly using the Ref function. Option B is incorrect because while db.x1e.2xlarge is a valid RDS instance class for some engines (e.g., SQL Server), it is not valid for a non-existent RDS engine; but the primary issue is that SAP HANA is not supported on RDS at all. Option C is incorrect because the AMI ID is not relevant; RDS does not use AMIs; the stack would fail before checking AMI.

Answer

The InstanceType parameter is not properly referenced.

Answer

The DBInstanceClass db.x1e.2xlarge is not valid.

Answer

The AMI ID is invalid.

Question 9

A company wants to ensure that its SAP system backups are stored in a different AWS Region to comply with disaster recovery requirements. Which AWS service should be used to copy EBS snapshots to another Region?

Accepted Answer

AWS Backup. AWS Backup is the correct answer because it provides a centralized backup service that can copy EBS snapshots across AWS Regions as part of backup plans. Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) can automate snapshot creation and retention, but its cross-Region copy capabilities are limited compared to AWS Backup's comprehensive backup policies. Option C, S3 Cross-Region Replication, applies to S3 objects, not EBS snapshots. Option D, CloudFormation StackSets, is used for infrastructure provisioning across accounts/regions, not for backup.

Answer

Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager

Answer

Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication

Answer

AWS CloudFormation StackSets

Question 10

Refer to the exhibit. An IAM policy is attached to a user who manages SAP EC2 instances. Which of the following actions can the user perform?

Accepted Answer

Describe all EC2 instances, but start and stop only those with the tag Environment=production.. The IAM policy grants ec2:Describe* on all resources, allowing the user to describe any EC2 instance. However, ec2:StartInstances and ec2:StopInstances are only allowed on instances with the tag Environment=production, so the user can start and stop only those instances. Option B is incorrect because the user cannot start/stop all instances—only those with the production tag. Option C is incorrect because the user cannot start/stop any instance; the tag condition restricts these actions. Option D is incorrect because the policy does not allow the ec2:TerminateInstances action at all.

Answer

Describe, start, and stop all EC2 instances regardless of tags.

Answer

Start and stop any EC2 instance in the account.

Answer

Terminate any EC2 instance with the tag Environment=production.

Question 11

An SAP system on AWS is experiencing performance degradation. The operations team suspects a network bottleneck. Which THREE metrics should they analyze in CloudWatch to diagnose the issue? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

NetworkOut. (NetworkOut), Option B (NetworkPacketsIn), and Option D (NetworkIn) are standard EC2 network metrics that help diagnose network bottlenecks by showing traffic volume. Option C (CPUUtilization) is compute-related, not network-related. Option E (DiskReadOps) is storage-related, not network-related.

Answer

CPUUtilization

Answer

DiskReadOps

Question 12

A company runs SAP on AWS and wants to reduce costs by stopping non-production instances during off-hours. Which AWS service can automatically start and stop EC2 instances on a schedule?

Accepted Answer

AWS Instance Scheduler. AWS Instance Scheduler is a solution that automatically starts and stops instances on a defined schedule, reducing costs for non-production instances during off-hours. Option A is wrong because while AWS Systems Manager Maintenance Windows can schedule start/stop tasks via automation documents, AWS Instance Scheduler is the dedicated solution designed specifically for this use case, making it the best answer. Option C is wrong because Amazon CloudWatch Alarms can trigger actions based on metrics but lack built-in recurring schedule capabilities. Option D is wrong because EC2 Auto Scaling manages instance counts based on demand, not on a time-based schedule.

Answer

AWS Systems Manager Maintenance Windows

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Alarms

Answer

EC2 Auto Scaling

Question 13

An SAP system administrator needs to monitor the CPU utilization of an EC2 instance running SAP NetWeaver. The administrator wants to receive an alert when the CPU utilization exceeds 80% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which AWS service should be used to create this alarm?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Alarms. Amazon CloudWatch Alarms are the correct service for monitoring EC2 instance CPU utilization and triggering alerts based on thresholds. In this scenario, the administrator needs to create an alarm that triggers when CPU utilization exceeds 80% for 5 consecutive minutes. CloudWatch Alarms can evaluate metric data against specified thresholds and perform actions such as sending notifications via SNS. Option D is correct. Option A (AWS CloudTrail) is for auditing API activity, not metric monitoring. Option B (AWS Config) is for resource configuration compliance. Option C (Amazon CloudWatch Logs) is for storing and monitoring log files, not for setting metric-based alarms.

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Logs

Question 14

An organization runs SAP ERP on a single EC2 instance with a separate RDS for Oracle database. The Operations team needs to patch the operating system of the EC2 instance without causing downtime for the SAP application. What is the most effective approach?

Accepted Answer

Create an AMI of the instance, launch a new instance from the AMI, and patch it.. It allows creating a patched copy of the instance without affecting the running SAP application. By creating an AMI of the running EC2 instance, you capture the current state. Launching a new instance from this AMI and patching it does not impact the original instance. Then you can redirect traffic to the new instance (e.g., by updating an Elastic IP or DNS) to complete the cutover with minimal downtime. This is a classic blue/green deployment pattern.

Option B is incorrect because a rolling update requires multiple instances in an Auto Scaling group to maintain availability. With a single instance, there is no instance to serve traffic during the update.

Option C is incorrect because AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager applies patches in-place, which typically requires a reboot, causing downtime for the SAP application.

Option D is incorrect because most operating system patches require a reboot to take effect; running a script without rebooting does not fully apply the patches, leaving the system vulnerable and potentially not in compliance.

Answer

Use an Auto Scaling group with a launch template that references a patched AMI, and perform a rolling update.

Answer

Apply patches using AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager during a maintenance window.

Answer

Use AWS Systems Manager to run a script that patches the OS without rebooting.

Question 15

An SAP system on AWS is experiencing high CPU utilization on the database server. The operations team suspects a specific query is causing the issue. Which combination of AWS services should be used to identify the query?

Accepted Answer

Amazon RDS Performance Insights and CloudWatch Logs. Amazon RDS Performance Insights and CloudWatch Logs. Amazon RDS Performance Insights provides database performance analysis and identifies the top queries by load, allowing you to pinpoint the specific query causing high CPU utilization. CloudWatch Logs can be used to correlate query patterns with system metrics. Option A is incorrect because CloudWatch Metrics shows CPU utilization but does not identify specific queries; AWS X-Ray is for tracing application requests, not database queries. Option C is incorrect because CloudTrail logs API calls to AWS services, not database queries. Option D is incorrect because VPC Flow Logs capture network traffic metadata, not database query details.

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Metrics and AWS X-Ray

Answer

AWS CloudTrail and Amazon Athena

Answer

VPC Flow Logs and Amazon GuardDuty