PAS-C01 Practice Test 46 — 15 Questions

Question 1

An SAP system on AWS is experiencing performance issues during peak hours. The operations team notices that the EBS volumes are consistently showing high queue depth. What should they do to improve performance?

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

Accepted Answer

Provision more IOPS on the EBS volumes.. High queue depth on EBS volumes indicates that the volume cannot keep up with the I/O demand, so provisioning more IOPS (for gp3, io1, io2) directly increases the volume's ability to handle concurrent I/O requests. This addresses the root cause of the performance bottleneck during peak hours.

Answer

Change the EC2 instance type to a larger one.

Answer

Change the EBS volume type to Throughput Optimized HDD (st1).

Answer

Increase the size of the EBS volumes.

Question 2

A company is running SAP HANA on AWS and wants to encrypt the EBS volumes at rest. The company requires key rotation and audit logging of key usage. Which solution should be used?

Accepted Answer

Use EBS encryption with AWS KMS. EBS encryption with AWS KMS provides encryption at rest for EBS volumes, supports key rotation, and integrates with CloudTrail for audit logging of key usage. This meets the requirements for key rotation and audit logging. AWS KMS allows automatic annual key rotation and logs all key usage to CloudTrail.

Answer

Use AWS Certificate Manager

Answer

Use AWS CloudHSM to manage keys

Answer

Use S3 server-side encryption

Question 3

A company is migrating a large SAP HANA workload to AWS. They need to ensure the fastest network throughput for data transfer between on-premises and AWS. Which AWS service or feature should they use?

Accepted Answer

AWS Direct Connect. AWS Direct Connect provides a dedicated private network connection from on-premises to AWS, offering consistent, low-latency, and high-throughput performance compared to internet-based connections. For large SAP HANA migrations requiring fast data transfer, Direct Connect is the recommended service.

Answer

AWS Snowball Edge

Answer

AWS Site-to-Site VPN

Answer

AWS Client VPN

Question 4

An SAP on AWS environment is experiencing intermittent connectivity issues between the SAP application servers and the SAP HANA database. Both are in the same VPC but in different Availability Zones. The network team has confirmed that the security groups allow traffic on the required ports. What is a likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

Network ACLs are misconfigured, blocking return traffic.. Network ACLs are stateless, meaning they evaluate inbound and outbound traffic separately. Even if inbound rules allow traffic from the SAP application servers to the HANA database, the outbound rules on the database subnet's NACL must explicitly allow the return traffic (ephemeral ports) back to the application servers. Misconfigured outbound rules in the NACL can drop the response packets, causing intermittent connectivity issues between the application and database tiers across Availability Zones.

Answer

AWS Shield Advanced is blocking legitimate traffic.

Answer

VPC Flow Logs are enabled and dropping packets.

Answer

The VPC is using AWS Direct Connect, which adds latency.

Question 5

A company is migrating its SAP landscape to AWS. They need to choose a migration method for each system. Which TWO factors are most important to consider when selecting a migration method for SAP systems? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Source and target platform (OS, DB). Option C is correct because the source and target platform (operating system and database) determines which migration techniques are technically feasible — for example, homogeneous migration (same OS/DB) allows SAP SWPM-based system copy or backup/restore, while heterogeneous migration (different OS/DB) requires SAP Migration Monitor with R3load export/import or tools like SUM/DMO. Option E is correct because the SAP release and database version dictate the supported migration tools and target options — for instance, SAP NetWeaver version affects whether DMO with SUM can be used, and the DB version determines compatibility with the target platform on AWS (e.g., SAP HANA, Oracle, SQL Server). Option A is not a primary selection factor because cost is a consequence of the chosen method, not a technical determinant of which method is viable. Option B is not decisive because backup frequency is an operational policy and does not determine the migration method itself. Option D is not a key factor because the number of SAP users affects sizing and performance, not the choice of migration method.

Answer

Total cost of migration

Answer

Frequency of database backups

Answer

Number of SAP users

Question 6

An AWS administrator needs to monitor the CPU utilization of an EC2 instance running SAP NetWeaver. The instance type is r5.2xlarge. Which CloudWatch metric should the administrator use to track the CPU usage of the instance?

Accepted Answer

CPUUtilization. For an EC2 instance, CPU utilization is a standard metric provided by CloudWatch without any additional configuration. The metric name is 'CPUUtilization' and it measures the percentage of allocated EC2 compute units that are currently in use. This is the correct metric to track CPU usage for SAP NetWeaver on an r5.2xlarge instance.

Answer

MemoryUtilization

Answer

NetworkIn

Answer

DiskReadOps

Question 7

A company is migrating a SAP HANA database to AWS. Which storage configuration is recommended for SAP HANA to meet performance requirements?

Accepted Answer

Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes. Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes are the recommended storage configuration for SAP HANA on AWS because they provide up to 4,000 MB/s throughput per volume and 256,000 IOPS, with 99.999% durability. This meets the high-performance, low-latency requirements of SAP HANA, which demands consistent sub-millisecond latency for its columnar in-memory database operations. io2 Block Express volumes also support multi-attach for SAP HANA scale-out configurations and are the only EBS volume type validated by SAP for production HANA workloads.

Answer

Amazon EC2 instance store volumes

Answer

Amazon S3 as a block device

Answer

Amazon EBS gp2 volumes

Question 8

A company runs an SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance. During a maintenance window, an administrator needs to stop the instance but ensure that the data in the attached EBS volumes is preserved and the instance can be started later without data loss. Which action should the administrator take?

Accepted Answer

Stop the instance from the AWS Management Console.. Stopping an EC2 instance from the AWS Management Console preserves the data on attached EBS volumes. The instance can be started later, and the EBS volumes are reattached, ensuring no data loss. This is the standard procedure for maintenance.

Answer

Hibernate the instance from the AWS Management Console.

Answer

Terminate the instance from the AWS Management Console.

Answer

Reboot the instance from the AWS Management Console.

Question 9

A company is migrating an SAP Business Suite system on Oracle to AWS. The database is currently 4 TB and grows by 10% annually. The company requires a storage solution that provides consistent low-latency performance for the database, supports SAP-certified configurations, and allows for easy scaling without downtime. The SAP system is performance-sensitive and requires high IOPS. Which storage option should be used for the Oracle database?

Accepted Answer

Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes. For performance-sensitive SAP databases on AWS, Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes are the recommended storage because they provide the highest levels of IOPS, throughput, and durability, and they are SAP-certified. They also support online scaling, which meets the requirement for scaling without downtime. The other options either provide file or object storage, or are not optimized for the high-performance demands of a large Oracle database.

Answer

Amazon EBS gp3 volumes with additional IOPS provisioned

Answer

Amazon S3 with Transfer Acceleration

Answer

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

Question 10

A company is planning to run SAP S/4HANA on AWS. They need to ensure that the SAP system can be accessed from the corporate network via a secure VPN connection. Which AWS service should be used to establish this connectivity?

Accepted Answer

AWS Site-to-Site VPN. AWS Site-to-Site VPN creates a secure IPsec tunnel between the corporate network's on-premises VPN device and a Virtual Private Gateway (VGW) attached to the VPC hosting the SAP S/4HANA system. This enables encrypted communication over the public internet, meeting the requirement for secure VPN connectivity from the corporate network to the SAP workload.

Answer

AWS Client VPN

Answer

AWS Transit Gateway

Answer

AWS Direct Connect

Question 11

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

Question 12

A company is using SAP HANA in a multi-node scale-out configuration on AWS. The operations team needs to automate the patching of the operating system on all nodes with minimal downtime. Which approach is most suitable?

Accepted Answer

Use a rolling patching strategy: patch one node at a time after isolating it from the HANA cluster.. In a multi-node SAP HANA scale-out configuration, a rolling patching strategy is essential to maintain high availability and minimize downtime. By isolating one node at a time from the HANA cluster, patching its OS, and then reintegrating it, the remaining nodes continue to serve the workload. This approach aligns with SAP's recommended maintenance procedures for scale-out systems.

Answer

Stop all HANA nodes, patch the OS on each node, then start them all together.

Answer

Create new EC2 instances from a patched AMI and terminate the old ones.

Answer

Use AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager to apply patches to all nodes simultaneously.

Question 13

Refer to the exhibit. An SAP HANA database backup fails with the error shown. The backup target is an EFS file system mounted at /backup. The EC2 instance has the appropriate IAM role to access EFS. What is the MOST likely cause of this error?

Accepted Answer

The SAP HANA database user does not have write permissions on the backup directory.. The error indicates a permission issue when SAP HANA attempts to write the backup to the EFS mount. Even though the EC2 instance has an IAM role that allows EFS access, the SAP HANA database user (e.g., <sid>adm) must have write permissions on the mounted directory /backup. EFS mounts enforce POSIX permissions, and if the directory is owned by root with restrictive permissions, the HANA user cannot create backup files. Therefore, the most likely cause is that the SAP HANA database user lacks write permissions on the backup directory.

Answer

The IAM role attached to the EC2 instance does not have permissions to write to EFS.

Answer

The EFS file system has insufficient IOPS for the backup operation.

Answer

The EFS file system is out of storage capacity.

Question 14

A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS and needs to set up a disaster recovery (DR) site in another AWS Region. The RPO is 15 minutes and RTO is 4 hours. The database is SAP HANA. Which approach meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Enable SAP HANA System Replication across regions.. SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) is the native SAP mechanism for replicating HANA databases to a secondary site with low RPO (typically seconds to minutes) and supports cross-region asynchronous replication. With an RPO of 15 minutes and RTO of 4 hours, HSR can meet these requirements by continuously shipping log entries to the DR region, enabling a controlled takeover within the RTO window.

Answer

Take nightly backups to S3 and restore in the DR region.

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for continuous replication.

Answer

Use AWS Backup for cross-region EBS snapshots.

Question 15

A company is migrating an SAP Business Warehouse (BW) system running on an on-premises HANA database to AWS. The migration must be completed with less than 1 hour of downtime. The source database is 3 TB. The company has established a 10 Gbps AWS Direct Connect connection. The SAP system uses a custom ABAP program that must be migrated as well. The company wants to minimize manual intervention. Which approach should be taken?

Accepted Answer

Set up SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) to replicate the database to AWS, then perform a takeover.. SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) continuously replicates the HANA database from on-premises to an AWS-hosted HANA instance over the 10 Gbps Direct Connect link, keeping the target in sync. A planned takeover during cutover achieves sub-hour downtime because the secondary is already current, and the custom ABAP program travels with the SAP system as part of the application server migration. This is the standard SAP-certified approach for near-zero-downtime HANA migrations.

Answer

Use AWS DMS to replicate the HANA database to Amazon RDS for HANA.

Answer

Export the HANA database to files, transfer via Direct Connect, and import on EC2.

Answer

Use AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) to replicate the entire server.