PAS-C01 Practice Test 50 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company is running SAP ERP on AWS with a multi-AZ deployment using Amazon EFS for shared transport directories. The system administrator notices that the SAP transport directory mounted via EFS is experiencing high latency during peak hours. The EFS file system is using the Standard storage class. Which combination of steps should the administrator take to reduce latency? (Choose TWO.)

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

Accepted Answer

Move the EFS file system to the One Zone storage class.. Moving the EFS file system to the One Zone storage class places the data in the same Availability Zone as the EC2 instances, reducing network latency for the SAP transport directory. Option E is correct because switching the performance mode to Max I/O increases the parallel processing capability of the file system, which reduces latency during peak hours. Option A is incorrect because Bursting Throughput mode is the default and does not specifically address high latency; it provides a baseline throughput with bursting credits. Option C is incorrect because Standard-IA is an infrequent access storage class with higher retrieval latencies, unsuitable for a continuously used transport directory. Option D is incorrect because provisioned throughput increases throughput capacity but does not directly reduce latency; Max I/O performance mode is the intended solution for latency reduction.

Answer

Use EFS Bursting Throughput mode.

Answer

Change the storage class to EFS Standard-IA.

Answer

Enable provisioned throughput on the EFS file system.

Question 2

A company runs SAP ERP on AWS with an Oracle database on an r5.4xlarge instance. The system experiences performance degradation during month-end closing. Monitoring shows high CPU and I/O wait on the database server. The storage is EBS gp2 volumes. The company plans to migrate to SAP HANA in the future. What immediate change should be made to improve performance?

Accepted Answer

Change the EBS volumes from gp2 to gp3 to improve I/O performance and throughput.. Switching from gp2 to gp3 provides better baseline performance and higher throughput at lower cost. Option A (Implement RDS Oracle read replicas) is for RDS, not self-managed Oracle. Option B (Migrate to HANA immediately) is a longer-term solution, not immediate. Option C (Change EBS volumes from gp2 to gp3) is the correct immediate change to improve I/O performance. Option D (Increase instance size) might help CPU but is more expensive and does not directly address I/O wait.

Answer

Implement AWS RDS Oracle read replicas to offload reporting queries.

Answer

Migrate the database to SAP HANA immediately to improve performance.

Answer

Increase the EC2 instance size to r5.8xlarge to provide more CPU and memory.

Question 3

A company runs SAP on AWS and uses a Multi-AZ RDS for SAP ASE database. The operations team receives an alert that the database instance failed over automatically. After the failover, the SAP application servers are unable to connect to the database. The team checks the RDS console and sees that the DB instance status is 'available' and the endpoint is the same as before. The security groups and network ACLs have not changed. What is the MOST likely reason for the connectivity issue?

Accepted Answer

The application servers have cached the old database IP address and need to flush DNS.. The RDS endpoint remains the same after a failover because the DNS record is updated to point to the new primary. However, the application servers may have cached the previous DNS resolution (old IP address). When the failover occurs, the application servers still try to connect to the old IP, which is no longer the primary. Flushing the DNS cache on the application servers resolves this issue. Option B is correct because the database endpoint DNS name does not change, but the IP address it resolves to changes; DNS caching prevents the application from connecting. Option A is incorrect because the endpoint does not change. Option C is incorrect because the DNS record is updated; the issue is client-side caching. Option D is incorrect because security groups remain unchanged after a failover.

Answer

The RDS endpoint changed after the failover.

Answer

The DNS record for the RDS endpoint did not update after the failover.

Answer

The security group for the database instance no longer allows traffic from the application servers.

Question 4

A company runs SAP ERP on AWS using a single EC2 instance for the database and application. The system has been in production for two years. The SAP administrator receives a notification that the EC2 instance's underlying hardware is scheduled for retirement in two weeks. The administrator needs to minimize downtime and ensure the SAP system is available during the maintenance. Which action should the administrator take?

Accepted Answer

Stop the instance and then start it again to migrate to new hardware.. Stopping and starting the instance migrates it to new hardware with minimal downtime (the stop/start cycle takes a few minutes). Option A is wrong because rebooting does not change the underlying hardware; the instance stays on the same degraded hardware. Option B is wrong because scheduled hardware retirement events cannot be extended by requesting a delay from AWS Support. Option C is wrong because creating an AMI and launching a new instance takes longer, may cause IP/hostname changes, and requires additional configuration, making it more disruptive than stop/start.

Answer

Reboot the instance to move it to healthy hardware.

Answer

Request an extension of the retirement date from AWS Support.

Answer

Create an AMI of the instance and launch a new instance from the AMI.

Question 5

A company runs its SAP ERP system on AWS using an SAP HANA database on a single EC2 instance. The system experiences intermittent performance degradation during peak hours. The operations team suspects CPU contention, as the instance type is an r5.4xlarge (16 vCPUs). When they check Amazon CloudWatch metrics, they notice that the CPU utilization averages 60%, but occasionally spikes to 100% for a few seconds. The team wants to improve performance without changing the instance type. They are considering using AWS Compute Optimizer or enabling T2/T3 unlimited. What is the MOST effective action to address the CPU spikes?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Global Accelerator to improve network performance and reduce CPU overhead.. AWS Global Accelerator improves network performance by routing traffic over the AWS global network, reducing latency and jitter. This reduces the CPU overhead incurred by the EC2 instance for handling network processing, which can help alleviate CPU spikes during peak hours. The other options are either ineffective or require changing the instance type, which the team wants to avoid.

Answer

Attach an Elastic Fabric Adapter to offload network processing from the CPU.

Answer

Upgrade the instance to a larger size in the r5 family, such as r5.8xlarge, to provide more CPU capacity.

Answer

Enable T3 unlimited on the instance to allow sustained high CPU performance.

Question 6

An SAP system uses AWS Direct Connect to connect to on-premises systems. The SAP application servers are in a private subnet, and the HANA database is in a separate private subnet. Both subnets are in the same VPC. The application servers can connect to the HANA database, but the application servers cannot connect to an on-premises file server via the Direct Connect. The on-premises network team confirms that the file server is reachable from other on-premises resources. The VPC route tables have a route for the on-premises CIDR pointing to the Direct Connect virtual gateway. The security groups allow all outbound traffic. What is the MOST likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

The route table associated with the application subnet does not have a route to the on-premises CIDR via the virtual gateway.. The most likely cause is that the route table associated with the application subnet does not have a route to the on-premises CIDR via the virtual gateway. Since the application servers are in a different subnet, they need an explicit route in their subnet's route table to reach the on-premises network through Direct Connect. Without this route, traffic cannot be forwarded to the virtual gateway. Option A is unlikely because the security groups allow all outbound traffic, and NACLs might be blocking, but the question states security groups allow all outbound, and typically NACLs are configured permissive by default. Option C is not indicated as the on-premises team confirms the file server is reachable from other on-premises resources, implying Direct Connect is up. Option B (VPN) is not relevant; Direct Connect is already in use.

Answer

The network ACL for the application subnet is blocking outbound traffic to the on-premises CIDR.

Answer

The on-premises file server is not reachable because it requires VPN instead of Direct Connect.

Answer

The Direct Connect virtual interface is in a 'down' state.

Question 7

A technology company is migrating its SAP Business Warehouse (BW) system to AWS. The system includes an SAP HANA database (2 TB) and multiple application servers. The migration plan is to use SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) for the database and AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) for the application servers. The network connection is AWS Direct Connect with 1 Gbps bandwidth. During a test migration, the HSR replication is working, but the MGN replication for one of the application servers is failing with an error: "The agent cannot communicate with the MGN service endpoint." The source server is a Windows Server 2016 machine. The administrator has verified that the source server has internet connectivity. Which action is most likely to resolve the issue?

Accepted Answer

Configure an HTTP proxy on the source server to route traffic through the corporate proxy.. The error indicates the MGN agent cannot reach the service endpoint. Since the source server has internet connectivity, the issue is likely that outbound traffic to the MGN endpoint is blocked by a corporate proxy or firewall. Configuring an HTTP proxy on the source server (option B) allows the agent to route traffic through the corporate proxy, which is a common requirement in enterprise environments. Option C (creating a VPC endpoint) is not applicable because the source server is on-premises, not in a VPC. Option A (reinstalling the agent) does not address the connectivity issue. Option D (changing OS) is irrelevant.

Answer

Reinstall the MGN agent on the source server.

Answer

Create a VPC endpoint for AWS Application Migration Service in the source VPC.

Answer

Change the source server's OS to Linux.

Question 8

An SAP system running on AWS uses a Multi-AZ deployment with an Application Load Balancer (ALB) distributing traffic across two application servers in different Availability Zones. The ALB health checks are configured to check the /sap/public/health endpoint on each instance. Recently, the operations team noticed that one of the instances is being marked as unhealthy intermittently, causing a slight increase in response times. The instance's CPU utilization is under 40%, memory is sufficient, and the health endpoint returns a 200 OK status when tested manually. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The health check interval is too frequent or the timeout is too short.. A health check interval that is too frequent or a timeout that is too short can cause the ALB to mark an instance as unhealthy intermittently, even when the endpoint returns 200 OK manually. The instance may occasionally respond slower than the timeout, especially under brief transient conditions. Option A is incorrect because the health check endpoint path is correct (as it returns 200 OK). Option B is incorrect because security group rules allowing inbound traffic from the ALB are typically configured correctly; otherwise, the health check would fail consistently. Option C is incorrect because network ACLs are stateless and would affect all traffic equally, not intermittently.

Answer

The health check endpoint is configured with the wrong path.

Answer

The security group for the instances does not allow inbound traffic from the ALB.

Answer

The health check requests are blocked by a network ACL.

Question 9

A company is deploying SAP NetWeaver on AWS and wants to ensure high availability for the SAP Central Services (ASCS) and Enqueue Replication Server (ERS). They plan to use a cluster manager (Pacemaker) with a shared filesystem. The cluster will span two Availability Zones. The storage for the shared filesystem must be highly available and provide consistent performance. What storage solution should be used?

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon EFS for the shared filesystem.. Amazon EFS provides a fully managed NFS filesystem that can be mounted from multiple EC2 instances across different Availability Zones, offering high availability and consistent performance for SAP Central Services (ASCS) and Enqueue Replication Server (ERS) shared filesystem. Option A is incorrect because Amazon S3 is object storage, not a POSIX-compliant filesystem, and cannot be used as a shared filesystem for SAP. Option B is incorrect because instance store volumes are ephemeral and local to each instance; they cannot be shared between nodes. Option C is incorrect because EBS Multi-Attach only supports attachment to multiple instances within the same Availability Zone, not across AZs, and has additional limitations for shared filesystem use.

Answer

Use an Amazon S3 bucket as the shared filesystem.

Answer

Use instance store volumes (Local SSDs) on each node.

Answer

Use an Amazon EBS volume with Multi-Attach enabled.

Question 10

An SAP system on AWS uses a Multi-AZ deployment for the database layer with synchronous replication. The application servers are in the same region but different Availability Zones. During a recent failure of the primary database instance, the automatic failover to the standby instance took longer than expected, exceeding the RTO of 5 minutes. Upon investigation, the team finds that the standby instance was not fully synchronized at the time of failure. What could be the cause?

Accepted Answer

The network latency between the Availability Zones is high.. In a Multi-AZ deployment with synchronous replication, high network latency between Availability Zones can cause the primary database to wait for acknowledgment from the standby. This increases transaction commit time and can lead to the standby falling behind, especially if the primary continues processing transactions while waiting. During failover, the standby may not be fully synchronized, causing longer failover time and exceeding RTO. Option A is unlikely because EBS IOPS affect storage performance but not replication lag directly; Option B is incorrect because Multi-AZ uses multiple network interfaces; Option C is incorrect because blocked replication traffic would cause complete failure, not just lag.

Answer

The EBS volumes on the standby instance have lower IOPS than the primary.

Answer

The Multi-AZ configuration uses a single network interface.

Answer

The security groups on the standby instance block replication traffic.

Question 11

A company is deploying SAP on AWS and needs to ensure high availability for the SAP application servers. Which TWO strategies can be used to achieve this? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Use an Auto Scaling group with an Application Load Balancer. Options C and E are correct. Option C uses an Auto Scaling group with an Application Load Balancer to automatically distribute traffic across multiple SAP application server instances and replace failed ones, ensuring high availability. Option E deploys application servers in multiple Availability Zones to eliminate a single point of failure, as AZs are independent failure domains. Both strategies are recommended for SAP on AWS.

Answer

Use Amazon RDS Multi-AZ for the application tier

Answer

Use a single large EC2 instance with an Elastic IP

Answer

Attach the same EBS volume to multiple instances

Question 12

An SAP administrator created the above IAM policy for an EC2 instance that performs automated SAP HANA backups. The backup script runs successfully but fails to upload the backup files to the S3 bucket. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The IAM policy does not include permissions for multipart upload operations. The IAM policy shown in the question (not fully displayed here) likely includes s3:PutObject but omits the required s3:PutObjectPart and s3:AbortMultipartUpload permissions. SAP HANA backups often produce large files that exceed the 5 GB single-upload limit, forcing the AWS CLI or SDK to use multipart upload. Without these permissions, the upload fails after the script runs successfully.

Answer

The S3 bucket policy denies the upload

Answer

The IAM policy does not allow s3:PutObject

Answer

The EC2 instance does not have permission to create snapshots

Question 13

A company runs its SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance (r5.8xlarge) with 8 EBS gp2 volumes (1 TB each) in a RAID 0 stripe. The database is critical and requires high availability. The current architecture uses a single EC2 instance in one Availability Zone. The company wants to implement a disaster recovery solution with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 4 hours. The DR site must be in a different AWS Region. The SAP HANA database size is 4 TB. The company has a 1 Gbps Direct Connect connection between the primary and DR Regions. The database workload is write-intensive with an average write throughput of 200 MB/s. Which solution meets the RPO and RTO requirements?

Accepted Answer

Set up HANA System Replication (HSR) in asynchronous mode from the primary to a secondary EC2 instance in the DR Region. Use the same instance type and EBS configuration. In case of failure, perform a HSR takeover.. HANA System Replication (HSR) in asynchronous mode can achieve an RPO of seconds, well within the 15-minute requirement. The 1 Gbps Direct Connect connection, with HANA's built-in compression, can handle the 200 MB/s write throughput (approximately 1.6 Gbps uncompressed, compressed to ~800 Mbps or less). Using the same instance type and EBS RAID 0 configuration ensures performance parity after takeover. HSR takeover can be completed in minutes, meeting the 4-hour RTO. Option B is incorrect because EBS snapshots of a RAID array require stopping I/O for consistency, and taking snapshots every 15 minutes is impractical; restoring 4 TB from snapshots would significantly exceed the 4-hour RTO. Option C is incorrect because backing up to S3 every 15 minutes can impact database performance, and restoring from S3 takes longer than 4 hours due to data transfer and re-import time. Option D is incorrect because AWS DMS does not natively support SAP HANA as a target for continuous replication; it is designed for heterogeneous migrations, not HANA-specific replication.

Answer

Take EBS snapshots of the RAID array every 15 minutes and replicate them to the DR Region using EBS snapshot copy. In the DR Region, restore the snapshots to new volumes and attach them to a new EC2 instance.

Answer

Back up the HANA database to Amazon S3 every 15 minutes using the HANA backup tool, and set up cross-Region replication for the S3 bucket. In the DR Region, restore the latest backup to a new EC2 instance.

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to continuously replicate changes to a target HANA database in the DR Region.

Question 14

A company has deployed SAP S/4HANA on AWS using a single EC2 instance for the HANA database. The database volume is an EBS io1 volume with 5,000 provisioned IOPS. The company wants to implement a high availability (HA) solution for the database using SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) with automatic failover. They plan to use a second EC2 instance in a different Availability Zone. The database administrator is concerned about data consistency during replication. Which additional AWS service should be used to ensure data consistency and minimize data loss during failover?

Accepted Answer

Amazon Route53 with health checks to automatically redirect traffic to the standby instance.. Amazon Route53 with health checks can monitor the primary HANA instance and automatically update DNS to redirect traffic to the standby instance in a different Availability Zone during a failover. This ensures minimal disruption and data consistency with HSR. Option A (AWS Backup) is for scheduled backups, not real-time replication. Option B (DMS) is designed for database migration, not for HANA HSR. Option C (EBS snapshots) provide point-in-time backups, not continuous replication to minimize data loss.

Answer

AWS Backup to schedule backups of the HANA database.

Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to continuously replicate data.

Answer

Amazon EBS snapshots to capture point-in-time copies of the data volume.

Question 15

You are managing an SAP S/4HANA system on AWS. The system uses a multi-AZ deployment with two application servers (one in us-east-1a, one in us-east-1b) and a HANA database in us-east-1a with a standby in us-east-1b using HSR. The /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans are on an EFS file system. Recently, you noticed that during a failover test of the HANA database, the application servers lost connectivity to the database for several minutes, causing errors. You also observed that after the failover, the application servers could not reconnect until the EFS mount was remounted. What is the most likely cause and solution?

Accepted Answer

Configure EFS mount targets in each AZ and use an EFS access point with a consistent mount path.. The issue is that during a HANA database failover, the application servers lost connectivity and could not reconnect until the EFS mount was remounted. This indicates that the EFS mount targets are not properly configured for multi-AZ access. When the database fails over to the standby in us-east-1b, the application servers may be trying to access the EFS file system through a mount target that is only in us-east-1a, or the DNS resolution leads to a mount target in the wrong AZ, causing connectivity loss. Option C is correct because configuring EFS mount targets in each AZ and using an EFS access point with a consistent mount path ensures that application servers in any AZ can reliably mount and access the shared file system without relying on cross-AZ connectivity. Option A (increase EFS throughput) does not address connectivity issues during failover. Option B (migrate to FSx for ONTAP) is not the immediate solution and may be unnecessary. Option D (synchronous replication) does not fix the EFS connectivity problem.

Answer

Increase the provisioned throughput on the EFS file system to handle the increased load during failover.

Answer

Migrate the shared file systems to Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP with multi-AZ deployment.

Answer

Reconfigure SAP HANA System Replication to use synchronous replication.