PAS-C01 Practice Questions 1 — 50 Questions

Question 1

A company is migrating a 10 TB SQL Server database to Amazon RDS for SQL Server using AWS DMS. The migration is taking longer than expected. Which TWO actions can improve the migration speed? (Choose two.)

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

Accepted Answer

Enable parallel loading by splitting tables into multiple tasks. Splitting tables into multiple DMS tasks enables parallel loading, which significantly reduces migration time by processing multiple tables concurrently. Option D is correct because increasing the DMS replication instance size provides more CPU and memory resources, allowing the instance to handle larger data volumes and higher throughput more efficiently.

Answer

Use a single DMS task with full LOB mode

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Use S3 multipart upload for the data

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Disable transaction logging on the source

Question 2

A company is running an SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance with EBS volumes. The operations team notices that the /hana/data filesystem is growing faster than expected and the available space is critically low. Which action should be taken to monitor the disk space usage proactively?

Accepted Answer

Publish custom CloudWatch metrics for disk space and set an alarm.. The correct option is C: publishing custom CloudWatch metrics for disk space and setting an alarm. CloudWatch does not natively collect OS-level filesystem metrics like /hana/data usage from EC2, so the CloudWatch agent must be installed to publish custom metrics (e.g., via the disk_used_percent metric in the CWAgent namespace), and an alarm can then proactively notify the team before space runs out. AWS Budgets (A) only tracks cost/spend, not actual disk utilization. AWS Config rules (B) evaluate resource configuration compliance, not filesystem space consumption. AWS Trusted Advisor (D) provides service-limit and best-practice checks but does not offer per-filesystem disk utilization monitoring for EC2 instances.

Answer

Configure AWS Budgets to alert on storage costs.

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Use AWS Config rules to monitor disk space.

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Create an AWS Trusted Advisor check for disk utilization.

Question 3

An SAP Basis administrator is migrating an SAP ERP system from an on-premises environment to AWS. The system uses an SAP HANA database. The migration must have minimal downtime. The administrator plans to use SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) to synchronize data to an AWS HANA instance. However, the network latency between on-premises and AWS is consistently around 50 ms. What should the administrator do to ensure that HSR can maintain synchronization without impacting source system performance?

Accepted Answer

Configure HSR in asynchronous mode with full sync disabled to avoid affecting source transaction performance.. With 50 ms network latency, synchronous replication would block source transactions while waiting for acknowledgment from the target, severely impacting performance. Asynchronous mode with full sync disabled allows HSR to send log buffers without waiting for the target to confirm, ensuring source system performance is unaffected while still maintaining eventual consistency for migration.

Answer

Use synchronous replication with a lower sync timeout setting to avoid blocking.

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Keep synchronous replication but increase the replication timeout value in the HANA global.ini file.

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Enable HANA delta merge operations during replication to reduce the amount of data transferred.

Question 4

An SAP administrator needs to implement a backup strategy for an SAP HANA database on AWS that provides point-in-time recovery (PITR) with minimal RPO. Which combination of AWS services should be used?

Accepted Answer

AWS Backup with Backint agent for SAP HANA. AWS Backup with the Backint agent for SAP HANA is the correct choice because it integrates directly with SAP HANA's native backup interface (Backint), enabling log backups and full/differential backups to Amazon S3. This combination supports point-in-time recovery (PITR) with minimal RPO by continuously backing up transaction logs, which is essential for meeting strict recovery objectives.

Answer

HANA backup to NFS on Amazon EFS

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Amazon EBS snapshots of the HANA data volumes

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Amazon S3 lifecycle policies

Question 5

A company runs SAP on AWS and has configured automated snapshots of EBS volumes for backup. The operations team discovers that the snapshots are not being deleted after the retention period. Which action should be taken to ensure snapshots are automatically deleted?

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager to create a snapshot lifecycle policy.. Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) is the native AWS service for automating the creation, retention, and deletion of EBS snapshots. By defining a lifecycle policy with a retention count or retention period, DLM automatically deregisters and deletes snapshots that exceed the schedule, which directly solves the problem of snapshots not being deleted.

Answer

Set an S3 Lifecycle policy on the snapshots.

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Create a CloudWatch Events rule to invoke a Lambda function for deletion.

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Configure retention policy directly on the EBS volume.

Question 6

Which TWO of the following are valid methods for monitoring SAP system performance on AWS? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Configure SAP Solution Manager to send monitoring data to Amazon CloudWatch via the SAP Cloud Platform.. SAP Solution Manager can be configured to forward monitoring data to Amazon CloudWatch via the SAP Cloud Platform (now SAP BTP) using the Cloud Management Gateway or direct integration. This allows SAP-specific metrics like system load, work process usage, and response times to be visualized and alerted on in CloudWatch, enabling unified monitoring alongside AWS infrastructure metrics.

Answer

Enable AWS CloudTrail to capture system performance logs.

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Use AWS Trusted Advisor to monitor real-time CPU utilization.

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Use VPC Flow Logs to monitor database query performance.

Question 7

A company is planning to migrate its SAP ERP system to AWS. The system uses Oracle Database as its backend. The company wants to minimize licensing costs and administrative overhead. Which AWS database service is most suitable for this migration?

Accepted Answer

Amazon RDS for Oracle. Amazon RDS for Oracle is the most suitable choice because it directly supports Oracle Database, allowing the company to migrate its existing SAP ERP system with minimal re-architecture. It reduces administrative overhead through automated backups, patching, and replication, while still using the company's existing Oracle licenses (if they choose to bring their own license) to minimize licensing costs.

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Amazon Redshift

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Amazon DynamoDB

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Amazon Aurora

Question 8

A company is running an SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance with an EBS gp3 volume. The workload is write-intensive and latency-sensitive. Which configuration change would provide the most consistent I/O performance?

Accepted Answer

Use an EBS io2 Block Express volume with provisioned IOPS. An SAP HANA database is extremely sensitive to I/O latency and requires consistent, high IOPS for write-intensive workloads. EBS io2 Block Express volumes provide up to 256,000 provisioned IOPS with 99.999% durability, delivering the predictable low-latency performance that gp3 volumes cannot guarantee under sustained write pressure. This makes D the correct choice for consistent I/O performance.

Answer

Switch to an EBS st1 (throughput-optimized HDD) volume

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Enable EBS Multi-Attach for the gp3 volume

Answer

Increase the size of the existing gp3 volume to increase baseline throughput

Question 9

A company is planning to run SAP applications on AWS. The security team requires that all data transmitted between the SAP application servers and the SAP HANA database be encrypted in transit. The SAP HANA database is on an EC2 instance in the same VPC. The application servers are also in the same VPC. Which configuration should the company implement to meet the encryption requirement with minimal impact on performance?

Accepted Answer

Enable SAP HANA TLS/SSL encryption for the database connections. Enabling SAP HANA TLS/SSL encryption encrypts data in transit between application and database servers directly, with minimal performance impact as it is built into the SAP HANA client-server protocol. Option A is incorrect: AWS PrivateLink is used for private connectivity to services across VPCs or to AWS services, not for encrypting internal traffic within the same VPC, and introduces unnecessary complexity. Option C is incorrect: VPC peering connects separate VPCs but does not encrypt traffic by default; it also is not needed when both servers are in the same VPC. Option D is incorrect: a VPN connection adds network overhead and is designed for connectivity across networks or the internet, which is unnecessary and suboptimal for same-VPC communication.

Answer

Use AWS PrivateLink to connect the application to the database

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Use VPC peering between the application and database subnets

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Set up a VPN connection between the application and database servers

Question 10

An SAP system on AWS experiences intermittent performance issues. CloudWatch metrics show high CPU credit usage on the t3.large EC2 instance hosting the SAP application. The instance is configured as a 'standard' placement group. What is the MOST likely cause and recommended action?

Accepted Answer

The burstable instance is exhausting its CPU credits. Change to a non-burstable instance.. The t3.large is a burstable instance that earns CPU credits when idle and spends them when active. SAP applications often have sustained CPU demands that can exhaust the credit balance, causing performance throttling. Switching to a non-burstable instance (e.g., m5.large) provides consistent baseline CPU performance without credit-based limitations.

Answer

The instance size is too small. Move to a larger t3 instance.

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The placement group is causing network bottlenecks. Move to a cluster placement group.

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The EBS volume is not provisioned with enough IOPS. Increase the volume size.

Question 11

A company is migrating its SAP ERP system from an on-premises environment to AWS. The database is SAP HANA. The migration must minimize downtime. Which TWO approaches should the company consider?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS DMS with full load and ongoing change data capture (CDC).. AWS DMS with full load and ongoing change data capture (CDC) enables a near-zero-downtime migration by continuously replicating changes from the source SAP HANA database to the target on AWS after the initial full load, allowing the cutover to occur with minimal disruption. Option E is correct because SAP HANA System Replication provides a native, asynchronous or synchronous replication mechanism that can be configured between the on-premises HANA database and an AWS-hosted HANA instance, supporting a controlled switchover with very low downtime.

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with full load only.

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Use VM Import/Export to migrate the entire on-premises virtual machine to AWS.

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Use the SAP Software Provisioning Manager (SWPM) to perform a homogeneous system copy over the network.

Question 12

A company is designing a disaster recovery (DR) strategy for its SAP system on AWS. The primary site is in us-east-1 and the DR site in us-west-2. The RTO is 4 hours and RPO is 1 hour. Which AWS service should be used for cross-region replication of the SAP HANA database backups stored in Amazon S3?

Accepted Answer

Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR).. Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) is the correct choice because it automatically replicates objects (including SAP HANA database backups) from a source S3 bucket in us-east-1 to a destination bucket in us-west-2, meeting the 1-hour RPO by ensuring backups are available in the DR region within minutes of upload. CRR operates asynchronously at the object level, requires no additional infrastructure, and directly supports the stated requirement for cross-region replication of S3-stored backups without introducing extra latency or complexity.

Answer

AWS Backup with a cross-region backup plan.

Answer

Use AWS Storage Gateway to replicate backups.

Answer

Enable S3 Versioning on the source bucket.

Question 13

An SAP system administrator needs to monitor the memory usage of SAP HANA on AWS. Which CloudWatch metric or log should be used to track HANA memory consumption?

Accepted Answer

SAP HANA CloudWatch integration via SQL queries. SAP HANA exposes memory consumption metrics via built-in SQL views (e.g., M_HOST_MEMORY, M_MEMORY), and the SAP HANA CloudWatch integration uses a dedicated AWS Lambda function to execute these SQL queries and push the results as custom CloudWatch metrics. This is the only option that directly captures HANA-specific memory usage, such as allocation limit, used memory, and heap memory, rather than generic OS-level metrics.

Answer

CloudWatch Logs from HANA trace files

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EC2 instance-level memory metrics

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AWS CloudWatch Agent for OS metrics

Question 14

A company is running a critical web application on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. During a recent deployment, a new version of the application was released, and within minutes, the error rate spiked. The operations team rolled back the deployment, but the error rate remained high. The team suspects that the ALB is still routing traffic to unhealthy instances. Which step should the team take to immediately stop routing traffic to the problematic instances?

Accepted Answer

Deregister the instances from the target group.. Deregistering the problematic EC2 instances from the target group immediately stops the Application Load Balancer from routing any new traffic to them. The ALB performs health checks on registered targets, but if an instance is unhealthy, it still remains in the target group and can receive traffic if the health check logic is misconfigured or if the instance is in a 'draining' state. Deregistration forces the ALB to complete any in-flight requests and then remove the instance from the routing table, providing an immediate stop to traffic.

Answer

Modify the ALB listener rules to point to a different target group.

Answer

Modify the health check interval to 5 seconds and the unhealthy threshold to 2.

Answer

Stop the EC2 instances from the AWS Management Console.

Question 15

An architect is designing a disaster recovery plan for an SAP system using SAP HANA. The primary site is in us-east-1 and the DR site is in us-west-2. The RPO is 15 minutes and RTO is 1 hour. Which TWO AWS services or features should the architect use to meet these requirements? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS). Option B, AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS), is correct because it provides continuous block-level replication of on-premises or cloud servers into a staging area in the DR Region (us-west-2) with sub-second RPO and automated recovery, allowing the SAP application and non-HANA tiers to be recovered within the 1-hour RTO. Option D, SAP HANA System Replication, is correct because it is the SAP-native mechanism for replicating the HANA in-memory database to a secondary site in synchronous or asynchronous mode, and with asynchronous replication it can achieve an RPO well under 15 minutes while enabling fast takeover at the DR site. Option A, AWS Transit Gateway with VPC peering, is not a DR replication or recovery service; it only provides network connectivity between VPCs and Regions and does not by itself meet RPO/RTO. Option C, Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication, replicates object data asynchronously and is not suitable for replicating a live SAP HANA database or application servers to meet a 15-minute RPO and 1-hour RTO. Option E, AWS CloudEndure Disaster Recovery, is the former name of the service now called AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery, so it is not a separate correct answer alongside option B.

Answer

AWS Transit Gateway with VPC peering

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Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication

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AWS CloudEndure Disaster Recovery

Question 16

A company is running SAP S/4HANA on AWS. The application team reports that batch jobs are failing intermittently with database connection timeouts. The SAP system uses a single Availability Zone deployment. Which design change should the architect recommend to improve database availability?

Accepted Answer

Configure SAP HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones. SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) across two Availability Zones provides synchronous or asynchronous data replication at the database level, ensuring that if the primary HANA instance fails, the secondary can take over with minimal downtime. This directly addresses the intermittent database connection timeouts by eliminating the single point of failure in a single-AZ deployment, as the application can failover to the replica without manual intervention.

Answer

Use Amazon EBS Multi-Attach to attach the same volume to multiple EC2 instances

Answer

Implement an Amazon RDS for SAP HANA read replica

Answer

Scale up the SAP HANA instance to a larger instance type

Question 17

An SAP Basis administrator needs to apply security patches to the operating system of SAP EC2 instances. The administrator wants to use AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager. Which THREE steps are required to set up patching? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Create a patch baseline in AWS Systems Manager.. Option A is correct because a patch baseline in AWS Systems Manager defines which patches are approved or rejected for the target operating system, and Patch Manager requires an appropriate baseline (default or custom) to determine what gets installed. Option C is correct because the SSM Agent must be installed and running on each EC2 instance so Systems Manager can send the Run Command documents that perform patching; instances also need an IAM instance profile allowing Systems Manager actions. Option E is correct because Patch Manager typically applies patches through a maintenance window, which schedules and targets the registered instances with the AWS-RunPatchBaseline document. Option B is not required because Patch Manager uses Systems Manager Run Command and documents rather than a customer-created Lambda function. Option D is not required because patch logs are stored by default in Amazon S3 and can optionally be sent to CloudWatch Logs, but CloudWatch Logs configuration is not a mandatory setup step.

Answer

Create an AWS Lambda function to invoke the patching process.

Answer

Configure Amazon CloudWatch Logs to store patch logs.

Question 18

A company runs SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) on AWS with an Oracle database. The system is deployed on a single EC2 instance with EBS volumes. The company has scheduled a maintenance window for applying Oracle patches. The database administrator (DBA) will apply the patches during the maintenance window, which requires the database to be shut down. The DBA wants to minimize downtime and ensure that if the patching fails, the system can be rolled back quickly. The current setup includes daily EBS snapshots of the data volume, but these are taken at midnight. What should the DBA do to minimize downtime and ensure a quick rollback?

Accepted Answer

Create a snapshot of the EBS data volume immediately before applying the patches. If the patching fails, restore the volume from the snapshot.. Creating a snapshot of the EBS data volume immediately before applying the patches captures a point-in-time, crash-consistent state of the Oracle database. Since the database will be shut down during the maintenance window, this snapshot provides a reliable restore point. If patching fails, the DBA can quickly restore the volume from this snapshot, minimizing downtime by avoiding the need to restore from the older midnight snapshot, which would lose an entire day's worth of transactions.

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to create a replica of the database before patching. If patching fails, redirect traffic to the replica.

Answer

Create an AMI of the entire EC2 instance before the maintenance window. If patching fails, launch a new instance from the AMI.

Answer

Stop the EC2 instance, create a snapshot of the data volume, then apply the patches. If patching fails, restore from the snapshot.

Question 19

An SAP administrator notices that the SAP HANA database is running out of memory frequently. The system is deployed on an EC2 instance with 512 GB of RAM. The HANA memory usage is peaking at 480 GB. What should the administrator do to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Migrate to an instance with more memory, such as x1e.32xlarge. The HANA database is peaking at 480 GB on a 512 GB instance, indicating that memory is nearly fully utilized. Enabling memory overcommit and setting the HANA memory limit to 90% (460.8 GB) would still be below the peak usage, potentially causing out-of-memory errors. The most straightforward and reliable solution is to migrate to a larger instance type, such as x1e.32xlarge, which offers 976 GB of RAM, providing sufficient headroom for current and future peak demands. This aligns with AWS best practices for SAP HANA workloads.

Answer

Configure a swap file on the instance's root EBS volume

Answer

Enable HANA memory overcommit and set the memory limit to 90%

Answer

Reduce the number of HANA table partitions

Question 20

A company wants to automate the patching of SAP application servers running on EC2 instances. Which AWS service should be used to schedule and apply OS patches?

Accepted Answer

AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager. AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager (option C) is the correct choice because it is purpose-built to automate OS patching on EC2 instances, including SAP application servers, by using patch baselines, maintenance windows, and compliance reporting to schedule and apply patches at scale. It integrates natively with EC2 and on-premises servers via the SSM Agent, allowing automated patch scans and installs without manual intervention. AWS Config (A) is an auditing and compliance service that records resource configurations and evaluates rules, but it does not apply patches. AWS CloudFormation (B) is an infrastructure-as-code provisioning service and cannot schedule or install OS patches. AWS OpsWorks (D) is a configuration management service (Chef/Puppet) that can manage instances but is not the dedicated patching solution and is not the recommended service for this specific automation task.

Answer

AWS Config

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AWS CloudFormation

Answer

AWS OpsWorks