PAS-C01 Practice Exam 58 — 20 Questions

Question 1

A company is implementing SAP S/4HANA on AWS and wants to ensure that the system is backed up properly. They need to back up the HANA database and the application layer. Which approach is recommended for backing up the HANA database?

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

Accepted Answer

Use the AWS Backint agent to back up HANA to Amazon S3. The AWS Backint agent is the recommended and supported method for backing up SAP HANA databases on AWS. It integrates directly with SAP HANA's native backup interface (backint for SAP HANA) to stream backup data to Amazon S3, ensuring consistent, incremental, and catalog-aware backups without relying on file-system-level snapshots.

Answer

Use EBS snapshots for the HANA data volumes

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Configure an S3 lifecycle policy to archive the HANA log files

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Use AWS Backup with a backup plan that includes the HANA instance

Question 2

Which TWO of the following are valid methods for migrating SAP systems to AWS? (Select TWO.)

Accepted Answer

System Copy (SAP). System Copy (SAP) is a valid migration method because SAP provides homogeneous and heterogeneous system copy procedures (using tools like SAPinst, R3load, or backup/restore) that let you move an SAP system, including its database, onto AWS EC2 infrastructure. SAP Database Migration Option (DMO) with SUM is also valid because it combines the SAP Software Update Manager with the Database Migration Option to migrate an SAP system to a new database (for example, to SAP HANA on AWS) in a single step, which is a documented SAP-on-AWS migration path. AWS Server Migration Service (SMS) is not an SAP-aware migration method; it replicates whole VMs (now largely superseded by AWS Application Migration Service), so it does not perform the SAP-specific system copy or database migration steps. AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) migrates databases between engines but does not handle the full SAP system migration (application server, SAP-specific data, and cutover) that SAP system copy or DMO with SUM provide. VM Import/Export only converts and imports VM images into EC2 as AMIs and does not perform any SAP system or database migration logic.

Answer

AWS Server Migration Service (SMS)

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AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)

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VM Import/Export

Question 3

An SAP system on AWS has an SAP Central Services (ASCS) instance running on an EC2 instance. The solution must ensure high availability for the ASCS in case of an EC2 failure. The ASCS uses a shared file system for the /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans directories. Which architecture meets the high availability requirement with the least administrative overhead?

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon EFS for /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans, and configure a Pacemaker cluster across two Availability Zones. Amazon EFS provides a fully managed, highly available, and durable NFS file system that can be mounted concurrently across multiple EC2 instances in different Availability Zones. By using EFS for /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans, and configuring a Pacemaker cluster across two AZs, you achieve automatic failover for the ASCS instance without the administrative overhead of managing a separate NFS server or replicating snapshots.

Answer

Deploy a second ASCS instance in another AZ and use an EC2 instance running NFS server with an EBS volume

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Use an Amazon EBS volume attached to the ASCS instance and replicate it to another Availability Zone using EBS Snapshots

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Use Amazon S3 and mount it using s3fs-fuse for the shared file system

Question 4

A company is running SAP on AWS and uses CloudWatch to monitor the SAP HANA database. The database administrator wants to create a dashboard that shows the current memory utilization of all HANA instances. Which CloudWatch feature should they use?

Accepted Answer

CloudWatch Dashboards. CloudWatch Dashboards allow you to create customizable views of your CloudWatch metrics, including memory utilization of SAP HANA instances, in a single pane of glass. You can add widgets for each HANA instance's memory metrics and arrange them as needed. This is the correct feature for creating a dashboard that shows current memory utilization across all instances.

Answer

CloudWatch Logs

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CloudWatch Alarms

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CloudWatch Events

Question 5

A company is migrating an SAP HANA database to AWS. Which TWO configurations are required to ensure high availability for the SAP HANA database in a multi-AZ setup?

Accepted Answer

Deploy SAP HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones.. Option A is correct because SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) is the native mechanism for replicating data from a primary to a secondary HANA node, and placing the two nodes in separate Availability Zones provides the multi-AZ fault tolerance required for high availability. Option D is correct because HSR alone does not perform automatic failover; a cluster manager such as Pacemaker (often with the SAPHanaSR resource agent) is needed to detect failures, promote the secondary node, and remap virtual IPs/endpoints. Option B is incorrect because a single EBS volume cannot be synchronously replicated to two nodes; EBS volumes are tied to one AZ and HSR handles replication at the database layer, not the block layer. Option C is incorrect because EBS Multi-Attach only supports io1/io2 volumes in a single AZ and is not a supported or safe way to share HANA data volumes across nodes. Option E is incorrect because an Application Load Balancer operates at Layer 7 for HTTP/HTTPS traffic and cannot front HANA database endpoints, which use native SQL ports and require cluster-managed virtual IPs or overlay networks.

Answer

Use a single EBS volume with synchronous replication to both nodes.

Answer

Configure EBS Multi-Attach to allow both HANA instances to share the same data volume.

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Place an Application Load Balancer in front of the HANA database endpoints.

Question 6

A company runs its SAP ERP system on AWS. The SAP application servers are in an Auto Scaling group across two Availability Zones. The SAP HANA database runs on a single EC2 instance in us-east-1a. The database instance has an Elastic IP and uses EBS io1 volumes with 5000 provisioned IOPS. During a recent deployment, the company experienced a complete outage when the Availability Zone us-east-1a became unavailable due to a power failure. The database was unavailable for 6 hours until the zone recovered. The company wants to implement a highly available architecture that can automatically recover from an AZ failure with minimal data loss. The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is 15 minutes and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is 30 minutes. What should the company do?

Accepted Answer

Set up HANA System Replication with synchronous replication to a secondary instance in us-east-1b and configure automatic takeover.. HANA System Replication with synchronous replication to a secondary instance in another AZ provides automatic failover with an RPO of zero (no data loss) and RTO within minutes, meeting the 15-minute RPO and 30-minute RTO. This is the standard SAP-certified HA solution on AWS. It ensures the database remains available if the primary AZ fails.

Answer

Take EBS snapshots every 15 minutes and copy them to another region.

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Move the HANA database to a larger instance in the same Availability Zone and increase IOPS to 10000.

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Migrate the HANA database to Amazon RDS for SAP HANA with Multi-AZ enabled.

Question 7

An SAP administrator notices that the SAP application server is experiencing high memory utilization. The system uses a cluster of EC2 instances. What is the most cost-effective solution to automatically add an additional application server when memory exceeds 80%?

Accepted Answer

Configure an Auto Scaling group with a scaling policy based on a custom CloudWatch metric for memory utilization.. Memory utilization is not a default CloudWatch metric for EC2, so the administrator must publish it as a custom metric (via the CloudWatch agent) and use it in a target-tracking or step-scaling policy on an Auto Scaling group. This automatically adds an application server when memory exceeds 80%, which is the most cost-effective automated solution.

Answer

Create a CloudWatch alarm that sends an email to the administrator to manually launch a new instance.

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Use an Auto Scaling group with a scaling policy based on CPU utilization.

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Use AWS Elastic Beanstalk to deploy the application server.

Question 8

An SAP HANA database on AWS is using EBS gp3 volumes with 3000 IOPS. The database team observes that the write latency is high during peak hours. The EBS volume is not exceeding its bandwidth limit. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The EBS volume's IOPS limit is being reached, causing queuing.. The observed high write latency during peak hours, despite the EBS volume not exceeding its bandwidth limit, indicates that the volume's IOPS limit of 3000 is being reached. When the IOPS limit is hit, the EBS volume queues I/O requests, which increases latency. This is a classic symptom of IOPS saturation rather than bandwidth saturation.

Answer

The EBS volume is not attached as a dedicated EBS bandwidth volume.

Answer

The EC2 instance's EBS bandwidth is saturated.

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The EC2 instance does not have EBS optimization enabled.

Question 9

A company is designing a highly available SAP HANA system on AWS. They need to replicate data synchronously to a secondary site in a different Availability Zone. Which AWS service should they use?

Accepted Answer

SAP HANA System Replication (HSR). SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) is the native SAP mechanism for synchronously replicating HANA data to a secondary system. It supports synchronous replication mode, which ensures zero data loss (RPO=0) by committing transactions only after they are confirmed on the secondary site, making it the correct choice for a highly available SAP HANA system across Availability Zones.

Answer

Amazon S3 cross-region replication

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AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)

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Amazon RDS Multi-AZ

Question 10

A company is migrating an on-premises Oracle database to Amazon RDS for Oracle. The database is 2 TB in size and has a 4-hour maintenance window. Which AWS service should be used to minimize downtime during the migration?

Accepted Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS). AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) supports ongoing replication to minimize downtime. Option A (AWS Server Migration Service) is for server-level migrations. Option C (AWS Data Pipeline) is for data processing. Option D (AWS Snowball) is for large data transfers but not minimal downtime.

Answer

AWS Server Migration Service

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AWS Data Pipeline

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AWS Snowball

Question 11

A company is planning to run SAP HANA on AWS and needs to ensure that the instance is optimally placed for low latency between the application and database tiers. Which AWS feature should be used?

Accepted Answer

Cluster placement group. A cluster placement group is the correct choice because it provides low-latency, high-throughput network connectivity by placing instances in a single Availability Zone with non-blocking, fully bisectioned bandwidth. For SAP HANA, where the application and database tiers require sub-millisecond latency for optimal performance, a cluster placement group ensures that all instances are physically close together, minimizing network hops and jitter.

Answer

Application Load Balancer

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VPC endpoint

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Auto Scaling group

Question 12

A company is migrating a monolithic application to AWS. The application has a relational database with complex queries and requires low-latency read replicas. Which database migration strategy minimizes downtime and supports heterogeneous migrations?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication.. AWS DMS with ongoing replication minimizes downtime by continuously replicating data from the source to the target while the application remains operational. It supports heterogeneous migrations (e.g., Oracle to PostgreSQL) when combined with AWS SCT. This makes it the best choice for complex queries and low-latency read replicas on AWS.

Answer

Use AWS Backup to take a full backup and restore to Amazon RDS.

Answer

Use AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) to convert the schema and perform a homogeneous migration.

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Use Amazon Redshift Spectrum to query the data in place.

Question 13

An SAP Basis administrator needs to monitor the memory usage of an SAP HANA database running on an EC2 instance. Which AWS service should be used to collect and visualize custom memory metrics from the OS?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch with the CloudWatch Agent. Amazon CloudWatch with the CloudWatch Agent is the correct service to collect and visualize custom memory metrics from the OS. The CloudWatch Agent runs on the EC2 instance and can collect memory and disk metrics that are not available by default, sending them to CloudWatch for visualization and alarming.

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

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AWS Systems Manager Inventory

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AWS Config

Question 14

An SAP administrator needs to apply a security patch to the operating system of an EC2 instance running SAP. The instance is part of an Auto Scaling group. What is the best practice to apply the patch while minimizing downtime?

Accepted Answer

Create a new AMI with the patch applied, update the launch configuration, and perform a rolling update using an Auto Scaling lifecycle hook.. Creating a new AMI with the patch applied, updating the launch configuration, and performing a rolling update using an Auto Scaling lifecycle hook is the best practice to minimize downtime. This approach ensures that new instances are launched with the patched AMI, and the rolling update gradually replaces old instances without service interruption. Lifecycle hooks allow you to perform actions before instances are terminated or after they are launched, ensuring graceful transitions.

Answer

Update the launch configuration with the patched AMI and manually terminate running instances.

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Stop the Auto Scaling group, patch the instance, and restart the group.

Answer

SSH into each instance and apply the patch manually.

Question 15

A company is running SAP ERP on AWS and wants to reduce costs by right-sizing the EC2 instances. The administrator has identified that the current instances are over-provisioned for CPU and memory. Which AWS service can provide recommendations for instance type changes based on historical usage?

Accepted Answer

AWS Compute Optimizer. AWS Compute Optimizer is the correct service because it uses machine learning to analyze historical utilization metrics (CPU, memory, I/O, network) from Amazon CloudWatch and provides actionable recommendations for right-sizing EC2 instances, including instance type changes. For SAP ERP workloads, it can identify over-provisioned instances by comparing actual usage patterns against the performance characteristics of different instance families, directly addressing the goal of reducing costs without compromising performance.

Answer

AWS Trusted Advisor

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Amazon CloudWatch

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AWS Cost Explorer

Question 16

An SAP system on AWS uses an Auto Scaling group for the application tier. The scaling policy is based on the average CPU utilization of the EC2 instances. During peak hours, the system scales out, but the new instances take a long time to become available because they need to install SAP software and configure them. This delay causes performance degradation. The operations team wants to reduce the time to scale out. Which solution should they implement?

Accepted Answer

Create a custom AMI with SAP software pre-installed and use it in the launch configuration.. Creating a custom AMI with SAP software pre-installed and using it in the launch configuration eliminates the lengthy post-boot installation and configuration steps, so new instances join the Auto Scaling group ready to serve traffic much faster. This directly addresses the scale-out delay caused by software installation time. The custom AMI bakes the SAP binaries, configuration, and dependencies into the image.

Answer

Increase the instance size to reduce boot time.

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Switch to AWS Elastic Beanstalk for automatic scaling.

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Use an instance store-backed AMI instead of EBS-backed.

Question 17

A company is migrating an SAP application server to AWS using CloudFormation. The template snippet is shown in the exhibit. The SAP application requires at least 300 GB of disk space for /usr/sap. Which change should be made to the template?

Accepted Answer

Increase the size of the second volume (/dev/xvdb) to 300 GB.. In SAP on AWS deployments, /usr/sap is conventionally placed on a separate EBS volume from the OS root volume, and the exhibit shows /dev/xvdb as that dedicated data volume. Since the requirement is at least 300 GB for /usr/sap, the correct change is to resize the second volume (/dev/xvdb) to 300 GB. This preserves the separation of OS and SAP binaries/data, which is a best practice for performance isolation, snapshot granularity, and independent scaling.

Answer

Change the instance type to a larger size to provide more instance storage.

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Increase the root volume (/dev/xvda) size to 300 GB.

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Add a third EBS volume of 100 GB for /usr/sap.

Question 18

An SAP system administrator needs to ensure that all API calls made to AWS services by the SAP system are logged for security auditing. Which AWS service should be enabled?

Accepted Answer

AWS CloudTrail. AWS CloudTrail records all API calls made to AWS services, including who made the call, when, from which IP, and what was requested. Enabling CloudTrail provides the audit trail required for security auditing of SAP system interactions with AWS services. This is the standard service for API activity logging across AWS.

Answer

AWS Config

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Amazon CloudWatch

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VPC Flow Logs

Question 19

Which AWS service is used to automate the installation and configuration of SAP applications on AWS according to best practices?

Accepted Answer

AWS Launch Wizard for SAP. AWS Launch Wizard for SAP is the correct service because it provides a guided, best-practice-based deployment experience specifically for SAP applications. It automatically provisions the necessary AWS infrastructure (EC2, EBS, VPC, etc.) and configures the SAP software according to AWS and SAP validated architectures, reducing manual effort and errors.

Answer

AWS OpsWorks

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AWS CloudFormation

Answer

AWS Quick Starts

Question 20

The exhibit shows a CloudFormation template snippet. During migration, the SAP application server fails to start because the root volume is too small. What is the most efficient fix?

Accepted Answer

Modify the template to increase VolumeSize to 100 and update the stack.. The root volume size is defined in the CloudFormation template as a parameter or resource property. The most efficient and idempotent fix is to modify the template's VolumeSize value and run a stack update, which keeps the infrastructure defined as code and avoids drift. This ensures the change is reproducible and tracked in version control.

Answer

Manually resize the EBS volume via the AWS Console and then update the stack.

Answer

Stop the instance, modify the volume size, and start the instance.

Answer

Delete the stack and create a new one with a larger volume.