PAS-C01 Practice Exam 66 — 20 Questions

Question 1

A company runs SAP NetWeaver on AWS and uses AWS Systems Manager to manage its EC2 instances. The operations team needs to run a pre-defined set of shell commands on all SAP application servers on a scheduled basis to collect performance metrics. The commands must run with root privileges, and the output must be stored in Amazon S3. What is the MOST operationally efficient way to achieve this?

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

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Systems Manager Run Command to execute the commands on all instances tagged as SAP application servers, and configure the command output to be sent to an S3 bucket.. AWS Systems Manager Run Command is the correct choice because it enables remote command execution across multiple instances without SSH, supports targeting by tags, and can log output to S3. It integrates with IAM for secure access and can be scheduled via maintenance windows. This provides an efficient, scalable, and auditable solution for the operations team.

Answer

Create an AWS Lambda function that uses SSH to connect to each SAP application server and run the commands, then upload the output to S3.

Answer

Configure AWS OpsWorks for Chef Automate to run recipes on the SAP instances that execute the commands and store output in S3.

Answer

Use AWS CloudFormation to deploy a custom resource that runs the commands on each instance via the EC2 user data script.

Question 2

A company is running SAP NetWeaver on AWS with an Oracle database on an EC2 instance. The database is experiencing performance issues due to high I/O latency. The company wants to improve I/O performance without changing the database software or migrating to a different database. Which action should be taken to improve I/O performance for the Oracle database?

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes for the Oracle database data and log files, and configure them with high IOPS.. The correct answer is to use Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes with high IOPS. These volumes are designed for high-performance, low-latency workloads and can significantly improve I/O performance for the Oracle database. Other options either do not address the I/O bottleneck or involve unnecessary changes.

Answer

Move the Oracle database to an EC2 instance with a higher memory capacity.

Answer

Enable detailed monitoring on the EC2 instance to identify the I/O bottleneck.

Answer

Migrate the Oracle database to an Amazon RDS for Oracle instance.

Question 3

A company is running SAP S/4HANA on an Amazon EC2 instance with an attached Amazon EBS volume. The database administrator reports that during peak transaction processing, write latency spikes to unacceptable levels, even though the volume's provisioned IOPS and throughput are well above the observed demand. CloudWatch metrics show sustained high queue length on the EBS volume. Which action should a solutions architect take to resolve the latency issue?

Accepted Answer

Move the database to an EC2 instance type with higher EBS-optimized bandwidth.. When EBS performance metrics show queue length saturation despite provisioned capacity exceeding demand, the limiting factor is typically the EC2 instance's EBS-optimized bandwidth. The instance cannot issue I/O fast enough to keep the volume busy. Upgrading the instance type to one with higher EBS bandwidth resolves the queue buildup and restores acceptable latency.

Answer

Increase the size of the EBS volume to gain additional baseline IOPS.

Answer

Change the EBS volume type to io2 Block Express and increase the provisioned IOPS.

Answer

Attach the EBS volume using the NVMe driver instead of the default block device driver.

Question 4

A company is running SAP HANA on AWS and needs to implement a backup strategy that meets the following requirements: backups must be stored in Amazon S3, be encrypted at rest, and be automatically deleted after 90 days. The SAP HANA database is 2 TB in size and backups are taken daily. What is the most efficient and cost-effective way to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Use SAP HANA's built-in backup to S3 with a bucket policy that enforces encryption and a lifecycle rule to expire objects after 90 days.. SAP HANA can back up directly to Amazon S3 using native commands. Configuring the S3 bucket with encryption and a lifecycle rule to expire objects after 90 days meets all requirements efficiently and cost-effectively. Other options involve additional services or do not provide automatic deletion.

Answer

Use SAP HANA's backup to S3 with S3 Object Lock in compliance mode to enforce a 90-day retention period.

Answer

Use a cron job to run hdbsql commands to back up to a local EBS volume, then use AWS DataSync to copy to S3 with a lifecycle rule.

Answer

Use AWS Backup to back up the EBS volumes and store the backups in a vault with a lifecycle policy to delete after 90 days.

Question 5

A company runs SAP NetWeaver Application Server ABAP on AWS across two Availability Zones to protect against zone failure. The ASCS instance sits in Availability Zone A, and the database sits in Availability Zone A as well. During a recent test, the team failed over the ASCS to a standby EC2 instance in Availability Zone B and observed that the enqueue server lost all lock table contents, forcing a full restart of application servers. Which design change should the company make to preserve lock table contents during an ASCS failover?

Accepted Answer

Configure the ASCS in Availability Zone A and the ERS in Availability Zone B, with an overlay IP address that the ERS takes over during failover so enqueue replication can preserve lock entries.. The lock table lives in the standalone enqueue server's memory, so preserving it across failover requires an enqueue replication server running in a separate Availability Zone that takes over an overlay IP address. This lets the ERS assume the enqueue server role with replicated lock entries intact, avoiding the full application server restart caused by losing lock contents.

Answer

Enable Multi-AZ on the Amazon RDS for SAP HANA database and point the ASCS message server to the RDS endpoint so that locks are stored in the database.

Answer

Deploy the ASCS and ERS on the same EC2 instance in Availability Zone A and rely on a Network Load Balancer to redirect clients during failover.

Answer

Place the ASCS behind an Application Load Balancer with sticky sessions and configure the message server to re-register clients after failover.

Question 6

A company is running SAP HANA on AWS and needs to configure high availability across two Availability Zones. The company wants to use SAP HANA System Replication with automatic failover. Which two actions should the company take to meet these requirements? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Configure HANA System Replication between the primary and secondary instances.. To enable automatic failover for SAP HANA System Replication on AWS, you must configure HANA System Replication itself and deploy a Pacemaker cluster with the SAPHana resource agent. These two components work together to replicate data and automate failover. Other options are either not required or not applicable to SAP HANA on EC2.

Answer

Use an overlay IP address with a Network Load Balancer to route traffic to the active HANA instance.

Answer

Create an Amazon S3 bucket to store the HANA configuration files for failover.

Answer

Enable Multi-AZ deployment for the Amazon RDS for SAP HANA database.

Question 7

A company runs SAP HANA on AWS using an r5.8xlarge EC2 instance. The HANA database uses multiple EBS volumes for data and log. The company wants to ensure that the HANA database can be recovered quickly in the event of an Availability Zone failure. The RTO is 15 minutes and RPO is 5 minutes. Which design meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Use HANA System Replication (HSR) with a secondary instance in another Availability Zone, and automate failover using a cluster solution. To meet an RTO of 15 minutes and RPO of 5 minutes for SAP HANA in the event of an AZ failure, HANA System Replication (HSR) to a secondary instance in another Availability Zone is the appropriate solution. HSR with asynchronous replication can achieve an RPO of less than 5 minutes, and with automated failover using a cluster, the RTO can be within 15 minutes. Other options like EBS snapshots, same-AZ replication, or cross-Region AWS Backup do not meet the requirements.

Answer

Use HANA System Replication with a secondary instance in the same Availability Zone, and use an Application Load Balancer for failover

Answer

Use AWS Backup to back up the HANA database every 5 minutes to a vault in another Region, and restore to a new instance

Answer

Use EBS snapshots taken every 5 minutes and restore to a new instance in another Availability Zone

Question 8

A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS with the primary application server on an EC2 instance in a private subnet. The security team requires that all outbound internet traffic from the instance be routed through a NAT gateway for patching, but the instance currently has no route to the internet. The VPC has an internet gateway attached and a NAT gateway in a public subnet. What should the company do to allow the instance to reach the internet while keeping it in the private subnet?

Accepted Answer

Add a route in the private subnet's route table with destination 0.0.0.0/0 and target the NAT gateway.. The private subnet needs a default route pointing to the NAT gateway so that instances can initiate outbound traffic to the internet without being directly accessible. This preserves the private subnet isolation while enabling patching and other outbound needs. Using an internet gateway directly or moving the instance to a public subnet would break the security requirement.

Answer

Move the instance to a public subnet and assign a public IP address so it can reach the internet directly.

Answer

Create a VPC peering connection to a VPC that has an internet gateway and route traffic through that VPC.

Answer

Associate an Elastic IP address with the instance and add a route to the internet gateway in the private subnet's route table.

Question 9

A company is migrating a performance-critical SAP NetWeaver ABAP system from on-premises to AWS. The system uses a scale-up architecture with a single application server and a single SAP HANA database. The company requires the highest possible network throughput and lowest latency between the application server and the database. Which AWS feature should be enabled to meet these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Cluster placement group. For performance-critical SAP NetWeaver systems with a scale-up architecture, the application server and database should be placed in a cluster placement group to ensure low-latency, high-throughput network connectivity. Cluster placement groups pack instances closely in a single Availability Zone, reducing network hops and increasing bandwidth. This aligns with AWS best practices for SAP workloads that require minimal latency between tiers.

Answer

Amazon EBS optimized instances

Answer

Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA)

Answer

AWS Global Accelerator

Question 10

A company is running SAP HANA on an Amazon EC2 instance with multiple Amazon EBS volumes for data and log. The company wants to ensure that the storage configuration provides the required IOPS and throughput for the SAP HANA database. Which TWO actions should a solutions architect take to meet these requirements? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon EBS gp3 volumes and provision the required IOPS and throughput independently of volume size.. To meet SAP HANA's IOPS and throughput requirements on AWS, you can use gp3 volumes with independently provisioned IOPS and throughput, and you can stripe multiple EBS volumes with RAID 0 to aggregate performance. Both actions help achieve the required performance, but they must be paired with an EC2 instance that has sufficient EBS bandwidth.

Answer

Enable EBS encryption on all volumes to improve I/O performance.

Answer

Attach the EBS volumes using the iSCSI protocol to reduce latency.

Answer

Use Amazon S3 to store SAP HANA data and log files to leverage its high throughput.

Question 11

A company is planning to migrate an SAP NetWeaver Java system to AWS. The system uses an Oracle database. The company wants to minimize the effort of re-platforming the database and prefers a managed service. Which AWS service should they use to host the Oracle database?

Accepted Answer

Amazon RDS for Oracle. Amazon RDS for Oracle is a managed service that supports Oracle databases and is certified for SAP NetWeaver. It reduces operational overhead by automating tasks like patching and backups, aligning with the company's preference for a managed service and minimal re-platforming. This allows the company to migrate the SAP Java system with minimal changes to the database layer.

Answer

Oracle on Amazon EC2

Answer

Amazon DynamoDB

Answer

Amazon Aurora with PostgreSQL compatibility

Question 12

A company is running SAP HANA on AWS and wants to implement a high availability (HA) solution across two Availability Zones. The company has deployed SAP HANA with synchronous in-memory replication using SAP HANA System Replication (HSR). They need to ensure that the HA setup meets SAP's requirements for automatic failover and split-brain prevention. Which TWO additional components are required? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

A cluster manager such as Pacemaker with Corosync and SBD fencing.. The two required components are a cluster manager such as Pacemaker with Corosync and SBD fencing, and an overlay IP address. The cluster manager automates failover and prevents split-brain, while the overlay IP allows clients to connect to the active node seamlessly. These are essential for SAP HANA HA on AWS.

Answer

AWS Global Accelerator to route traffic to the active node.

Answer

A shared Amazon EFS file system for SAP HANA data and log volumes.

Answer

Amazon Route 53 health checks with DNS failover.

Question 13

A company runs an SAP S/4HANA system on AWS with a single SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance. The system has a strict requirement that the database must not lose any committed transactions in the event of a single EC2 instance failure. The company wants to minimize recovery time. Which storage configuration should be used for the SAP HANA data and log volumes?

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes for data and log, and configure SAP HANA system replication to a secondary instance in another Availability Zone with synchronous mode.. To achieve zero data loss and fast recovery, the design must combine high-performance storage with synchronous replication. io2 Block Express provides the necessary IOPS and latency for HANA, while synchronous system replication to another Availability Zone ensures no committed transaction is lost and enables rapid failover.

Answer

Use Amazon S3 for data and log volumes via the SAP HANA Vora interface.

Answer

Use Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes for data and log, and enable EBS Multi-Attach to share the volumes with a standby instance.

Answer

Use Amazon EBS gp3 volumes for data and log, with snapshots taken every 15 minutes.

Question 14

A company is deploying SAP NetWeaver on AWS and needs to ensure that the SAP application servers can automatically recover from an EC2 instance failure. The application servers are stateless and run behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The company wants to minimize manual intervention. Which solution should be implemented?

Accepted Answer

Configure an Auto Scaling group with a launch template that includes the SAP application server installation and user data script.. An Auto Scaling group with a launch template and user data script enables automatic replacement of failed SAP application server instances. This is the standard AWS pattern for stateless, horizontally scalable tiers. The ALB ensures traffic is only routed to healthy instances. CloudWatch alarms, placement groups, and Elastic Disaster Recovery do not provide automatic recovery in the same seamless manner.

Answer

Enable detailed monitoring on the EC2 instances and create a CloudWatch alarm that sends an SNS notification to the operations team.

Answer

Use AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery to replicate the application servers to a secondary Region.

Answer

Place the EC2 instances in a spread placement group to ensure they are on distinct hardware.

Question 15

A company runs SAP NetWeaver Application Server ABAP on AWS. The SAP application servers and the SAP HANA database are in the same VPC and Availability Zone. The company wants to minimize network latency between the application servers and the database. Which AWS feature or configuration should be used to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Enable enhanced networking with the Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) on the EC2 instances and place them in a cluster placement group.. To minimize network latency between SAP application servers and SAP HANA in the same Availability Zone, the instances should use ENA for enhanced networking and be placed in a cluster placement group. This configuration reduces network hops and increases bandwidth, which is critical for SAP's synchronous communication patterns. Other options either target different use cases or increase latency.

Answer

Attach an Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA) to the SAP application servers and the database instance.

Answer

Place the instances in a spread placement group across multiple Availability Zones.

Answer

Use AWS Global Accelerator to route traffic between the application servers and the database.

Question 16

A company is running an SAP HANA database on an Amazon EC2 instance. The company needs to back up the database to Amazon S3. The backup must be consistent and integrated with SAP HANA's backup catalog. Which tool should the company use?

Accepted Answer

AWS Backint Agent for SAP HANA. AWS Backint Agent for SAP HANA is specifically designed to back up SAP HANA databases to Amazon S3 in a consistent manner while integrating with the SAP HANA backup catalog. It is SAP-certified and supports advanced features. The other options either do not provide consistency or are not designed for SAP HANA backups.

Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)

Answer

SAP HANA hdbsql with a custom script to export data to CSV and upload to S3

Answer

Amazon S3 sync command from the AWS CLI

Question 17

A company is deploying SAP S/4HANA on AWS using a scale-out architecture with multiple application servers and a single SAP HANA database. The company needs to ensure that the SAP application servers can communicate with the database using the SAP HANA client and that the database can be accessed securely. Which TWO configurations are required to meet these requirements? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Install the SAP HANA client on each application server and configure the connection using the database's private IP address and instance number.. The SAP HANA database should reside in a private subnet and be accessible only via private IPs. Security groups must restrict access to the application servers. The SAP HANA client on each application server enables connectivity using the private IP and instance number. These two configurations ensure secure and functional communication.

Answer

Configure the SAP HANA database to use a public subnet and attach an Elastic IP address for high availability.

Answer

Set up an AWS Site-to-Site VPN between the application servers and the database to encrypt traffic.

Answer

Enable public IP addresses on the SAP HANA database instance and allow access from the application servers' public IPs.

Question 18

An SAP Basis team runs SAP NetWeaver on AWS and needs near-real-time visibility into the health and performance of the EC2 instances, EBS volumes, and the underlying SAP application metrics. They want a single AWS service that can collect and visualize these metrics without managing servers. Which AWS service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch. Amazon CloudWatch is the AWS-native monitoring service that ingests infrastructure metrics and, via the CloudWatch agent, custom SAP application metrics. It supports dashboards, alarms, and near-real-time visibility without requiring the team to manage monitoring servers. The other services focus on API auditing, configuration compliance, or advisory checks, none of which deliver the required performance telemetry.

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

AWS Trusted Advisor

Answer

AWS Config

Question 19

A company is migrating its SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) system to AWS. The system uses an Oracle database on AIX. The migration team decides to use a homogeneous migration approach by moving to Amazon EC2 with Oracle Linux and Oracle Database. They need to transfer the database while minimizing downtime. Which method should they use for the initial data transfer and ongoing synchronization?

Accepted Answer

Use Oracle Data Guard to replicate from on-premises to Amazon EC2. Oracle Data Guard is a native Oracle replication solution that maintains a standby database in sync with the primary. For a homogeneous migration to EC2, it allows the team to set up a standby in AWS, let it catch up, and then perform a fast switchover with minimal downtime. Other methods either lack ongoing synchronization, are not designed for homogeneous Oracle migrations, or involve offline transfer that cannot meet the downtime goal.

Answer

Use AWS Snowball Edge to ship the database files to AWS

Answer

Use Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) to take a full backup and restore it on EC2

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) with change data capture (CDC)

Question 20

A company runs SAP HANA on AWS using a scale-out deployment with multiple EC2 instances. The operations team needs to monitor the health of the HANA database and receive alerts when the replication status between primary and secondary nodes is degraded. They want to use AWS native services and minimize custom code. Which solution should they implement?

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon CloudWatch Application Insights for SAP HANA to automatically discover and monitor HANA replication metrics, and configure alarms for degraded status.. CloudWatch Application Insights for SAP HANA is designed to monitor SAP HANA on AWS. It automatically discovers HANA databases and collects metrics, including replication status. You can then create CloudWatch alarms on these metrics to alert on degraded replication. This requires minimal custom code and uses AWS native services.

Answer

Use AWS Health Dashboard to monitor the health of the EC2 instances running HANA and set up notifications for any instance-level issues.

Answer

Use Amazon CloudWatch agent on each HANA node to collect HANA replication metrics and create CloudWatch alarms based on those metrics.

Answer

Use AWS Systems Manager OpsCenter to aggregate HANA replication alerts from SAP Solution Manager and create OpsItems for degraded status.