PAS-C01 Practice Exam 69 — 20 Questions

Question 1

A company runs SAP on AWS and wants to reduce costs for non-production environments that are used only during business hours (8 AM to 6 PM). Which action should the administrator take to minimize costs without losing data?

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

Accepted Answer

Stop the instances during non-business hours and use Amazon EBS snapshots for backup. Stopping instances when not in use eliminates compute costs while preserving data via Amazon EBS snapshots. Option A (Reserved Instances) is wrong because Reserved Instances are intended for steady-state usage and do not provide savings for intermittent usage; the idea of reducing instance size is not relevant to this option. Option B (Terminate) would lose data unless snapshots are taken, and the question specifies 'without losing data.' Option C (Downsize) could reduce costs but still incurs compute charges 24/7, whereas stopping completely eliminates compute costs during non-business hours.

Answer

Convert the instances to Reserved Instances

Answer

Terminate the instances after business hours

Answer

Downsize the instance types to the smallest available

Question 2

A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS. The environment includes an SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance with multiple EBS volumes for data, log, and backup. The backup strategy uses AWS Backup to create daily snapshots of all EBS volumes. During a disaster recovery test, the team discovers that the snapshots are not crash-consistent and the database cannot be restored to a consistent state. The backup window is set to 2 AM daily. What should the team do to ensure crash-consistent backups?

Accepted Answer

Configure AWS Backup to create multi-volume crash-consistent snapshots for the instance.. AWS Backup supports creating multi-volume crash-consistent snapshots, which ensures that all EBS volumes are snapshotted at the same point in time. This provides crash consistency for the SAP HANA database. Option B is incorrect because while SAP HANA backup to S3 is a valid backup method, the question specifically asks about ensuring crash-consistent EBS snapshots. Option C is incorrect because taking individual snapshots sequentially does not guarantee cross-volume consistency. Option D is incorrect because stopping the instance causes unnecessary downtime; crash-consistent snapshots can be achieved without stopping the instance.

Answer

Use SAP HANA backup to S3 instead of EBS snapshots for database backups.

Answer

Take individual EBS snapshots of each volume sequentially within the backup window.

Answer

Stop the EC2 instance before the backup window and start it after the snapshots complete.

Question 3

A company is designing a disaster recovery strategy for a critical application that runs on EC2 instances with data stored on EBS volumes. The application requires RPO of 15 minutes and RTO of 1 hour. Which TWO approaches meet these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Use EBS Snapshots taken every 15 minutes and copy them to the DR region. EBS Snapshots can be taken every 15 minutes and copied across regions, enabling volume creation in the DR region with an RPO of 15 minutes and RTO under 1 hour if the EC2 instance is pre-provisioned. Using AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (which may be referred to as 'EBS Reboot' in this context) provides continuous replication and failover, meeting the RPO/RTO requirements. Options B, C, and D are incorrect: AWS Backup has a minimum 1-hour backup interval; hourly AMIs exceed the 15-minute RPO; and EBS Multi-Attach does not support cross-region failover.

Answer

Use AWS Backup with a backup plan that takes cross-region backups every 15 minutes

Answer

Use Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) backed by EBS snapshots, taken hourly

Answer

Use EBS Multi-Attach volumes to allow the DR instance to access the same volumes

Question 4

A company is planning to run SAP HANA on AWS. Which TWO of the following are required to ensure the system is supported by SAP? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Use an operating system that is on the SAP HANA supported OS list. SAP requires the operating system to be listed on the SAP HANA supported OS list. Running an unsupported OS violates SAP's support policy and can lead to denial of support for the entire HANA system.

Answer

Place all instances in a cluster placement group

Answer

Use only EBS io2 Block Express volumes for all HANA data

Answer

Enable termination protection on all instances

Question 5

Which TWO of the following are valid considerations when designing the network for SAP workloads on AWS? (Select TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Enable jumbo frames on the VPC for SAP application tier. Enabling jumbo frames (MTU 9001) on the VPC for the SAP application tier reduces CPU overhead and improves network throughput by allowing larger payloads per packet. This is particularly beneficial for SAP's high-volume data transfers between application and database servers, as it reduces the number of packets processed and lowers latency.

Answer

Use a single subnet for all SAP tiers to simplify routing

Answer

Use a public subnet for the SAP database tier

Answer

Disable VPC Flow Logs to save costs

Question 6

An SAP workload is running on an EC2 instance in a private subnet. The application needs to access an S3 bucket for backups. Which AWS service should be used to enable private connectivity without traversing the internet?

Accepted Answer

VPC Endpoint (Gateway). A VPC Endpoint (Gateway) allows private connectivity between an EC2 instance in a private subnet and an S3 bucket without traversing the internet. It uses AWS’s internal network and route table entries to direct S3 traffic through the endpoint, ensuring data never leaves the AWS backbone. This is the correct choice for SAP workloads requiring secure, low-latency backups to S3.

Answer

Internet Gateway

Answer

NAT Gateway

Answer

AWS Site-to-Site VPN

Question 7

An SAP on AWS environment uses a shared file system via Amazon EFS for SAP transport files. The EFS file system is mounted on multiple EC2 instances. Users report that file operations are slow during peak hours. Which action should be taken to improve performance?

Accepted Answer

Enable EFS Provisioned Throughput mode and increase throughput. Enabling EFS Provisioned Throughput mode allows you to increase throughput beyond the baseline, which can alleviate performance issues during peak hours. Option B is incorrect because Amazon EBS with Multi-Attach is limited to a maximum of 16 instances and is not intended for large-scale shared file systems like SAP transport directories. Option C is incorrect because Amazon S3 does not provide a POSIX-compliant file system; S3FS introduces additional overhead and may not meet performance or compatibility requirements for SAP transport files. Option D is incorrect because increasing the number of EC2 instances does not improve EFS throughput; EFS performance is determined by the provisioned throughput and file system size.

Answer

Migrate to Amazon EBS with Multi-Attach enabled

Answer

Move the transport files to Amazon S3 and use S3FS

Answer

Increase the number of EC2 instances to distribute the load

Question 8

A company uses AWS CloudTrail to log API calls. The security team wants to detect unauthorized attempts to modify security group rules and send real-time alerts. Which TWO AWS services should be used together to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS). Amazon CloudWatch Events (or EventBridge) can capture CloudTrail API calls related to security group modifications (e.g., AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress, RevokeSecurityGroupEgress) and route them to an SNS topic. SNS then sends real-time alerts (e.g., email, SMS) to the security team. This combination provides event-driven, near-instantaneous notification without polling or custom code.

Answer

AWS Lambda

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

Amazon GuardDuty

Question 9

A company is migrating its SAP ERP system to AWS. The system uses an SAP HANA database and runs on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES). The company wants to use the same SLES version on AWS and needs to ensure that the instance type supports the required SAP HANA workload. Which AWS resource should the administrator use to find the appropriate instance types?

Accepted Answer

The SAP Certified and Supported SAP HANA Hardware Directory on the SAP website.. The SAP Certified and Supported SAP HANA Hardware Directory is the authoritative source that lists all AWS instance types certified for SAP HANA. The administrator can filter by provider (Amazon Web Services), OS (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server), and instance type to find supported options. Option A (AWS Well-Architected Framework) provides general guidance but not certified hardware lists. Option C (SAP on AWS Implementation Guide) offers deployment guidance but not the exhaustive hardware directory. Option D (AWS Trusted Advisor) checks best practices and cost optimization but does not provide SAP HANA certification details.

Answer

The AWS Well-Architected Framework documentation.

Answer

The SAP on AWS Implementation Guide.

Answer

The AWS Trusted Advisor console.

Question 10

Which TWO of the following are valid storage options for SAP HANA data files on AWS?

Accepted Answer

Amazon EBS gp3 volumes with sufficient IOPS. Amazon EBS gp3 volumes are a valid storage option for SAP HANA data files because they provide consistent baseline performance of 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s throughput, with the ability to provision additional IOPS independently of storage capacity. SAP HANA requires high IOPS and low latency for its data persistence layer, and gp3 volumes meet these requirements when configured with sufficient IOPS, making them a cost-effective choice for many HANA workloads on AWS.

Answer

Amazon S3

Answer

Instance Store volumes

Answer

Amazon EFS

Question 11

An SAP system on AWS uses a shared file system for /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans mounted from an EC2 instance running NFS. The NFS server experiences a failure causing downtime for all SAP application servers. The company wants a highly available shared file system with automatic failover. The budget is limited, and the company prefers a fully managed solution. Which AWS service should the company use?

Accepted Answer

Amazon EFS. Amazon EFS provides a fully managed, highly available, and durable NFS file system that supports automatic failover across multiple Availability Zones. It is the ideal choice for the SAP /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans shared file system because it eliminates the single point of failure of a self-managed NFS server, requires no manual failover configuration, and offers a pay-as-you-go model that fits a limited budget.

Answer

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

Answer

Amazon EBS with a cluster file system

Answer

Amazon S3 with s3fs-fuse

Question 12

Refer to the exhibit. An SAP administrator uses the CloudFormation template snippet to create an application server. After deployment, the administrator cannot connect to the instance using AWS Systems Manager Session Manager. What is the most likely missing configuration?

Accepted Answer

The instance does not have an IAM instance profile with Systems Manager permissions. Session Manager requires the SSM Agent and an IAM role with proper permissions. The template installs the agent via UserData, but it does not attach an IAM instance profile. Without the profile, the instance cannot authenticate to Systems Manager. The security group allows HTTPS inbound, but that is for web traffic, not SSM. The instance type is fine.

Answer

The UserData script fails to install the SSM Agent

Answer

The security group does not allow outbound traffic to the Systems Manager endpoint

Answer

The instance type does not support Systems Manager

Question 13

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.

Answer

The EC2 instance does not have EBS optimization enabled.

Question 14

The exhibit shows an IAM policy for an SAP backup process that uploads backups to S3. An administrator wants to ensure that all uploads are encrypted using SSE-S3. What does this policy enforce?

Accepted Answer

Any PutObject request that does not include the encryption header will be denied.. The policy uses a `Deny` effect with a `StringNotEquals` condition on the `s3:x-amz-server-side-encryption` header, requiring it to be `AES256`. This enforces that any `PutObject` request must include the `x-amz-server-side-encryption: AES256` header; otherwise, the request is denied. Option C correctly states that requests without the encryption header will be denied.

Answer

The backup process must encrypt the files before uploading them.

Answer

The backup process must use AWS KMS to encrypt the objects.

Answer

The bucket automatically encrypts objects with SSE-S3 even if the request does not specify it.

Question 15

A company is running SAP Business Suite on AWS and wants to implement a disaster recovery (DR) strategy with a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of less than 2 hours and a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of less than 15 minutes. The primary and DR sites are in different AWS regions. Which solution meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Use SAP HANA System Replication in asynchronous mode across regions with EBS snapshots every 15 minutes. SAP HANA System Replication in asynchronous mode across regions meets the RPO of less than 15 minutes because it continuously replicates log data with minimal latency, and the RTO of less than 2 hours is achievable by taking over the replicated HANA database in the DR region. EBS snapshots every 15 minutes provide an additional layer for persistent storage consistency, but the primary mechanism for meeting the RPO is the asynchronous log replication, which typically achieves sub-minute RPO.

Answer

Use EBS snapshots replicated to the DR region with S3 cross-region replication

Answer

Use AWS Backup with continuous backups

Answer

Use SAP HANA System Replication in synchronous mode across regions

Question 16

A company is planning to migrate its SAP landscape to AWS. The SAP systems include a production system, a QA system, and a development system. All systems use the same SAP S/4HANA version. Which strategy is MOST cost-effective for the DR (disaster recovery) setup?

Accepted Answer

Use a pilot light strategy with AWS DMS ongoing replication.. For SAP systems where all environments use the same S/4HANA version, the most cost-effective DR approach is a pilot light strategy using AWS DMS ongoing replication. This minimizes costs by replicating only the data (e.g., via DMS) and keeping only essential infrastructure running (e.g., a small standby database) while leaving additional compute resources (application servers, etc.) off until failover. In contrast, cross-Region replication with reserved instances (Option B) incurs significant ongoing costs because reserved instances must be paid for upfront or over time even when not running, and the DR systems would need to be sized for peak capacity, leading to waste. Warm standby (Option A) and active-active (Option D) are more expensive due to the need for continuously running infrastructure or load balancing across regions. Therefore, pilot light with DMS is the most cost-effective for this scenario.

Answer

Set up warm standby in a second Region with a standby application server and database.

Answer

Use cross-Region replication with AWS reserved instances for the DR systems.

Answer

Deploy active-active SAP systems in two AWS Regions with Elastic Load Balancing.

Question 17

Refer to the exhibit. A migration team is using AWS DMS to replicate data from an on-premises SAP ASE database to Amazon RDS for SAP ASE. The DMS task fails with the error shown. The source database is reachable from the DMS replication instance. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The ODBC driver configuration on the DMS replication instance is incorrect. The error indicates an ODBC connection failure, which typically occurs when the ODBC driver or its configuration on the DMS replication instance is incorrect. Since the source database is reachable, the issue is not firewall or IAM permissions. The DMS task is using the correct source engine type (SAP ASE), so the most likely cause is a misconfigured ODBC driver on the replication instance, making Option A correct.

Answer

The source database port is blocked by a firewall

Answer

The DMS task is using the wrong source engine type (e.g., SQL Server instead of SAP ASE)

Answer

The DMS replication instance does not have the required IAM permissions

Question 18

A company is migrating an SAP HANA database from on-premises to AWS using SAP HANA System Replication (HSR). They have set up the replication but the target database is not in sync. Which THREE configuration items should the migration team verify? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

The hostname resolution between source and target. HSR requires proper hostname resolution between source and target; if the target cannot resolve the source hostname, replication fails. Option B is correct because HSR requires the same major HANA version and build number; mismatches can prevent synchronization. Option C is incorrect because the SAP HANA license is not required for replication; it is tied to each system individually. Option D is correct because network connectivity and firewall rules must allow traffic on the HSR port (typically 3<instance>01); blocked ports will stop replication. Option E is incorrect because storage type (SSD vs HDD) does not affect HSR synchronization; replication works independently of underlying storage.

Answer

The SAP HANA license is activated on the target

Answer

The storage type (SSD vs HDD) is identical

Question 19

An SAP system on AWS experiences intermittent performance degradation during peak hours. CloudWatch metrics show high CPU utilization on the application server but normal on the database server. The application server is an m5.2xlarge instance. Which action should the operations team take FIRST to diagnose the issue?

Accepted Answer

Change the application server instance type to a compute-optimized instance like c5.4xlarge.. The application server is experiencing high CPU utilization; switching to a compute-optimized instance (like c5.4xlarge) helps determine if the performance issue is due to insufficient CPU resources. Option B is incorrect because the database server shows normal CPU, so increasing IOPS on its EBS volumes would not address the application server's CPU bottleneck. Option C is incorrect because the problem is not network-related; increasing network bandwidth would not alleviate CPU contention. Option D is incorrect because scaling out by adding more servers may help but is not the first diagnostic step; the first step should be to test a compute-optimized instance to isolate the CPU issue.

Answer

Increase the provisioned IOPS on the database server's EBS volumes.

Answer

Increase the network bandwidth of the application server.

Answer

Scale out the application tier by adding more application servers behind a load balancer.

Question 20

A company is running a production SAP HANA database on an AWS EC2 instance with a single EBS gp3 volume. The database frequently experiences high write latency during peak hours. Which design change would MOST effectively reduce write latency?

Accepted Answer

Replace the single gp3 volume with multiple io2 Block Express volumes configured in a RAID 0 stripe.. Replacing a single gp3 volume with multiple io2 Block Express volumes in a RAID 0 stripe increases the available IOPS and reduces write latency by distributing write operations across multiple volumes in parallel. io2 Block Express volumes offer up to 256,000 IOPS per volume and sub-millisecond latency, which directly addresses the high write latency during peak hours. RAID 0 striping further aggregates the IOPS and throughput of multiple volumes, providing the performance needed for SAP HANA's demanding write workloads.

Answer

Increase the size of the existing gp3 volume to maximize its baseline throughput.

Answer

Migrate the database to a larger EC2 instance type with higher network bandwidth.

Answer

Move the SAP HANA database to Amazon RDS for SAP HANA.