PAS-C01 Mock Exam 89 — 25 Questions

Question 1

An SAP administrator runs the AWS CLI command shown in the exhibit to check the configuration of an SAP HANA EC2 instance. The instance is running in us-east-1a. They need to deploy a second SAP HANA instance for high availability in a different Availability Zone. Which Availability Zone should be used?

Accepted Answer

us-east-1b. Option B is correct because for SAP HANA high availability, the secondary instance must be deployed in a different Availability Zone within the same AWS Region to achieve multi-AZ resilience. Since the primary instance is in us-east-1a, the correct choice is us-east-1b, which is a distinct Availability Zone in the same region (us-east-1). This ensures low-latency replication and compliance with SAP's requirement for synchronous replication within a single region.

Answer

us-west-2a

Answer

Any Availability Zone

Answer

us-east-1a

Question 2

An SAP system on AWS is experiencing performance degradation. The CloudWatch metrics show that the EBS volumes used for the HANA data files have an average queue length of 10 and average latency of 50 ms. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The EBS volume's provisioned IOPS are insufficient for the workload.. An average EBS queue length of 10 and average latency of 50 ms indicate that the volume is saturated with I/O requests. The queue length persistently exceeds the recommended threshold (typically <1 for optimal performance), and latency spikes above the 1–10 ms range for gp3 or io2 volumes. This directly points to insufficient provisioned IOPS for the SAP HANA workload, causing requests to queue up and wait for service.

Answer

EBS encryption is causing additional overhead.

Answer

EBS snapshots are being taken too frequently.

Answer

EBS optimization is not enabled on the instance.

Question 3

A company is running SAP HANA on AWS. They want to ensure that the database is backed up automatically and the backups are stored securely and durably. Which AWS service should be used to store the backup files?

Accepted Answer

Amazon S3. Amazon S3 is the correct service for storing SAP HANA backup files because it provides a highly durable (99.999999999% durability), scalable, and secure object storage platform. SAP HANA supports backing up directly to S3 using the Backint agent or via third-party backup tools, and S3 offers features like server-side encryption (SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS) and lifecycle policies for cost-effective long-term retention.

Answer

Amazon EBS Snapshots

Answer

Amazon RDS

Answer

Amazon Elastic File System

Question 4

A company runs SAP HANA on AWS and wants to encrypt the database at rest. Which THREE options are available to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS KMS with a custom key store to manage encryption keys.. AWS KMS with a custom key store (option B) is a valid encryption option for SAP HANA on AWS because it allows you to use a customer-managed key store backed by AWS CloudHSM, giving you control over the encryption keys used to protect data at rest. This integrates with Amazon EBS encryption and other AWS services to encrypt the underlying storage volumes, ensuring compliance with key management requirements.

Answer

Use Amazon RDS encryption for the SAP HANA database.

Answer

Use Amazon S3 server-side encryption for database files.

Question 5

An SAP application on AWS is experiencing high network latency and packet loss between the SAP application server and the SAP HANA database. The application and database are in the same AWS Region and Availability Zone. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

TCP segmentation offloading (TSO) is enabled on the HANA database instance.. C is correct because TCP segmentation offloading (TSO) on the HANA database instance can cause the network interface to deliver oversized TCP segments to the SAP application server, which may not handle them correctly, leading to packet loss and high latency. This is a known issue in SAP on AWS environments where TSO offloads segmentation to the NIC, but if the receiving side lacks proper support or the network path has MTU mismatches, fragmentation and retransmissions occur.

Answer

Jumbo frames are enabled on the application server but not on the database server.

Answer

The instances are not in a placement group.

Answer

The Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) driver is not installed.

Question 6

Which TWO of the following are valid methods to monitor SAP HANA performance on AWS? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

SAP HANA Studio. SAP HANA Studio is a native SAP tool that provides direct access to HANA system performance metrics, including memory usage, CPU load, and query execution times, via SQL and MDX connections. It is a valid method for monitoring SAP HANA performance because it interfaces directly with the HANA database's internal monitoring views and does not rely on AWS infrastructure.

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

Amazon Inspector

Answer

AWS Trusted Advisor

Question 7

A company is migrating its SAP ERP system to AWS and needs to minimize network latency between the SAP application servers and the database. Which AWS service or feature should be used to meet this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Place the application and database servers in the same placement group.. Placement groups in AWS, specifically cluster placement groups, provide low-latency network performance by ensuring that EC2 instances are placed in close physical proximity within a single Availability Zone. This minimizes network latency between SAP application servers and the database, meeting the requirement for high-throughput, low-latency communication critical for SAP ERP workloads.

Answer

Use AWS Global Accelerator for the application servers.

Answer

Set up VPC peering between the application and database VPCs.

Answer

Use an Elastic Load Balancer in front of the application servers.

Question 8

An administrator is troubleshooting an SAP system where the application server cannot connect to the database server. Both servers are in the same VPC but different subnets. Security groups allow traffic on the database port. What is the next step to diagnose the issue?

Accepted Answer

Check the Network ACLs for both subnets to ensure inbound/outbound rules allow the database port. Network ACLs (NACLs) are stateless, meaning they require explicit inbound and outbound rules for traffic to flow in both directions. Even if security groups allow the database port, a missing or misconfigured NACL rule on either subnet can silently drop traffic. Since the servers are in different subnets, checking NACLs is the next logical step after confirming security groups are correct.

Answer

Check the DB Subnet Group configuration

Answer

Verify route tables for the subnets

Answer

Review VPC Flow Logs for rejected traffic

Question 9

An SAP system uses Amazon EFS for shared file storage for transport directories. The system is deployed across multiple Availability Zones. Which EFS performance mode is most suitable for this workload?

Accepted Answer

General Purpose performance mode.. General Purpose performance mode is the most suitable for SAP transport directories because it provides the lowest latency for file operations, which is critical for the frequent, small I/O operations typical of SAP transport processes. Max I/O mode, while offering higher throughput for large sequential I/O, introduces higher latency that can degrade SAP performance. General Purpose mode is the default and recommended mode for most EFS workloads, including SAP shared file systems.

Answer

Max I/O performance mode.

Answer

Provisioned Throughput mode.

Answer

Bursting Throughput mode.

Question 10

Which THREE of the following are valid considerations when designing a SAP landscape on AWS?

Accepted Answer

The EBS volumes for HANA data and logs must be provisioned with the correct IOPS and throughput.. Option A is correct because SAP HANA is extremely sensitive to storage performance; EBS volumes for HANA data and log must be provisioned with sufficient IOPS and throughput to meet SAP's documented sizing guidelines. Inadequate IOPS can cause HANA to abort transactions or crash, and AWS allows you to use Provisioned IOPS (io1/io2) or gp3 volumes with custom IOPS and throughput settings to meet these requirements.

Answer

AWS Managed Services (AMS) is mandatory for running SAP on AWS.

Answer

All SAP instances must be launched in a cluster placement group.

Question 11

An SAP Basis administrator notices that the SAP HANA database performance has degraded significantly after migrating to AWS. The database is running on an r5.8xlarge instance with 3.6 TB of Amazon EBS gp3 storage. The administrator checks Amazon CloudWatch metrics and finds that the Read/Write latency is consistently above 10 ms and the queue depth is averaging 32. What is the MOST likely cause of the performance degradation?

Accepted Answer

The EC2 instance's EBS bandwidth is fully utilized, causing I/O queueing.. The r5.8xlarge instance provides a maximum EBS bandwidth of 4,750 Mbps and a maximum EBS IOPS of 60,000. With a queue depth averaging 32 and latency above 10 ms, the instance's EBS bandwidth is saturated, causing I/O requests to queue and wait. This is the classic symptom of hitting the instance-level EBS bandwidth limit, not a volume-level issue.

Answer

The EC2 instance type does not support enough EBS bandwidth for the workload.

Answer

The gp3 volume burst credit balance is exhausted, causing throughput to drop to baseline.

Answer

The EBS gp3 volume size is too small, causing IOPS throttling.

Question 12

An SAP system on AWS is experiencing high latency for database queries. The administrator notices that the EBS volume used for /hana/log has a baseline IOPS of 5000 but the workload requires 8000 IOPS. What should the administrator do to resolve this?

Accepted Answer

Increase the volume size to gain additional baseline IOPS. Option D is correct because increasing the volume size of a gp3 or io1/io2 EBS volume directly increases its baseline IOPS performance. For gp3 volumes, baseline IOPS scales at a rate of 3 IOPS per GiB up to 16,000 IOPS, so increasing the volume size from approximately 1667 GiB (5000/3) to at least 2667 GiB (8000/3) would raise the baseline IOPS to 8000. This ensures consistent performance for /hana/log without relying on burst credits or migrating to a different volume type.

Answer

Enable EBS Multi-Attach

Answer

Enable volume bursting

Answer

Migrate to an io2 Block Express volume

Question 13

A company is migrating its SAP HANA database to AWS. Which instance type is specifically designed for SAP HANA and certified for production workloads?

Accepted Answer

x1e.xlarge. The x1e.xlarge instance is part of the AWS X1e family, which is specifically designed for memory-intensive workloads like SAP HANA and is certified by SAP for production deployments. SAP HANA requires large memory footprints and high memory-to-vCPU ratios, which the X1e instances provide with up to 3,904 GiB of memory and 128 vCPUs, meeting SAP's certification requirements.

Answer

c5.xlarge

Answer

r5.xlarge

Answer

t3.xlarge

Question 14

A company is running SAP HANA on AWS and needs to ensure that the system can be restored to a specific point in time within the last 24 hours with minimal data loss. The database is 2 TB in size. Which backup strategy meets these requirements with the lowest cost?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Backup with a daily backup and a 24-hour retention policy, enabling point-in-time recovery.. Option C is correct because AWS Backup for SAP HANA supports continuous backups and point-in-time recovery (PITR) with a 24-hour retention, meeting the requirement for minimal data loss. This managed service automates log backups every 5 minutes, enabling restore to any second within the retention window, and is more cost-effective than custom scripting or frequent EBS snapshots due to its incremental, deduplicated backup storage and no need for additional compute resources.

Answer

Configure S3 Transfer Acceleration for faster backup uploads.

Answer

Use a script to copy HANA backup files to S3 every 15 minutes.

Answer

Take hourly EBS snapshots of all HANA volumes and retain them for 24 hours.

Question 15

An SAP HANA database on AWS is running on an EC2 instance with multiple EBS volumes striped using LVM. The database administrator needs to increase the total storage capacity without downtime. Which approach should be taken? (Select TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Add the new volumes to the LVM volume group and extend the logical volume.. Option C is correct because LVM (Logical Volume Manager) allows you to add new EBS volumes to an existing volume group and extend the logical volume without unmounting the filesystem or stopping the database. This enables online storage expansion for SAP HANA, which requires zero downtime for production workloads.

Answer

Create a new larger instance and attach the existing volumes.

Answer

Modify the existing volumes to a higher IOPS volume type.

Answer

Take a snapshot of the existing volumes and restore to larger volumes.

Question 16

A company is planning to run SAP NetWeaver on AWS and wants to use Auto Scaling for the application server tier. Which consideration is critical when implementing Auto Scaling for SAP application servers?

Accepted Answer

Automatically register new instances with the SAP Central Services instance.. Option D is correct because SAP application servers must be registered with the SAP Central Services instance (ASCS/SCS) to be recognized as part of the SAP system. Auto Scaling can launch new instances, but without automatic registration via sapstartsrv or the SAP Host Agent, the new instances will not be able to communicate with the Central Services instance, and the SAP system will not utilize them for workload.

Answer

Ensure the database can scale automatically with the application tier.

Answer

Enable termination protection on all Auto Scaling instances.

Answer

Use encrypted EBS volumes for all instances.

Question 17

A company is planning to run SAP S/4HANA on AWS. They need to ensure that the SAP system can be accessed from the corporate network via a secure VPN connection. Which AWS service should be used to establish this connectivity?

Accepted Answer

AWS Site-to-Site VPN. AWS Site-to-Site VPN creates a secure IPsec tunnel between the corporate network's on-premises VPN device and a Virtual Private Gateway (VGW) attached to the VPC hosting the SAP S/4HANA system. This enables encrypted communication over the public internet, meeting the requirement for secure VPN connectivity from the corporate network to the SAP workload.

Answer

AWS Client VPN

Answer

AWS Transit Gateway

Answer

AWS Direct Connect

Question 18

A company is running SAP S/4HANA on AWS. The SAP application servers and database are in the same VPC. The security team requires encryption in transit between all SAP components. Which combination of services and configurations meets this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Enable SAP SNC with TLS certificates on all SAP instances.. Option B is correct because SAP SNC (Secure Network Communications) with TLS certificates provides end-to-end encryption for communication between SAP components, including application servers and databases, regardless of network topology. Since all SAP components reside in the same VPC, the encryption requirement is satisfied at the application layer without relying on network-level encryption. SNC ensures that data in transit between SAP systems is encrypted using X.509 certificates, meeting the security team's mandate.

Answer

Use AWS Transit Gateway with encryption enabled.

Answer

Use AWS VPN to connect all SAP instances to a single endpoint.

Answer

Create a VPC peering connection between the application and database subnets.

Question 19

An SAP administrator notices that the SAP application server on AWS is experiencing high latency when connecting to the SAP HANA database. The database is on a separate EC2 instance in the same VPC. What is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

Enhanced Networking is not enabled on the EC2 instances.. High latency between an SAP application server and a SAP HANA database in the same VPC is most likely caused by Enhanced Networking not being enabled on the EC2 instances. Enhanced Networking uses the Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) to provide higher bandwidth, higher packet-per-second performance, and consistently lower inter-instance latencies. Without it, network traffic is handled by the Xen or Nitro hypervisor's default driver, which introduces additional overhead and latency, especially under the high-throughput, low-latency requirements of SAP HANA communication.

Answer

EBS optimization is not enabled on the application server.

Answer

The HANA database is using a public IP address.

Answer

The instances are not in a placement group.

Question 20

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