PAS-C01 Hard Questions — 25 Difficult 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

Answer

Use S3 multipart upload for the data

Answer

Disable transaction logging on the source

Question 2

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.

Answer

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

Answer

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

Question 3

An SAP system is experiencing high CPU utilization on the application server. CloudWatch metrics show that the CPU credit balance for the T3 instance is frequently depleted. What is the most cost-effective solution to resolve this issue while maintaining performance?

Accepted Answer

Enable T3 unlimited on the instance.. Enabling T3 unlimited allows the instance to burst beyond its baseline CPU utilization by spending credits, and when credits are exhausted, it can still burst by incurring a small additional charge per vCPU-hour. This is the most cost-effective solution as it avoids the need to migrate to a larger or different instance type, while maintaining performance for the SAP system's variable workloads.

Answer

Add more vCPUs by changing to a C5 instance.

Answer

Change the instance type to M5.large.

Answer

Increase the size of the EBS volumes.

Question 4

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

Answer

EC2 instance-level memory metrics

Answer

AWS CloudWatch Agent for OS metrics

Question 5

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 6

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 7

A company is migrating their SAP HANA database to AWS. The on-premises HANA system is 10 TB and runs on a physical server. They need to minimize the migration time and cannot afford more than 4 hours of downtime. The network bandwidth is limited to 500 Mbps. They decide to use AWS Snowball Edge to transfer the data. After copying the data to Snowball, they ship it to AWS. However, upon receiving the data, they find that the checksum verification fails. What should they do to resolve this issue and complete the migration within the downtime window?

Accepted Answer

Contact AWS Support to perform a remote data verification and import. If the checksum verification fails, AWS Support can perform a remote data verification and potentially import the data without needing to reship the Snowball, which would exceed the 4-hour downtime window. Option A is incorrect because re-copying and reshipping would take days, not fitting the downtime requirement. Option B is incorrect because even incremental transfer via DMS over a 500 Mbps link would take too long for 10 TB. Option D is incorrect because ordering Direct Connect can take weeks to provision, which also exceeds the allowed downtime.

Answer

Re-copy the data to a new Snowball and reship

Answer

Use AWS DMS over the existing network to transfer the data incrementally

Answer

Order an AWS Direct Connect connection to increase bandwidth

Question 8

An SAP Basis administrator is troubleshooting a performance issue on an SAP HANA database running on an EC2 instance. The administrator notices that the 'hdbcons' command shows high 'wait time' for 'disk I/O' operations. The instance is an r5.4xlarge with 500 GB of gp2 EBS volumes for /hana/data and /hana/log. Which of the following is the MOST effective action to improve disk I/O performance?

Accepted Answer

Change the EBS volume type from gp2 to gp3 with higher IOPS and throughput.. Changing the EBS volume type from gp2 to gp3 with higher IOPS and throughput is the most effective action because gp3 offers a baseline performance that can be increased independently of volume size, and it provides higher IOPS and throughput compared to gp2. This directly addresses the high disk I/O wait time. Upgrading the instance type (option C) may not resolve the I/O bottleneck if the volumes are the limiting factor. Increasing snapshot frequency (option A) does not improve I/O performance. Disabling delta merge (option D) is not recommended and does not address disk I/O issues.

Answer

Increase the frequency of EBS snapshots to offload I/O.

Answer

Upgrade to a larger EC2 instance type with more CPU and memory.

Answer

Disable the HANA delta merge operation to reduce I/O load.

Question 9

An SAP system on AWS is using an Oracle database. The company wants to implement automated backups to Amazon S3. Which AWS service should be used to orchestrate the backup process?

Accepted Answer

AWS Backup. AWS Backup is the correct service because it provides a fully managed, policy-driven backup solution that can orchestrate backups for SAP workloads running on Amazon EC2 with Oracle databases. It integrates directly with Amazon S3 for storing backup data and supports custom backup scripts via the AWS Backup API or AWS Lambda, enabling automated, scheduled backups without manual intervention.

Answer

Amazon RDS for Oracle

Answer

Amazon S3 Lifecycle policies

Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)

Question 10

A company is migrating an SAP ERP system to AWS using an SAP-certified backup/restore method. After restoring the database to Amazon RDS for SAP ASE, the SAP application fails to start with an error 'database connection refused'. The security group allows inbound traffic from the application server. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The SAP application is using the wrong database hostname or port. After restoring the database to Amazon RDS, the database endpoint (hostname and port) changes. The SAP application likely still uses the old connection parameters, leading to a 'connection refused' error. Option A is incorrect because, although a stopped RDS instance would also cause this error, after a restore the instance is automatically started and running; a stopped state is unlikely. Option B is incorrect because outbound traffic rules are not required for inbound connections; the inbound rule on the database security group is sufficient. Option D is incorrect because different VPCs would typically result in 'no route to host' or timeout errors, not 'connection refused'.

Answer

The RDS instance is in a 'stopped' state

Answer

The security group does not allow outbound traffic

Answer

The RDS instance is in a different VPC than the application server

Question 11

A company is migrating a legacy three-tier web application to AWS. The application uses a MySQL database and stores session data in the database. The company wants to minimize database load and improve scalability. Which TWO actions should the company take to achieve these goals?

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon ElastiCache to store session data instead of the database.. Storing session data in the database creates unnecessary write load and latency. Amazon ElastiCache (Memcached or Redis) provides an in-memory key-value store that is ideal for transient session data, reducing database load and improving application scalability by offloading session management from the persistent MySQL layer.

Answer

Configure Amazon RDS Multi-AZ for high availability.

Answer

Use Auto Scaling for the web server tier to handle variable traffic.

Answer

Use Amazon RDS read replicas to offload read traffic from the primary database.

Question 12

An IAM policy is attached to a user who manages SAP HANA volumes. The policy is shown in the exhibit. What is the effect of this policy?

Accepted Answer

The user can attach and detach volumes that have the tag Environment=production, but cannot delete any volume.. The first statement allows ec2:AttachVolume and ec2:DetachVolume only if the volume has tag Environment=production. The second statement denies ec2:DeleteVolume for all volumes. Therefore, the user can attach and detach volumes that have the tag Environment=production, but cannot delete any volume. Option A is incorrect because attach/detach are allowed only with the condition. Option B is incorrect because delete is denied for all volumes. Option D is incorrect because the allow statement is conditional on the specific tag value, not just the production environment.

Answer

The user can attach and detach any volume regardless of tags.

Answer

The user can delete any volume.

Answer

The user can attach and detach any volume in the production environment.

Question 13

An SAP workload on AWS uses an Auto Scaling group for the SAP Central Services (ASCS) and Enqueue Replication Server (ERS) instances. The instances are launched with a custom AMI that includes the SAP software. During a recent failover test, the ASCS instance failed to start after being terminated and re-launched by the Auto Scaling group. The error log indicates that the ASCS instance cannot find the quorum device. What is the most likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

The quorum device (EBS volume) was not re-attached or was not available in the same Availability Zone as the new ASCS instance.. In an SAP on AWS high-availability setup, the ASCS and ERS instances rely on a shared quorum device (typically an EBS volume or an Amazon EFS file system) to maintain cluster state and prevent split-brain scenarios. When the Auto Scaling group terminates and re-launches the ASCS instance, the new instance must have the quorum device attached and be in the same Availability Zone as the EBS volume (since EBS volumes are AZ-specific). If the quorum device is not re-attached or is in a different AZ, the SAP cluster cannot find it, causing the ASCS instance to fail to start.

Answer

The instance type of the new ASCS instance is different from the original, causing incompatibility with the SAP kernel.

Answer

The ASCS instance does not have a public IP address, preventing communication with the quorum device.

Answer

The Security Group associated with the ASCS instance does not allow inbound traffic on the quorum port.

Question 14

A company runs SAP on AWS and uses a custom AMI for their EC2 instances. They want to ensure that all instances launched from this AMI automatically have the SAP host agent installed and configured. What is the most efficient way to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Create a new AMI that includes the SAP host agent pre-installed and configured.. Baking the SAP host agent into the AMI ensures that every instance launched from that AMI automatically has the agent installed and configured with no additional steps. This is the most efficient approach as it avoids post-launch configuration, reduces potential failure points, and ensures consistency.

Answer

Use AWS Systems Manager Run Command to install the agent after launch.

Answer

Use a user data script that installs and configures the SAP host agent at instance launch.

Answer

Use AWS CodeDeploy to automatically deploy the agent to new instances.

Question 15

An SAP ERP system on AWS is experiencing performance degradation. A review shows that the Amazon EBS volumes used for SAP transport directories are gp2 with high throughput but high latency. The SAP team needs improved I/O performance without changing the total storage capacity. Which action should be taken?

Accepted Answer

Change the volume type to io2 Block Express with provisioned IOPS.. Io2 Block Express volumes provide consistent, high-performance IOPS with sub-millisecond latency, which directly addresses the high-latency issue with gp2 volumes. This option improves I/O performance without changing storage capacity, as required by the SAP team. gp2 volumes suffer from burst bucket limitations, leading to high latency under sustained throughput, while io2 Block Express offers provisioned IOPS for predictable performance.

Answer

Change the volume type to gp3 and increase baseline IOPS.

Answer

Move the transport directories to instance store volumes.

Answer

Enable EBS throughput optimization on the EC2 instance.

Question 16

An organization is migrating a multi-tier application to AWS. The web tier runs on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The database tier uses a self-managed MySQL instance on EC2. To achieve high availability, they plan to use Multi-AZ deployment. Which migration step should they prioritize to ensure minimal downtime?

Accepted Answer

Set up continuous replication using DMS and perform a cutover. Setting up continuous replication using AWS DMS (Database Migration Service) ensures data is synchronized between the source and target databases with minimal lag. This allows a quick cutover, significantly reducing downtime during migration. Option A is correct. Option B is not prioritized for minimal downtime as snapshots require downtime to restore. Option C is wrong because a one-time full load alone would miss ongoing changes, causing data loss. Option D defeats the high-availability goal by not using Multi-AZ from the start.

Answer

Configure Amazon EBS snapshots for the database volume

Answer

Use AWS DMS for one-time full load only

Answer

Launch the database in a single Availability Zone first

Question 17

A company runs SAP HANA on AWS using a clustered environment with two EC2 instances in an active/passive configuration. The cluster uses a shared EFS file system for the SAP HANA shared volume. The operations team recently migrated the EFS file system from the previous generation to Elastic Throughput mode to improve performance. After the migration, the HANA database becomes unresponsive intermittently. The team notices that the EFS mount target is in a different Availability Zone than the active HANA instance. What is the most likely cause of the unresponsiveness?

Accepted Answer

The EFS mount target is in a different Availability Zone than the active HANA instance, causing high latency and potential timeouts.. EFS mount targets are Availability Zone-specific, and cross-AZ access introduces additional network latency and potential timeouts. For a latency-sensitive workload like SAP HANA, which requires low-latency shared storage, mounting an EFS file system from a different AZ than the active HANA instance causes intermittent unresponsiveness due to increased round-trip times and possible packet loss.

Answer

The EFS file system does not provide sufficient IOPS for HANA workloads.

Answer

The EFS Elastic Throughput mode is throttling the HANA database traffic.

Answer

The EFS file system has reached its maximum number of concurrent connections.

Question 18

Which TWO options are valid strategies for backing up an SAP HANA database running on Amazon EC2? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Use SAP HANA Backint to back up to Amazon S3.. Option B is correct because SAP HANA's Backint API integrates with external backup tools, and on AWS you can configure Backint to write full, differential, and log backups directly to Amazon S3, which is a supported and durable target for HANA backups on EC2. Option C is correct because AWS Backup can orchestrate EBS snapshots of the EBS volumes holding HANA data and log files, providing crash-consistent volume-level backups that can be scheduled and retained per backup plan. Option A is wrong because Amazon RDS is a managed database service and does not host or back up SAP HANA, which runs on EC2 as a self-managed database. Option D is wrong because S3 Lifecycle policies only transition or expire objects already stored in S3; they are not themselves a backup strategy for HANA and cannot create the backups. Option E is wrong because EC2 instance store is ephemeral, non-persistent storage that loses data on instance stop, termination, or hardware failure, so it cannot serve as a reliable backup target.

Answer

Use Amazon RDS automated backups for SAP HANA.

Answer

Use Amazon S3 Lifecycle policies to transition HANA backups to Glacier.

Answer

Use EC2 instance store to copy HANA data files.

Question 19

A company runs SAP Business Suite on AWS with a large SAP HANA database. They observe high memory utilization and need to scale up. Which instance type should they choose to provide the highest memory capacity for SAP HANA?

Accepted Answer

u-12tb1.112xlarge. The u-12tb1.112xlarge is the correct choice because it is part of AWS's bare metal 'u' instance family, specifically designed for large in-memory databases like SAP HANA, offering up to 12 TB of RAM. This instance type provides the highest memory capacity among AWS instances, making it suitable for scaling up SAP HANA when high memory utilization is observed.

Answer

r5.24xlarge

Answer

x1e.32xlarge

Answer

m5.24xlarge

Question 20

A company runs SAP Business Suite on AWS. They plan to use the SAP Landscape Management (LaMa) connector to automate system copy and relocation. What is a prerequisite for using the AWS LaMa connector?

Accepted Answer

An IAM role with permissions for EC2, EBS, and CloudFormation actions. The AWS LaMa connector automates SAP system copy and relocation by orchestrating EC2, EBS, and CloudFormation actions. An IAM role with permissions for these services is required so that LaMa can programmatically manage infrastructure resources (e.g., stop/start instances, snapshot volumes, create CloudFormation stacks) without manual intervention. This role is assumed by the LaMa connector when executing workflows.

Answer

An EC2 Auto Scaling group configured for the SAP application tier

Answer

AWS Systems Manager managed instances for all SAP servers

Answer

SSH keys for all SAP instances to allow LaMa to connect