PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Test 10 — 15 Questions

Question 1

An SAP administrator is reviewing a CloudFormation template that defines an Auto Scaling group for SAP application servers. The exhibit shows the relevant section. The group currently has 2 instances running. The administrator wants to ensure that during a rolling update, at least one instance remains available. Which property should be added?

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

Accepted Answer

UpdatePolicy attribute with AutoScalingRollingUpdate and MinInstancesInService set to 1.. Adding an UpdatePolicy with AutoScalingRollingUpdate and MinInstancesInService set to 1 ensures that during a rolling update, at least one instance remains available, preventing complete downtime. Option B is wrong because setting MaxSize to 1 would limit the maximum number of instances to 1, which could cause issues if the current count is 2 and a rolling update is performed; it does not guarantee availability during updates. Option C is wrong because increasing DesiredCapacity to 3 would add more instances but does not control the rolling update behavior to maintain at least one running instance. Option D is wrong because HealthCheckGracePeriod only defines a grace period for health checks after an instance launches; it does not enforce availability during a rolling update.

Answer

Set MaxSize to 1.

Answer

Set DesiredCapacity to 3.

Answer

Add a HealthCheckGracePeriod of 300 seconds.

Question 2

A company is running SAP on AWS and needs to ensure high availability for their SAP HANA database. They have set up a multi-AZ deployment with replication. During a planned failover test, the secondary node fails to take over. Which AWS service should be used to monitor and automatically remediate the replication status?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch. Amazon CloudWatch is the correct service to monitor SAP HANA replication status. It can track metrics such as replication lag or state and, through CloudWatch Alarms, automatically trigger remediation actions like invoking an AWS Lambda function or an AWS Systems Manager Automation runbook to restart replication or adjust configurations. AWS Direct Connect is a network connectivity service and does not monitor or remediate database replication. AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a PaaS service for web applications, not HANA replication. AWS Lambda can perform remediation but does not natively monitor; it requires CloudWatch for triggering.

Answer

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Answer

AWS Direct Connect

Answer

AWS Lambda

Question 3

An SAP administrator notices that the SAP application performance has degraded over the past week. The system is running on Amazon EC2 with EBS volumes. Which AWS service should be used to analyze the performance impact of the EBS volumes?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch. (Amazon CloudWatch) is correct because it provides metrics for EBS volumes like throughput, IOPS, and latency. Option A (Amazon Inspector) is for security assessment. Option B (AWS CloudTrail) logs API calls. Option D (AWS Trusted Advisor) provides best practices but not detailed performance analysis.

Answer

Amazon Inspector

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

AWS Trusted Advisor

Question 4

A company is running SAP HANA on AWS and needs to perform an in-place upgrade from HANA 1.0 to 2.0. The database size is 2 TB and the team wants to minimize downtime. Which approach is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Set up HANA System Replication from the current HANA 1.0 instance to a new EC2 instance running HANA 2.0, then perform a takeover.. The most appropriate approach to minimize downtime for an in-place upgrade from HANA 1.0 to 2.0 is to use HANA System Replication (HSR). HSR allows you to replicate data from the current HANA 1.0 instance to a new EC2 instance running HANA 2.0. Once replication is complete and consistent, a takeover is performed, switching the workload to the HANA 2.0 instance with minimal downtime. Option A (stop, backup, restore) results in longer downtime because the database must be offline for the entire backup and restore process. Option C (AWS DMS) is not designed for HANA version upgrades and does not support the necessary system replication mechanisms. Option D (EBS snapshot) is a backup method that also incurs significant downtime and does not perform the upgrade; you would still need to upgrade the database on the new instance.

Answer

Stop the HANA database, take a full backup, launch a new EC2 instance with HANA 2.0, and restore the backup.

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to continuously replicate data to a new HANA 2.0 instance.

Answer

Create an EBS snapshot of the HANA data volume and attach it to a new EC2 instance with HANA 2.0.

Question 5

An SAP system running on AWS has a recurring issue where the SAP application server becomes unresponsive every evening at 8 PM. The administrator suspects a batch job causing high CPU usage. Which set of AWS services can best help identify the root cause?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch and AWS Systems Manager Run Command. (Amazon CloudWatch and AWS Systems Manager Run Command) is correct because CloudWatch monitors CPU metrics (e.g., CPUUtilization) to identify high usage patterns, and Run Command can execute scripts on the EC2 instance to collect OS-level logs, process lists, and batch job details during the incident. This combination provides both metric visibility and remediation/forensic capabilities. Option A (X-Ray) is for application tracing, not OS-level CPU analysis. Option B (CloudTrail) logs API calls, not OS metrics. Option C (Lambda) lacks native OS command execution; Run Command provides direct, secure access to collect logs without additional setup.

Answer

AWS X-Ray and Amazon CloudWatch

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch and AWS CloudTrail

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch and AWS Lambda

Question 6

A company is migrating its SAP environment to AWS and wants to automate the installation of SAP software on EC2 instances. Which AWS service is best suited for this purpose?

Accepted Answer

AWS CloudFormation. (AWS CloudFormation) is correct because CloudFormation allows infrastructure as code and can use custom resource providers for SAP installation. Option B (AWS Elastic Beanstalk) is for web applications, not SAP. Option C (Amazon EC2 Launch Templates) only configures EC2 instances at launch, not full SAP installation. Option D (AWS OpsWorks) is for Chef/Puppet automation but not SAP-specific.

Answer

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Answer

Amazon EC2 Launch Templates

Answer

AWS OpsWorks

Question 7

A company runs SAP on AWS and needs to implement a disaster recovery (DR) strategy with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 2 hours. The primary site is in us-east-1 and the DR site in us-west-2. The SAP HANA database is 5 TB. Which approach meets these requirements cost-effectively?

Accepted Answer

Configure HANA System Replication in async mode between the primary and DR instances over AWS Direct Connect.. (HANA System Replication with async mode over AWS Direct Connect) is correct because it enables continuous data replication with a low RPO (asynchronous replication can be sub-minute), and the RTO can be within 2 hours by failing over to the DR instance. It is cost-effective as it uses existing HANA licenses and compute/storage resources. Option A (S3 cross-region replication of backups) may achieve the RPO, but restoring from backups typically exceeds the 2-hour RTO. Option B (AWS DMS) is not designed for SAP HANA replication; it is intended for homogeneous or heterogeneous database migrations. Option C (EBS snapshots every 15 minutes) may not consistently meet the RPO due to snapshot creation time and the time required to copy snapshots across regions, and RTO is high because the volume must be created and attached before recovery.

Answer

Use Amazon S3 cross-region replication to copy database backups every 15 minutes.

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for ongoing replication to a HANA instance in us-west-2.

Answer

Take EBS snapshots of the data volume every 15 minutes and copy them to us-west-2.

Question 8

An administrator needs to apply a critical OS security patch to multiple SAP application servers in an Auto Scaling group without disrupting ongoing operations. Which strategy should be used?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS CloudFormation with a rolling update policy to gradually replace instances in the Auto Scaling group.. Using AWS CloudFormation with a rolling update policy allows gradual replacement of instances in the Auto Scaling group, applying the patch without downtime. Option A (stop all instances) causes downtime. Option C (Systems Manager Patch Manager) may not handle Auto Scaling gracefully and could patch instances inconsistently. Option D (new AMI and terminate all instances) is a blue/green approach that can cause disruption if not carefully managed.

Answer

Stop all instances, apply the patch using AWS Systems Manager, then restart all instances.

Answer

Use AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager to patch instances at the next maintenance window.

Answer

Create a new Amazon Machine Image (AMI) with the patch, update the Auto Scaling group's launch configuration, and terminate all instances.

Question 9

A company is running SAP on AWS and needs to ensure that all changes to the SAP infrastructure are logged for audit purposes. Which AWS service should be enabled to record API calls?

Accepted Answer

AWS CloudTrail. (AWS CloudTrail) is correct because it records all API activity in the AWS account for audit purposes. Option B (Amazon GuardDuty) detects threats. Option C (Amazon CloudWatch) monitors performance. Option D (AWS Config) evaluates resource configurations.

Answer

Amazon GuardDuty

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch

Answer

AWS Config

Question 10

An SAP administrator receives an alert that the SAP HANA database is using 95% of its allocated memory. The system is running on an EC2 instance with 1 TB of RAM. The administrator needs to add more memory without significant downtime. Which action should be taken?

Accepted Answer

Stop the SAP HANA database, change the EC2 instance type to one with more memory, then restart the database.. To increase the RAM of an EC2 instance running SAP HANA, you must stop the instance (and the database) and change the instance type to one with more memory. This is the only way to add memory with minimal downtime, as memory cannot be added dynamically. Option A is incorrect because changing the instance type while running is not supported for all instance types and requires a stop for memory changes. Option B is incorrect because EBS volumes provide storage, not memory. Option D is incorrect because swap space is virtual memory and not a suitable solution for SAP HANA, which requires physical RAM for performance.

Answer

Modify the EC2 instance type to a larger size while the instance is running.

Answer

Add additional EBS volumes to the instance to increase memory capacity.

Answer

Increase the swap space on the instance to provide virtual memory.

Question 11

A company is running SAP on AWS and needs to monitor the health of their SAP application servers. Which TWO AWS services can be used together to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch. Options B (Amazon CloudWatch) and C (Amazon Route 53) are correct. CloudWatch can collect and monitor metrics from SAP application servers, and Route 53 health checks can monitor the endpoints of those servers. Option A (AWS X-Ray) is for request tracing, D (AWS CloudTrail) is for API activity logging, and E (Amazon Inspector) is for security vulnerability assessment.

Answer

AWS X-Ray

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

Amazon Inspector

Question 12

Which THREE actions should be taken to secure an SAP environment running on AWS?

Accepted Answer

Enable encryption at rest for Amazon EBS volumes.. Options C, D, and E are correct. Option C (Enable encryption at rest for Amazon EBS volumes) protects data. Option D (Use security groups to restrict inbound and outbound traffic to necessary ports) controls network access. Option E (Use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles to grant permissions to EC2 instances) avoids long-term credentials. Option A (Open all ports) is insecure. Option B (Disable AWS CloudTrail) reduces auditability.

Answer

Open all ports to allow any traffic for flexibility.

Answer

Disable AWS CloudTrail to reduce costs.

Question 13

An SAP system on AWS is experiencing high latency. Which THREE metrics should be examined in Amazon CloudWatch to diagnose the issue?

Accepted Answer

NetworkIn/NetworkOut. Options A, D, and E are correct. A (NetworkIn/NetworkOut) can indicate network bandwidth saturation, which causes latency. D (CPUUtilization) can indicate CPU bottleneck, leading to processing delays. E (EBS VolumeQueueLength) indicates storage I/O wait, a common cause of latency in SAP systems. B (DiskReadBytes) alone is less informative without queue length; high read/write bytes don't necessarily indicate latency. C (StatusCheckFailed) is for instance health, not performance latency.

Answer

DiskReadBytes

Answer

StatusCheckFailed

Question 14

A company runs an SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance with a large EBS volume. The volume is approaching its maximum capacity. The operations team needs to increase the storage size without downtime. What is the most efficient way to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Use the AWS Management Console, CLI, or API to modify the existing EBS volume to increase its size while the instance is running.. AWS allows you to modify EBS volumes (including increasing size) while they are attached and in use, without downtime. Option B is wrong because using rsync to copy data would require downtime for consistency and is less efficient. Option C is wrong because it requires stopping the instance. Option D is wrong because it adds complexity and cost without being the most efficient method.

Answer

Create a new larger EBS volume and use rsync to copy data while the instance is running, then remount.

Answer

Stop the EC2 instance, detach the current EBS volume, create a new larger volume from a snapshot, attach it, and start the instance.

Answer

Add an additional EBS volume and use LVM to extend the logical volume.

Question 15

An SAP administrator notices that the application logs show repeated authentication failures from a specific IP address. The SAP application is hosted on an EC2 instance behind an Application Load Balancer. What AWS service can be used to block traffic from that IP at the network level?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS WAF to create an IP set and block rule, associated with the ALB.. AWS WAF can be associated with an Application Load Balancer to create IP sets and block rules that filter traffic at the network level (Layer 7). Option A is incorrect because CloudFront geo-restriction blocks by country, not by individual IP address. Option C is incorrect because security groups are stateful and, when an ALB is used, the security group sees traffic from the ALB's private IPs, not the original client IP, so it cannot block the specific IP. Option D is incorrect because network ACLs are stateless and applied at the subnet level; while they can block IPs, they are less targeted and more complex than using AWS WAF directly with the ALB.

Answer

Use Amazon CloudFront with a geo-restriction to block the IP.

Answer

Update the security group of the EC2 instance to deny traffic from that IP.

Answer

Add a network ACL rule to the subnet to deny traffic from that IP.