PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Test 14 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company runs SAP HANA on AWS and uses AWS Backup to back up the HANA database volumes. The backup job fails with an error indicating that the volume is in use. What is the most likely cause of this failure?

Accepted Answer

The volume is attached to an instance and the filesystem is not frozen before snapshot.. AWS Backup uses EBS snapshots, which require volumes to be in a consistent state. If the volume is attached and in use, the snapshot may fail if the filesystem is not frozen. The most common fix is to pause I/O before the snapshot.

Answer

The AWS Backup service does not have permission to create snapshots in the account.

Answer

The EBS volume is not tagged with the required backup tags.

Answer

The EC2 instance does not have the AWS Backup agent installed.

Question 2

An SAP Basis administrator needs to restart the SAP application server on an EC2 instance after applying kernel patches. What is the recommended way to perform the restart to minimize downtime?

Accepted Answer

Log in to the instance and restart the SAP system using SAP MMC or sapcontrol.. Using SAP MMC to restart the SAP system allows a controlled restart that avoids a full OS reboot, minimizing downtime.

Answer

Stop and start the EC2 instance from the AWS CLI.

Answer

Reboot the EC2 instance from the AWS Management Console.

Answer

Terminate the instance and launch a new one from the same AMI.

Question 3

A company is running SAP ERP on AWS and wants to set up a disaster recovery (DR) strategy using AWS Regions. The DR site must have a copy of the SAP application and database data. Which solution provides the fastest recovery time objective (RTO) with the lowest data loss?

Accepted Answer

Use an RDS Multi-AZ DB cluster with a cross-region read replica.. Multi-AZ DB cluster provides synchronous replication and automatic failover, but it is within a single region. For cross-region DR, using a standby DB instance in another region with Amazon RDS for SAP ASE cross-region read replicas provides near-synchronous replication and fast failover.

Answer

Use an EC2 instance with SAP HANA system replication across regions.

Answer

Take daily snapshots of the database and copy them to the DR region. Restore from snapshots during a disaster.

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to continuously replicate changes to a database in the DR region.

Question 4

An operations team is troubleshooting a performance issue in an SAP environment where the database server's memory usage is consistently high. The team suspects that the SAP buffer cache is not sized optimally. Which CloudWatch metric should be monitored to confirm this?

Accepted Answer

`FreeableMemory` for the RDS instance. The `DatabaseMemoryUsedPercent` metric for Amazon RDS provides the percentage of memory used by the database engine, including buffer cache. A consistently high value may indicate an oversized buffer cache relative to available memory, but the question asks for a metric to confirm. However, the correct metric for RDS memory is `FreeableMemory`. The buffer cache size can be inferred from `FreeableMemory`. Alternatively, for EC2-based SAP, the OS metrics are needed. Given the options, `FreeableMemory` is the best indicator.

Answer

`ReadIOPS` for the RDS instance

Answer

`DatabaseConnections` for the RDS instance

Answer

`SwapUsage` for the RDS instance

Question 5

An SAP administrator needs to grant an external auditor read-only access to view the configuration of all AWS resources in the account. Which IAM policy should be used?

Accepted Answer

ReadOnlyAccess. AWS managed policy `ReadOnlyAccess` grants read-only access to all AWS services and resources.

Answer

AdministratorAccess

Answer

PowerUserAccess

Answer

ViewOnlyAccess

Question 6

A company runs SAP HANA on AWS and wants to implement a backup strategy that ensures point-in-time recovery (PITR) with minimal data loss. Which TWO AWS services should be used?

Accepted Answer

AWS Backup. Amazon EBS snapshots are used for volume-level backups, and AWS Backup can automate and manage snapshot schedules. EBS snapshots alone can be used for PITR if taken frequently, but AWS Backup provides centralized management. Alternatively, SAP HANA backup to S3 can also be used. The correct answer here is EBS snapshots and AWS Backup; however, the options are: A) Amazon S3, B) AWS Backup, C) Amazon EBS snapshots, D) AWS Storage Gateway, E) Amazon RDS. So correct answers: B and C.

Answer

Amazon S3

Answer

AWS Storage Gateway

Answer

Amazon RDS

Question 7

An SAP environment on AWS includes multiple EC2 instances running SAP application servers. The operations team needs to capture and analyze all API calls made to AWS services by these instances. Which THREE services should be used together?

Accepted Answer

Amazon Athena. AWS CloudTrail captures API calls, Amazon S3 stores the logs, and Amazon Athena allows querying the logs. Alternatively, CloudWatch Logs can be used, but Athena is more cost-effective for ad-hoc analysis. The three correct services are CloudTrail, S3, and Athena.

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

Amazon GuardDuty

Question 8

An SAP system administrator needs to monitor the health of Amazon RDS for SAP ASE database instances. Which TWO CloudWatch metrics should be used to detect if the database is under memory pressure?

Accepted Answer

`FreeableMemory`. `FreeableMemory` shows available memory, and `SwapUsage` indicates memory pressure when swap is used.

Answer

`WriteIOPS`

Answer

`ReadIOPS`

Answer

`DatabaseConnections`

Question 9

Refer to the exhibit. An IAM policy is attached to a role used by an EC2 instance running SAP. The instance is unable to start or stop other EC2 instances. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The policy resource ARN specifies a specific region (us-east-1), but the instances are in a different region.. The policy allows `ec2:StartInstances` and `ec2:StopInstances` on all resources (`"Resource": "*"`), so it should work. However, the condition is missing. The issue could be that the policy does not include the `ec2:DescribeInstanceStatus` action needed to check status before starting/stopping. But the question says it cannot start/stop; the policy seems correct. Actually, the most likely cause is that the role does not have permission to pass the instance profile (iam:PassRole) if the instance uses an instance profile, but that is not shown. Alternatively, the policy is missing `ec2:DescribeInstances` which is needed for the AWS CLI to list instances? But it is included. Let's think: The policy allows start/stop on all resources, so it should work. Possibly the issue is that the EC2 instance has an instance profile that the role cannot pass. But the question says the policy is attached to the role; the role is used by the instance. The policy looks correct. However, the exhibit might be missing the `ec2:DescribeInstanceStatus` action, but that is not required for start/stop. I'll choose option C: The policy does not include `ec2:DescribeInstances` for the specific instances? No, it's there. Actually, the correct answer is that the policy does not include `ec2:DescribeInstances` for the instances? It does. Hmm. Let's look at the options: A) The policy does not allow `ec2:StartInstances` on specific instance IDs. B) The policy does not include `ec2:DescribeInstances` for the instances. C) The policy does not include `ec2:RebootInstances`. D) The policy does not allow `s3:GetObject` on the backup bucket. None of these are correct. I need to adjust the exhibit to make the question work. Let me modify the exhibit to include a condition that restricts the resource to only certain instances. For example:

```
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ec2:DescribeInstances",
        "ec2:StartInstances",
        "ec2:StopInstances",
        "ec2:RebootInstances"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:123456789012:instance/*"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "s3:GetObject",
        "s3:PutObject"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::sap-backup-bucket/*"
    }
  ]
}
```

Then the question: The instance is unable to start or stop instances in another region. Why? Because the resource ARN specifies us-east-1, but the instances are in eu-west-1. That is plausible. I'll use that.

Answer

The policy does not allow `ec2:RebootInstances` which is required to start instances.

Answer

The policy does not include `iam:PassRole` permission.

Answer

The policy does not include `ec2:DescribeInstances` for instances in other regions.

Question 10

Refer to the exhibit. An SAP administrator runs the AWS CLI command to retrieve the DatabaseConnections metric for an RDS for SAP ASE instance. The output shows a Sum statistic over 5-minute periods. What is the average number of connections per minute during this hour?

Accepted Answer

10. The Sum statistic over each 5-minute period is the total number of connections during that period. To get average per minute, divide each sum by 5. However, the question asks for the average number of connections per minute over the entire hour. The sum of all datapoints is 45+48+52+50+47+49+51+53+50+48+52 = 545. There are 11 datapoints, each covering 5 minutes, so total minutes = 11*5 = 55 minutes (but actually from 00:05 to 00:55 inclusive, that's 11 periods * 5 = 55 minutes). The total connections sum = 545. Average connections per minute = 545 / 55 ≈ 9.9. But the options are whole numbers: 10, 50, 52, 545. 10 is closest. Correct answer is 10.

Answer

545

Answer

50

Answer

52

Question 11

A company runs its SAP S/4HANA system on AWS using a cluster of EC2 instances for the application tier and a single large EC2 instance for the HANA database. The database instance uses EBS volumes striped with LVM for data and log. Recently, the operations team noticed that the database performance has degraded significantly during peak hours. CloudWatch metrics show that the average ReadIOPS for the data volume is consistently at 80% of the provisioned IOPS limit, and the average queue length is above 10. The CPU utilization of the database instance is around 60%, and memory usage is 70%. The team has already verified that there are no network bottlenecks and that the SAP application is not misconfigured. Which of the following is the MOST effective action to improve database performance?

Accepted Answer

Increase the provisioned IOPS on the existing EBS data volume to provide more headroom.. The symptoms indicate that the EBS volume is reaching its IOPS limit, causing queuing. Increasing the provisioned IOPS for the data volume will directly address the I/O bottleneck. Option B suggests increasing the instance size, but CPU and memory are not fully utilized, so that may not help. Option C suggests adding more volumes and re-striping, which could increase IOPS but is more complex and may not be needed if the volume supports elastic IOPS. Option D suggests switching to instance store, which provides high IOPS but is ephemeral and not recommended for database persistence. Therefore, increasing IOPS on the existing volume is the simplest and most effective.

Answer

Migrate the database data to an instance store volume for higher IOPS.

Answer

Add additional EBS volumes to the LVM stripe and redistribute the data.

Answer

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

Question 12

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.. Option B is correct because the issue is likely related to CPU contention on the application server, and upgrading to a compute-optimized instance provides more CPU resources. Option A is wrong because the problem is not network-related. Option C is wrong because the database is not the bottleneck. Option D is wrong because increasing disk IOPS does not address CPU issues.

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 13

An SAP administrator runs the above CloudWatch Logs Insights query on an application log group. The query returns no results even though the administrator knows there are ERROR messages in the logs. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The log events are not in plain text; they are in JSON format and the ERROR string is within a JSON field.. Option B is correct because the query filters on the @message field, but CloudWatch Logs stores the log event message in the @message field. However, if the log events are not parsed correctly (e.g., if using JSON logs), the filter may not match. Option A is wrong because the syntax is correct. Option C is wrong because the query does not use regex. Option D is wrong because time range affects the results but does not cause zero results if errors exist.

Answer

The query uses a regex pattern that is not supported by CloudWatch Logs Insights.

Answer

The query syntax is incorrect; the filter should use 'like' instead of '/.../'.

Answer

The time range is set to a period when no ERROR messages were logged.

Question 14

A company is running SAP on AWS and wants to automate the patching of SAP application servers. The servers are behind an Auto Scaling group. Which AWS service is BEST suited to apply OS patches without downtime?

Accepted Answer

AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager. Option D is correct because AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager can automate patching, and by using a rolling update with Auto Scaling, you can avoid downtime. Option A is wrong because AWS Config is for compliance, not patching. Option B is wrong because CloudFormation is for infrastructure as code, not patching. Option C is wrong because OpsWorks is for Chef/Puppet, but Systems Manager is more integrated.

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

AWS CloudFormation

Answer

AWS OpsWorks

Question 15

An SAP system fails to send emails via SAPconnect using SMTP. The EC2 instance has a public IP and the security group allows outbound traffic on port 25. The SMTP server is an on-premises relay. What is the most likely reason for the failure?

Accepted Answer

AWS blocks outbound traffic on port 25 by default for EC2 instances.. Option A is correct because AWS blocks outbound traffic on port 25 by default for EC2 instances to prevent spam. Option B is wrong because the instance has a public IP. Option C is wrong because the security group allows outbound traffic. Option D is wrong because the route table does not affect outbound traffic to the internet if the instance has a public IP.

Answer

The security group does not allow outbound traffic on port 25.

Answer

The EC2 instance does not have a public IP address associated.

Answer

The route table does not have a default route to an internet gateway.