PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Test 16 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company wants to monitor the disk space utilization of their SAP application servers. Which AWS service can provide a centralized view of disk space metrics without installing additional agents?

Accepted Answer

AWS Systems Manager Inventory. AWS Systems Manager Inventory (Option A) is correct because it can collect disk space utilization metrics from managed instances without requiring the installation of additional agents—the SSM Agent is either pre-installed on many Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) or installed as part of standard Systems Manager setup, so it is not considered an extra agent. In contrast, Amazon CloudWatch (Option B) requires the CloudWatch agent to collect disk metrics, which would be an additional installation. AWS CloudTrail (Option C) records API calls and does not monitor disk space. Amazon Inspector (Option D) is a vulnerability assessment service and does not provide disk metrics.

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

Amazon Inspector

Question 2

An SAP HANA database running on an EC2 instance with EBS volumes experiences high write latency. The instance type is r5.4xlarge. The EBS volumes are gp2. Which change is MOST likely to reduce write latency?

Accepted Answer

Change the EBS volumes to io2 with provisioned IOPS.. Changing from gp2 to io2 EBS volumes with provisioned IOPS provides consistent low-latency performance for high-write workloads like SAP HANA, directly addressing the write latency bottleneck. Option A is incorrect because Amazon EFS is a network file system and introduces additional network latency, making it unsuitable for database write operations. Option B is incorrect because a read replica only improves read throughput and does not affect write latency; writes still occur on the primary instance. Option C is incorrect because the r5 instance is already memory-optimized for SAP HANA; switching to a compute-optimized instance does not resolve the storage-level write latency issue.

Answer

Move the database files to Amazon EFS.

Answer

Add a read replica for the database.

Answer

Change the instance type to a compute-optimized instance.

Question 3

An SAP application server repeatedly logs the error: "SQL statement not parsed before execution." The database is an Oracle RDS instance. What is the most likely cause of this error?

Accepted Answer

The database connection is not properly established, or the session is in a bad state.. The error about a SQL statement not being parsed before execution typically indicates a problem with the database connection or session state, which aligns with option B. Option A (misconfigured application server) would not directly cause this specific error. Option C (network connectivity) would manifest as timeout or connection failure, not a parsing error. Option D (out of memory) would cause different errors like ORA-04031. Therefore, the most likely cause is that the database connection is not properly established or the session is in a bad state.

Answer

The SAP application server is misconfigured.

Answer

There is a network connectivity issue between the application server and the database.

Answer

The Oracle database is out of memory.

Question 4

An administrator needs to restore an SAP HANA database from a backup stored in Amazon S3. The backup was created using AWS Backup. Which AWS service should be used to perform the restore?

Accepted Answer

AWS Backup. AWS Backup is the correct service because the backup was created using AWS Backup, and AWS Backup provides native restore capabilities for SAP HANA databases. It automates the restore process by directly interacting with the underlying Amazon S3 storage where the backup resides, ensuring consistency with the backup metadata and recovery point objectives (RPOs).

Answer

AWS Systems Manager

Answer

Amazon S3

Answer

AWS Database Migration Service

Question 5

Which TWO actions should be taken to improve the high availability of a single-instance SAP HANA database running on EC2? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Set up HANA System Replication to a second EC2 instance in a different Availability Zone.. HANA System Replication provides a standby instance in a different Availability Zone for automatic failover, improving high availability. Option E is correct because automated EBS snapshots enable point-in-time recovery, reducing recovery time after a failure. Option B is incorrect because Multi-AZ RDS is a feature for RDS databases, not for EC2-hosted SAP HANA. Option C is incorrect because moving HANA data files to FSx for Lustre does not inherently improve availability. Option D is incorrect because increasing instance size improves performance, not availability.

Answer

Enable Multi-AZ on the RDS instance.

Answer

Move the HANA data files to Amazon FSx for Lustre.

Answer

Increase the instance size to a larger type.

Question 6

An administrator deploys the CloudFormation stack above. The EC2 instance launches but the s3fs mount fails. Which TWO actions are needed to fix the issue? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Create an IAM role with permissions to access the S3 bucket and attach it to the EC2 instance.. Options A and B are correct. The EC2 instance needs an IAM role with S3 bucket permissions (A) and the role must be attached via an IAM instance profile in the CloudFormation template (B). Option C is incorrect because outbound HTTPS is already allowed by default security group rules and S3 uses HTTPS. Option D is incorrect because bucket region does not affect access; cross-region access works. Option E is incorrect because the UserData script runs as root, so 'sudo' is unnecessary and may cause the command to fail if sudo is not configured.

Answer

Modify the security group to allow outbound HTTPS traffic.

Answer

Ensure the S3 bucket is in the same region as the EC2 instance.

Answer

Add 'sudo' before the s3fs command in the UserData script.

Question 7

Which THREE metrics should be monitored to ensure the health of an SAP NetWeaver application server? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Memory utilization. Options A, C, and D are correct. Memory utilization, CPU utilization, and work process utilization are key indicators of SAP NetWeaver application server health. Option B is wrong because database connection count is a database-level metric, not directly indicative of application server health. Option E is wrong because network packet loss is an infrastructure metric that affects connectivity but is not a specific application server health metric.

Answer

Database connection count

Answer

Network packet loss

Question 8

A company runs a critical SAP S/4HANA system on AWS. The system uses an SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance with EBS storage. The operations team receives an alert that the database is running out of disk space on the /hana/data volume. The current configuration uses a single 2 TB gp2 EBS volume for /hana/data, which is 85% full. The team needs to resolve the immediate space issue and also plan for future growth. The database is in production and cannot tolerate downtime. The team has enabled Multi-Attach on the volume. Which course of action should the team take?

Accepted Answer

Attach an additional EBS volume, create a logical volume spanning both volumes, and extend the filesystem without downtime.. It allows adding a second EBS volume to the instance and creating a logical volume spanning both volumes, then extending the filesystem online without downtime. This is a common approach for increasing space on SAP HANA data volumes without downtime. Option A is incorrect because Amazon EFS has higher latency and is not suitable for SAP HANA database data, which requires high throughput and low latency. Option B is incorrect because although Elastic Volumes allows resizing online, the existing volume is gp2 and resizing to 4 TB is possible, but the question emphasizes planning for future growth, and adding another volume provides more flexibility. Option D is incorrect because taking an EBS snapshot requires quiescing the database, which would incur downtime.

Answer

Migrate the data to Amazon EFS and mount it to the EC2 instance.

Answer

Use the Elastic Volumes feature to modify the size of the existing volume to 4 TB while the instance is running.

Answer

Take an EBS snapshot of the volume, create a larger volume from the snapshot, and attach it to the instance.

Question 9

An SAP Basis administrator notices that the SAP system's response time is increasing during peak hours. The system uses an SAP NetWeaver application server on EC2 and an SAP HANA database on a separate EC2 instance. CloudWatch metrics show that the application server's CPU utilization is at 80% and the database server's CPU is at 30%. The application server is an m5.2xlarge, and the database is an r5.2xlarge. The administrator checks the SAP work process overview and sees that all dialog work processes are busy. What should the administrator do to resolve the performance issue?

Accepted Answer

Increase the number of dialog work processes in the SAP application server profile.. The symptom is that all dialog work processes are busy while CPU utilization on the application server is only 80% and database CPU is only 30%. This indicates that the bottleneck is the number of dialog work processes, not CPU or memory. Increasing the number of dialog work processes in the SAP application server profile allows more concurrent users to be processed without additional hardware. Option A is incorrect because the database CPU is low, so increasing database capacity won't help. Option B is incorrect because the application server CPU is not fully saturated; the issue is work process limits. Option C is incorrect because adding another application server may help, but it is more complex and the immediate fix is to adjust the work process count; however, the question asks for the best first step, and increasing dialog work processes is simpler and directly addresses the symptom.

Answer

Increase the database server's CPU capacity by changing to a larger instance type.

Answer

Increase the instance size of the application server to a compute-optimized type.

Answer

Add another application server to the system and distribute the load.

Question 10

A company runs SAP on AWS with a distributed system: an SAP Central Services (ASCS) instance, a primary application server (PAS), and additional dialog instances (DI). All instances are in a single Availability Zone. The company wants to implement high availability for the ASCS instance using a shared filesystem for the /sapmnt directory. The ASCS instance uses a single EBS volume for /sapmnt. The operations team plans to use a Network File System (NFS) solution to share /sapmnt between instances. Which approach should the team use to achieve a highly available shared filesystem?

Accepted Answer

Deploy Amazon EFS and mount it on all instances as /sapmnt.. Amazon EFS provides a managed NFS filesystem that is highly available and durable across multiple Availability Zones, eliminating the single point of failure. It can be mounted on multiple EC2 instances simultaneously, making it suitable for sharing /sapmnt. Option A is incorrect because Amazon FSx for Windows File Server is designed for Windows-based workloads, not Linux-based SAP systems. Option B is incorrect because instance store volumes are ephemeral and data is lost on instance stop/termination. Option C is incorrect because a single EBS volume cannot be attached to multiple instances simultaneously (except with a cluster filesystem like OCFS2, which is complex and not recommended for this use case).

Answer

Use Amazon FSx for Windows File Server to host the /sapmnt share.

Answer

Use an instance store volume on the ASCS instance and share it via NFS.

Answer

Create a secondary EBS volume and attach it to both the ASCS and PAS instances, then use a cluster-aware filesystem like OCFS2.

Question 11

A company is running a production SAP HANA database on an AWS EC2 instance with multiple EBS volumes. The operations team notices that the database performance degrades during peak hours. Which AWS service can be used to analyze the disk I/O performance and identify bottlenecks?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch. CloudWatch provides metrics for EBS volumes including read/write throughput and IOPS, which can be used to analyze disk I/O performance. Option A (AWS Trusted Advisor) is wrong because it provides best-practice checks but not real-time performance analysis. Option B (AWS Config) is wrong because it tracks configuration changes, not performance. Option C is correct. Option D is a duplicate of Option B and is also wrong for the same reason.

Answer

AWS Trusted Advisor

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

AWS Config

Question 12

An SAP administrator receives an alert that the SAP application server is not responding. The administrator checks the EC2 console and sees that the instance state is 'running' but the status checks have failed. Which step should be taken first to restore the SAP application?

Accepted Answer

Use the EC2 console to stop and start the instance, which will move it to new underlying hardware.. When status checks fail, the instance may have underlying hardware issues. Stopping and starting the instance (Option B) moves it to new hardware, which can resolve hardware-related failures and restore the SAP application. Option A is incorrect because terminating the instance loses the existing configuration and EBS volumes (unless termination protection is disabled and volumes are set to survive). Option C is incorrect because rebooting only restarts the OS; it does not change the underlying hardware, so hardware issues persist. Option D is incorrect because creating a new instance and attaching existing volumes is more time-consuming and complex; the simpler stop/start action should be attempted first.

Answer

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

Answer

Reboot the EC2 instance from the AWS Management Console.

Answer

Create a new EC2 instance from the latest AMI and attach the existing EBS volumes.

Question 13

A company runs SAP on AWS and needs to ensure that the SAP application logs are centrally collected and analyzed for security incidents. Which AWS service should be used to collect and store the logs from EC2 instances?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Logs. Amazon CloudWatch Logs can collect and store application logs from EC2 instances using the unified CloudWatch agent. It provides centralized log management and can be used for security incident analysis. Option A (Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose) is for streaming data to destinations like S3 or Redshift, not primarily for log collection from instances. Option B (AWS CloudTrail) records API activity, not application logs. Option C (Amazon S3) can store logs but does not directly collect them from EC2 instances without additional services like CloudWatch Logs or Kinesis. Therefore, Amazon CloudWatch Logs is the correct service for collecting and storing SAP application logs from EC2 instances.

Answer

Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

Amazon S3

Question 14

An SAP system is running on an EC2 instance with an attached EBS volume for /usr/sap. The operations team notices that the volume is almost full. Which action should be taken to increase the available space without downtime?

Accepted Answer

Modify the EBS volume to increase its size while the instance is running, then extend the filesystem.. You can increase the size of an EBS volume while the instance is running, then extend the filesystem. Option A is correct. Option B is wrong because snapshots are for backup, not immediate space increase. Option C is wrong because reducing the volume size is not supported. Option D is wrong because creating a new volume and copying data requires downtime.

Answer

Reduce the size of the volume by modifying the volume configuration.

Answer

Create a new larger EBS volume, attach it to the instance, and copy the data.

Answer

Create a snapshot of the volume and use it to create a larger volume, then attach and mount.

Question 15

A company is using SAP HANA in a multi-node scale-out configuration on AWS. The operations team needs to automate the patching of the operating system on all nodes with minimal downtime. Which approach is most suitable?

Accepted Answer

Use a rolling patching strategy: patch one node at a time after isolating it from the HANA cluster.. A rolling patching strategy, where one node is isolated from the HANA cluster, patched, then reintegrated before moving to the next, minimizes downtime. Option D is correct because it avoids full cluster outage. Option A is wrong because stopping all nodes causes complete downtime. Option B is wrong because creating new instances from a patched AMI requires data reload and may not be seamless for a scale-out HANA cluster. Option C is wrong because applying patches to all nodes simultaneously can cause cluster instability or downtime due to lack of coordination.

Answer

Stop all HANA nodes, patch the OS on each node, then start them all together.

Answer

Create new EC2 instances from a patched AMI and terminate the old ones.

Answer

Use AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager to apply patches to all nodes simultaneously.