PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Test 21 — 15 Questions

Question 1

An SAP system on AWS is experiencing high latency between the application server and the database server. Both servers are in the same VPC but in different Availability Zones. Which action should the administrator take to reduce latency?

Accepted Answer

Move the application and database servers to the same Availability Zone. Option A is correct because placing both instances in the same AZ reduces network hops. Option B is wrong because increasing instance size does not directly reduce latency. Option C is wrong because using a VPN adds complexity and may not reduce latency. Option D is wrong while using a placement group may help, placing in same AZ is more direct.

Answer

Create a placement group and launch both instances in it

Answer

Upgrade the instance types to compute-optimized instances

Answer

Use AWS Direct Connect to connect the servers

Question 2

A company needs to ensure that only authorized users can access the SAP S/4HANA system running on AWS. Which AWS service can be used to manage user identities and permissions?

Accepted Answer

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). Option B is correct because AWS IAM manages user identities and permissions for AWS resources. Option A is wrong because Amazon Cognito is for customer-facing apps. Option C is wrong because AWS Directory Service can integrate with IAM but IAM is the core service. Option D is wrong because AWS Organizations manages multiple accounts.

Answer

AWS Directory Service

Answer

AWS Organizations

Answer

Amazon Cognito

Question 3

Which TWO actions should an SAP administrator take to ensure high availability for an SAP HANA database on AWS? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Enable SAP HANA system replication. Options A and B are correct. Enabling system replication provides data redundancy, and using a Multi-AZ deployment ensures automatic failover. Option C is wrong because a single EBS volume does not provide HA. Option D is wrong because manual snapshots are not automatic HA. Option E is wrong because a single instance lacks redundancy.

Answer

Deploy the database on a single large instance

Answer

Schedule regular manual snapshots

Answer

Use a single EBS volume with high IOPS

Question 4

Which THREE AWS services can be used to monitor and log SAP system activities for security and compliance? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Logs. Options A, B, and C are correct. CloudTrail logs API calls, CloudWatch Logs stores log data, and Config tracks configuration changes. Option D is wrong because VPC Flow Logs capture network traffic, not system activities. Option E is wrong because Athena is a query service, not a logging service.

Answer

Amazon Athena

Answer

Amazon VPC Flow Logs

Question 5

Which TWO Amazon EBS volume types are recommended for SAP HANA database workloads? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

io2 Block Express. Options A and D are correct. io2 Block Express provides high performance for SAP HANA, and gp3 provides balanced performance. Option B is wrong because st1 is throughput-optimized, not suitable for databases. Option C is wrong because sc1 is cold storage. Option E is wrong because io1 is older, io2 is recommended.

Answer

sc1 (Cold HDD)

Answer

st1 (Throughput Optimized HDD)

Answer

io1 (Provisioned IOPS SSD)

Question 6

A company is running an SAP application on an SAP HANA database in a multi-AZ deployment on AWS. The operations team notices that the system is experiencing high latency during peak hours. Upon investigation, they find that the EBS volumes attached to the HANA instances are frequently exceeding the provisioned IOPS limit. Which of the following is the MOST effective action to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Increase the volume size of the EBS volumes to increase the baseline IOPS.. Option B is correct because increasing the volume size also increases the baseline IOPS for gp3 volumes or allows higher provisioned IOPS for io2 volumes, directly addressing the IOPS limit. Option A is wrong because switching to General Purpose SSD (gp3) can provide higher IOPS at lower cost but does not guarantee the needed IOPS if the burst credits are exhausted. Option C is wrong because reducing the number of concurrent connections does not address the IOPS limit of the EBS volumes. Option D is wrong because enabling EBS optimization is already enabled for current generation instances and does not increase IOPS limits.

Answer

Switch from Provisioned IOPS SSD (io2) to General Purpose SSD (gp3) volumes.

Answer

Enable EBS optimization on the EC2 instances.

Answer

Reduce the number of concurrent connections to the SAP HANA database.

Question 7

An SAP administrator is troubleshooting a failed backup of an SAP HANA database running on an EC2 instance. The backup is configured to use AWS Backup with a backup vault. The error log shows: 'AccessDenied: User: arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/AWSBackupRole/backup-job is not authorized to perform: kms:Decrypt on resource: arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:123456789012:key/abcd1234-...' Which IAM policy modification is required to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Add kms:Decrypt permission to the backup role on the KMS key.. Option C is correct because the backup role needs kms:Decrypt permission on the KMS key used to encrypt the backup vault. Option A is wrong because kms:Encrypt is required for writing, but the error shows a failure at decrypt. Option B is wrong because kms:CreateGrant is not needed for this operation. Option D is wrong because cloudhsm:Decrypt is not relevant.

Answer

Add cloudhsm:Decrypt permission to the backup role.

Answer

Add kms:CreateGrant permission to the backup role.

Answer

Add kms:Encrypt permission to the backup role.

Question 8

A company has an SAP system running on AWS that uses an Application Load Balancer (ALB) to distribute traffic to multiple EC2 instances. The operations team notices that the ALB is returning 503 errors intermittently. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The target instances are failing health checks.. Option B is correct because 503 errors typically indicate that the target instances are unhealthy or not responding. Option A is wrong because SSL certificate expiration causes 502 errors, not 503. Option C is wrong because security group rules blocking traffic would cause timeout or 502 errors. Option D is wrong because insufficient capacity would cause 502 errors if targets are overloaded, but 503 specifically indicates unhealthy targets.

Answer

The security group attached to the ALB is blocking inbound traffic from the targets.

Answer

The ALB does not have enough capacity to handle the traffic.

Answer

The SSL certificate on the ALB has expired.

Question 9

An SAP administrator needs to implement a disaster recovery (DR) strategy for SAP HANA with an RTO of 2 hours and RPO of 15 minutes. The primary site is in us-east-1, and the DR site is in us-west-2. The system uses SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) for data replication. Which AWS service should be used to automate failover and minimize downtime?

Accepted Answer

AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS).. Option A is correct because AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (DRS) can replicate EC2 instances and automate failover, meeting the RTO and RPO requirements. Option B is wrong because AWS Backup is for backup, not real-time replication. Option C is wrong because CloudEndure is now AWS DRS. Option D is wrong because RDS is not used for SAP HANA; it is a managed database service.

Answer

AWS Backup with cross-region backup copies.

Answer

AWS CloudEndure Disaster Recovery.

Answer

Amazon RDS for SAP HANA.

Question 10

A company is running SAP ERP on a single EC2 instance with an SAP HANA database. The operations team receives an alert that the /hana/data filesystem is 85% full. The filesystem is mounted from an EBS volume. Which of the following actions should be taken to resolve the issue with MINIMAL downtime?

Accepted Answer

Increase the size of the existing EBS volume and extend the filesystem.. Option C is correct because increasing the EBS volume size and extending the filesystem can be done online without stopping the instance. Option A is wrong because it would require stopping the instance. Option B is wrong because cleaning up data is not practical for a production system with critical data. Option D is wrong because it introduces a new EBS volume which requires additional configuration.

Answer

Add an additional EBS volume and mount it to /hana/data2, then relocate some data.

Answer

Delete unnecessary log files from the /hana/data directory.

Answer

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

Question 11

An SAP Basis administrator needs to monitor the performance of SAP HANA database using Amazon CloudWatch. Which of the following metrics should be monitored to detect potential CPU bottlenecks?

Accepted Answer

CPUUtilization. Option B is correct because the CPU Utilization metric directly measures the percentage of CPU capacity used. Option A is wrong because Memory utilization indicates memory pressure, not CPU. Option C is wrong because Disk Read/Write Bytes indicate I/O activity. Option D is wrong because Network packets indicate network traffic.

Answer

MemoryUtilization

Answer

DiskReadBytes / DiskWriteBytes

Answer

NetworkPacketsIn / NetworkPacketsOut

Question 12

A company is running SAP on AWS and wants to implement a patching strategy for the operating system of EC2 instances with minimal downtime. The instances are part of an Auto Scaling group. Which of the following approaches is the MOST appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Create a new Amazon Machine Image (AMI) with the latest patches, update the launch configuration, and perform a rolling update of the Auto Scaling group.. Option D is correct because using a rolling update with a new launch configuration ensures that instances are replaced with patched AMIs without downtime. Option A is wrong because applying patches directly to running instances requires reboots and causes downtime. Option B is wrong because stopping the Auto Scaling group would stop all instances. Option C is wrong because using Systems Manager Patch Manager on all instances simultaneously would cause downtime.

Answer

Apply patches directly to the running instances using AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager and reboot each instance one at a time.

Answer

Stop the Auto Scaling group, patch the instances, and start the group again.

Answer

Use AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager to patch all instances at the same time during a maintenance window.

Question 13

An SAP administrator notices that the sapstartsrv process on an EC2 instance is failing to start after a system reboot. The instance is running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for SAP Applications. Which of the following log files should be examined FIRST to diagnose the issue?

Accepted Answer

/usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/sapstartsrv.log. Option A is correct because sapstartsrv logs are stored in the SAP system profile directory. Option B is wrong because /var/log/messages contains system messages but not SAP-specific logs. Option C is wrong because the SAP HANA studio log is for database issues. Option D is wrong because CloudWatch logs would not contain local boot logs unless configured.

Answer

/var/log/messages

Answer

SAP HANA studio trace files

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch logs for the instance

Question 14

A company is running SAP on AWS and wants to automate the creation of consistent snapshots of EBS volumes attached to SAP HANA instances. Which AWS service is BEST suited for this task?

Accepted Answer

AWS Backup. Option B is correct because AWS Backup is designed for creating automated, scheduled backups of EBS volumes and other resources. Option A is wrong because AWS CloudFormation is for infrastructure provisioning. Option C is wrong because Amazon S3 is object storage, not snapshot management. Option D is wrong because AWS Lambda can be used but requires custom code; AWS Backup is a managed service.

Answer

AWS Lambda

Answer

AWS CloudFormation

Answer

Amazon S3

Question 15

An SAP administrator is setting up monitoring for SAP HANA using Amazon CloudWatch. Which TWO metrics are available from the SAP HANA CloudWatch integration?

Accepted Answer

Memory Usage. Option A is correct because the integration includes memory usage metrics. Option D is correct because disk usage metrics are also included. Option B is incorrect because average response time is not a standard CloudWatch metric for HANA. Option C is incorrect because number of active connections may be available via custom metrics but not directly from the integration. Option E is incorrect because number of SQL queries per second is not a standard metric.

Answer

Number of SQL Queries per Second

Answer

Number of Active Connections

Answer

Average Response Time