PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Test 28 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company is running SAP on AWS and wants to automate the deployment of new SAP application servers. The company uses AWS CloudFormation to manage infrastructure. Which AWS service should they use to run custom scripts during the CloudFormation stack creation to configure the SAP application?

Accepted Answer

AWS Lambda. Option A is correct because AWS CloudFormation supports custom resources via Lambda functions to run scripts. Option B is wrong because EC2 Run Command is not integrated into CloudFormation natively. Option C is wrong because OpsWorks is for Chef/Puppet, not directly for CloudFormation. Option D is wrong because CodeDeploy is for code deployment, not initial configuration.

Answer

AWS Systems Manager Run Command

Answer

AWS CodeDeploy

Answer

AWS OpsWorks

Question 2

A company is running SAP HANA on AWS and wants to implement a disaster recovery strategy with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 2 hours. The primary site is in us-east-1, and the DR site is in us-west-2. Which two actions should the company take to meet these objectives? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Set up SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) in async mode between the two regions.. Option B is correct because HANA System Replication with log replication can achieve an RPO of less than 15 minutes. Option D is correct because having pre-configured EC2 instances in the DR region reduces RTO. Option A is wrong because daily backups are too slow for 15-minute RPO. Option C is wrong because CloudEndure Disaster Recovery is not optimized for SAP HANA. Option E is wrong because AWS Backup does not support HANA replication.

Answer

Take daily snapshots of the HANA volumes and copy them to the DR region.

Answer

Use AWS CloudEndure Disaster Recovery to replicate the entire server.

Answer

Use AWS Backup to schedule cross-region backups of the HANA database.

Question 3

A company runs SAP NetWeaver on AWS and uses a Network Load Balancer (NLB) to distribute traffic to multiple application servers. The operations team notices that the NLB is not properly routing traffic to healthy targets. Which three steps should the team take to diagnose the issue? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Confirm that the target instances are registered in the target group and are in the Available state.. Option A is correct because health check targets must be configured correctly on the NLB. Option C is correct because security groups on targets must allow health check traffic from the NLB. Option E is correct because checking target group registration ensures the instances are in the group. Option B is wrong because CloudWatch alarms indicate issues but not the cause. Option D is wrong because enabling cross-zone load balancing does not affect health checks.

Answer

Enable cross-zone load balancing on the NLB.

Answer

Review the CloudWatch metrics for the NLB to see if there are any anomalies.

Question 4

A company is running SAP HANA on AWS and uses multiple EBS volumes for data and log storage. The company wants to encrypt all data at rest. Which three steps are required to ensure encryption of all EBS volumes? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Use a custom AWS Key Management Service (KMS) key for encryption.. Option A is correct because enabling EBS encryption by default ensures new volumes are encrypted. Option B is correct because existing volumes must be encrypted by creating a snapshot copy with encryption. Option D is correct because using a custom KMS key allows control over encryption. Option C is wrong because encryption of snapshots is inherited from the volume. Option E is wrong because AWS does not require a specific instance type for encryption.

Answer

Enable encryption on the EBS snapshots after creation.

Answer

Launch EC2 instances with the EBS-optimized attribute set.

Question 5

A company is running SAP on AWS and uses CloudWatch to monitor the SAP HANA database. The database administrator wants to create a dashboard that shows the current memory utilization of all HANA instances. Which CloudWatch feature should they use?

Accepted Answer

CloudWatch Dashboards. Option A is correct because CloudWatch dashboards can display metrics from multiple sources in one view. Option B is wrong because CloudWatch Logs is for log data, not metrics. Option C is wrong because CloudWatch Alarms are for thresholds. Option D is wrong because CloudWatch Events is for event-driven actions.

Answer

CloudWatch Logs

Answer

CloudWatch Alarms

Answer

CloudWatch Events

Question 6

An administrator created the IAM policy shown in the exhibit for the operations team. The team needs to create snapshots of EBS volumes that have the tag 'Name' with a value starting with 'SAP-HANA-'. However, the policy is not working as expected. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The 'ec2:CreateSnapshot' action does not support the 'ec2:ResourceTag' condition key.. Option D is correct because the ec2:CreateSnapshot action does not support the ec2:ResourceTag condition key. Condition keys must be supported by the action. Option A is wrong because the resource ARN is correct for volumes. Option B is wrong because the action is allowed. Option C is wrong because the condition is not about the snapshot resource.

Answer

The resource ARN is incorrect; it should specify the snapshot resource type.

Answer

The action 'ec2:CreateSnapshot' should be 'ec2:CreateSnapshots' (plural).

Answer

The condition key should be 'aws:ResourceTag' instead of 'ec2:ResourceTag'.

Question 7

An administrator runs the command shown in the exhibit to check the status of an EBS volume attached to an SAP HANA instance. The volume is 200 GB gp3 and is attached to instance i-0a1b2c3d4e5f67890. The administrator wants to increase the I/O performance. The volume is currently set to 3000 IOPS (baseline for gp3). Which action will increase IOPS without downtime?

Accepted Answer

Modify the volume's IOPS setting to a higher value (e.g., 6000) using the modify-volume API.. Option B is correct because gp3 volumes allow modifying IOPS independently of size without detaching. Option A is wrong because modifying volume type to io2 would require detaching or stopping instance. Option C is wrong because detaching the volume causes downtime. Option D is wrong because taking a snapshot does not increase IOPS.

Answer

Detach the volume, increase the size to 500 GB, and reattach.

Answer

Modify the volume type to io2 Block Express and increase IOPS.

Answer

Take a snapshot of the volume and create a new volume with higher IOPS from the snapshot.

Question 8

A company is running an SAP HANA database on an AWS EC2 instance. The system administrator needs to ensure that the database logs are automatically backed up to Amazon S3 and retained for 30 days. Which combination of AWS services can achieve this with minimal operational overhead?

Accepted Answer

Use an S3 Lifecycle Policy to transition logs to S3 Glacier after 30 days.. Option B is correct because it uses a Lifecycle Policy to transition logs to S3 Glacier after 30 days, meeting the retention requirement with minimal overhead. Option A involves manual scripting and lifecycle rules that don't automatically delete logs after 30 days. Option C uses CloudWatch Logs but doesn't automatically delete logs after 30 days. Option D uses AWS Backup, which is for EC2 backups, not log files.

Answer

Use Amazon CloudWatch Logs with a retention policy of 30 days.

Answer

Use an S3 Lifecycle Policy to transition logs to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days.

Answer

Use AWS Backup to schedule backups of the EC2 instance.

Question 9

An SAP system running on AWS experiences periodic performance degradation. Analysis shows that the issue occurs when an on-premises monitoring system polls the SAP application server. Which AWS service can help mitigate this by caching or throttling requests?

Accepted Answer

AWS WAF. Option C is correct because AWS WAF can rate-limit incoming requests from a specific IP, reducing load. Option A (CloudFront) caches content but is not designed for application-level throttling. Option B (ELB) distributes traffic but does not throttle. Option D (Route 53) is DNS and not suitable for throttling.

Answer

Amazon Route 53

Answer

Amazon CloudFront

Answer

Elastic Load Balancing

Question 10

A company wants to automate the start and stop of SAP EC2 instances during non-business hours to reduce costs. Which AWS service is best suited for this task?

Accepted Answer

AWS Instance Scheduler. Option B is correct because AWS Instance Scheduler is a dedicated solution to automate instance start/stop on a schedule. Option A (Auto Scaling) is for scaling based on demand, not scheduling. Option C (CloudWatch Events) can trigger Lambda but requires custom code. Option D (Systems Manager) can run commands but is not purpose-built for scheduling.

Answer

AWS Auto Scaling

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Events

Answer

AWS Systems Manager

Question 11

An SAP system uses a Multi-AZ RDS for Oracle instance. During a recent failover, the application experienced a long outage because the SAP application server did not automatically reconnect to the new database endpoint. What is the most efficient way to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Reduce the DNS TTL for the RDS endpoint and ensure the application re-resolves DNS on connection failure.. Option A is correct because the RDS endpoint remains the same after failover; the issue is DNS caching. Reducing the TTL ensures the application picks up the new IP quickly. Option B (rebooting) is disruptive and not a fix. Option C (modifying the connection string) is not needed. Option D (using a load balancer) adds complexity and latency.

Answer

Reboot the application server after every failover.

Answer

Deploy an Application Load Balancer in front of the RDS instance.

Answer

Modify the application connection string to use the standby instance IP directly.

Question 12

A company needs to monitor the CPU utilization of SAP EC2 instances and send an alert if it exceeds 90% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which AWS service should be used?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Alarms. Option C is correct because CloudWatch Alarms monitor metrics and trigger actions. Option A (CloudTrail) is for API auditing. Option B (Config) is for configuration compliance. Option D (Trusted Advisor) provides best-practice checks.

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

AWS Trusted Advisor

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Question 13

An SAP system is deployed on AWS using a shared account structure. The security team requires that all changes to SAP security groups be logged and alerted. Which combination of AWS services should be used?

Accepted Answer

AWS CloudTrail with Amazon CloudWatch Events. Option D is correct because CloudTrail logs API calls (including security group changes) and CloudWatch Events can trigger alerts. Option A (Config + SNS) can detect changes but not real-time. Option B (GuardDuty) is for threat detection. Option C (Inspector) is for vulnerability assessment.

Answer

AWS Config with an SNS topic

Answer

Amazon Inspector with Amazon SNS

Answer

Amazon GuardDuty with Amazon SNS

Question 14

A company is running SAP on EC2 instances with EBS volumes. They need to take daily snapshots of the EBS volumes and retain them for 90 days. Which approach is most cost-effective?

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) to automate snapshots and set a retention policy of 90 days.. Option B is correct because the DLM automates snapshot management and can delete old snapshots, reducing storage costs. Option A (manual snapshots) is not automated and may lead to unnecessary retention. Option C (AWS Backup) is a paid service with additional costs. Option D (S3 Lifecycle) does not apply to EBS snapshots.

Answer

Use S3 Lifecycle policies to transition snapshots to Glacier after 90 days.

Answer

Create a script that takes snapshots daily and stores them indefinitely.

Answer

Use AWS Backup to schedule backups and set retention to 90 days.

Question 15

An SAP system on AWS is experiencing high latency between the application and database tiers. Both tiers are in the same VPC but in different Availability Zones. What is the most effective way to reduce latency?

Accepted Answer

Move both tiers into the same Availability Zone.. Option C is correct because placing both tiers in the same AZ eliminates cross-AZ data transfer latency. Option A (increasing bandwidth) does not reduce latency. Option B (adding a load balancer) adds overhead. Option D (using Direct Connect) is for on-premises connectivity, not within AWS.

Answer

Add an Application Load Balancer between tiers.

Answer

Increase the bandwidth of the EC2 instances.

Answer

Enable AWS Direct Connect.