PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Test 30 — 15 Questions

Question 1

An SAP administrator is setting up monitoring for an SAP HANA database. Which TWO metrics should be monitored from the HANA database using Amazon CloudWatch?

Accepted Answer

CPU utilization of the HANA process. Options A and D are correct because memory usage and CPU usage are critical for HANA performance. Option B is wrong because EBS volume metrics are not HANA-specific. Option C is wrong because SAPS is not a standard CloudWatch metric. Option E is wrong because network packet loss is not a standard HANA metric.

Answer

SAPS (SAP Application Performance Standard)

Answer

EBS volume queue length

Answer

Network packet loss

Question 2

A company runs a critical SAP ERP system on AWS. The architecture includes an SAP HANA database on an r5.24xlarge instance (with 768 GB RAM) in us-east-1a, and multiple SAP application servers in an Auto Scaling group across two Availability Zones (us-east-1a and us-east-1b). The database uses EBS volumes: two 1 TB gp3 volumes for data, one 500 GB gp3 for log, and one 100 GB gp3 for backup. The system has been running without issues for months. At 3:00 PM, the operations team receives alerts from Amazon CloudWatch that the HANA database instance's CPU utilization is at 100%, memory usage is at 95%, and the disk queue length for the log volume is consistently above 10. The SAP application is experiencing intermittent timeouts. The team checks the HANA studio and sees that there are many long-running queries and that the log volume is almost full (95% used). The database backups are scheduled to run at 2:00 AM and completed successfully. There have been no changes to the system or workload recently. The team suspects a performance degradation. What is the MOST likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

The log volume is almost full, causing HANA to stall transaction processing.. Option C is correct because a full log volume can cause HANA to pause transactions, leading to increased CPU/memory usage and timeouts. Option A is wrong because HANA's memory management is dynamic and not constrained by OS limits. Option B is wrong because backups are not running at 3 PM. Option D is wrong because the disk queue length indicates I/O issues, but the root cause is log volume full, not insufficient IOPS.

Answer

The HANA database has reached its memory limit due to the global.ini allocation.

Answer

The gp3 volume's baseline IOPS are insufficient for the current workload.

Answer

A backup job is running and consuming CPU and I/O resources.

Question 3

A company runs an SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance in a single Availability Zone. The database experiences performance degradation during peak hours. Which action should be taken to improve performance without changing the instance type?

Accepted Answer

Enable Enhanced Networking on the EC2 instance. Option B is correct because enabling Enhanced Networking reduces latency and improves throughput for HANA. Option A is wrong as increasing EBS IOPS may not address network bottlenecks. Option C is wrong because CloudWatch detailed monitoring does not improve performance. Option D is wrong because switching to gp3 may not provide enough performance for HANA.

Answer

Increase the provisioned IOPS on the EBS volumes

Answer

Enable detailed CloudWatch monitoring

Answer

Change the EBS volumes to gp3

Question 4

An SAP administrator needs to automate the daily backup of an SAP HANA database running on EC2. Which AWS service should be used to schedule and manage the backup process?

Accepted Answer

AWS Backup. Option A is correct because AWS Backup provides a centralized backup service that can schedule and manage backups for EC2 instances and EBS volumes. Option B is wrong as CloudWatch Events triggers actions but isn't a backup manager. Option C is wrong because Data Pipeline is for data transformation, not backups. Option D is wrong because S3 Lifecycle policies manage object retention, not backups.

Answer

Amazon S3 Lifecycle policies

Answer

AWS Data Pipeline

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Events

Question 5

A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS using an ASCS and PAS cluster with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The cluster fails over unexpectedly several times a day. What is the most likely cause and solution?

Accepted Answer

Cluster quorum loss due to insufficient votes; add a third node or configure a witness. Option D is correct because cluster quorum loss causes unnecessary failovers, and adding a third node resolves it. Option A is wrong as memory is not a typical cause. Option B is wrong because network latency wouldn't cause frequent failovers. Option C is wrong because disk I/O doesn't cause failovers.

Answer

High network latency between nodes; use placement groups

Answer

Insufficient memory on the cluster nodes; increase memory

Answer

Incorrect ASCS instance configuration; verify SAP profiles

Question 6

An SAP system administrator notices that the SAP HANA database backup job to Amazon S3 is failing intermittently. The backup script uses the AWS CLI. Which step should be taken to diagnose the issue?

Accepted Answer

Check AWS CloudTrail logs for S3 API call errors. Option A is correct because checking CloudTrail logs reveals API call errors. Option B is wrong as S3 Transfer Acceleration would not fix failures. Option C is wrong because the script already uses CLI. Option D is wrong because lifecycle policies don't affect backup jobs.

Answer

Enable S3 Transfer Acceleration on the bucket

Answer

Configure S3 Lifecycle policy to expire incomplete multipart uploads

Answer

Modify the backup script to use the AWS SDK instead of CLI

Question 7

An SAP system is deployed on EC2 instances across multiple Availability Zones. Which AWS service should be used to automatically distribute incoming traffic across the SAP application servers?

Accepted Answer

Application Load Balancer. Option C is correct because an Application Load Balancer distributes HTTP/HTTPS traffic. Option A is wrong as Route 53 is for DNS. Option B is wrong because Network Load Balancer is for TCP/UDP. Option D is wrong as CloudFront is a CDN.

Answer

Amazon Route 53

Answer

Network Load Balancer

Answer

Amazon CloudFront

Question 8

A company runs SAP Business Suite on AWS. The SAP system frequently crashes with a 'JAVA out of memory' error. The application server is an EC2 instance with 32 GB RAM. Which solution should be implemented to prevent this issue?

Accepted Answer

Configure Amazon CloudWatch alarms to trigger EC2 Auto Scaling based on memory utilization. Option B is correct because CloudWatch alarms can trigger Auto Scaling to add instances. Option A is wrong as increasing instance memory is a manual workaround. Option C is wrong because increasing swap may cause performance issues. Option D is wrong as reducing heap would increase crashes.

Answer

Increase the EC2 instance memory to 64 GB

Answer

Reduce the Java heap size in the SAP system

Answer

Increase the swap space on the EC2 instance

Question 9

An SAP system administrator wants to monitor the CPU and memory usage of SAP HANA database instances. Which AWS service should be used to collect and visualize these metrics?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Agent. Option D is correct because CloudWatch Agent can collect memory metrics. Option A is wrong as CloudWatch metrics by default do not include memory. Option B is wrong as Systems Manager Run Command is for executing scripts. Option C is wrong because CloudTrail is for API auditing.

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

AWS Systems Manager Run Command

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch metrics

Question 10

An SAP system is running on EC2 instances with EBS volumes. The administrator wants to automate the creation of point-in-time snapshots of the EBS volumes for disaster recovery. Which AWS service is best suited for this?

Accepted Answer

Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM). Option A is correct because Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager automates EBS snapshot creation. Option B is wrong as AWS Backup can also handle snapshots but DLM is more specific. Option C is wrong as S3 Lifecycle policies are for objects. Option D is wrong as CloudFormation is for infrastructure provisioning.

Answer

AWS Backup

Answer

Amazon S3 Lifecycle policies

Answer

AWS CloudFormation

Question 11

A company recently migrated SAP ERP to AWS. The SAP application logs indicate repeated 'ORA-1555 snapshot too old' errors in the Oracle database. Which AWS-specific parameter could be causing this?

Accepted Answer

EBS volume queue depth is too low causing I/O throttling. Option C is correct because EBS volume queue depth can cause I/O delays leading to transaction rollback. Option A is wrong as snapshot creation does not affect live database. Option B is wrong as DB parameter groups don't cause this error directly. Option D is wrong as Enhanced Networking is for network, not storage.

Answer

Enhanced Networking is disabled

Answer

Incorrect Oracle DB parameter settings

Answer

EBS snapshot schedule is too frequent

Question 12

Which TWO AWS services can be used to perform automated backups of an SAP HANA database running on EC2? (Choose 2.)

Accepted Answer

AWS Backup. Option A (AWS Backup) and Option D (Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager) can automate backups. Option B (CloudWatch) does not perform backups. Option C (CloudTrail) audits. Option E (S3) is storage, not backup automation.

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Events

Answer

Amazon S3

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Question 13

Which THREE steps should be taken when recovering an SAP system from an EBS snapshot? (Choose 3.)

Accepted Answer

Attach the new volume to the EC2 instance. Option A, B, and D are correct. Option C is wrong because you don't need to terminate before restoring. Option E is wrong as S3 doesn't need to be mounted.

Answer

Terminate the existing EC2 instance

Answer

Reconfigure the S3 bucket for backup storage

Question 14

Which TWO AWS services can be used to automate the restart of an SAP application server when it becomes unresponsive? (Choose 2.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch alarm with an EC2 action to recover the instance. Option A (CloudWatch Alarm & EC2 Action) and Option C (Systems Manager Automation) can restart an instance. Option B (Auto Scaling) works for replacement. Option D (Lambda) can be used but requires custom code. Option E (ECS) is for containers.

Answer

Amazon ECS service auto-recovery

Answer

EC2 Auto Scaling group with a health check

Answer

Amazon EventBridge with a Lambda function

Question 15

A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS with a High Availability (HA) cluster spanning two Availability Zones (us-east-1a and us-east-1b). The cluster uses an Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP file system for the global transport directory. Recently, the cluster experienced a split-brain situation, leading to data corruption. The administrator wants to prevent this from recurring. The current setup uses a single FSx file system mounted on both cluster nodes. What should the administrator do to prevent split-brain?

Accepted Answer

Configure a STONITH (Shoot The Other Node In The Head) mechanism using AWS Lambda. Option B is correct because using the Stonith mechanism ensures a failed node is forcefully isolated before the other node takes over, preventing split-brain. Option A is wrong as more nodes increase complexity. Option C is wrong because replication doesn't prevent split-brain. Option D is wrong as memory upgrade doesn't affect cluster communication.

Answer

Add a third cluster node in a third Availability Zone

Answer

Increase the memory on both EC2 instances

Answer

Set up cross-region replication for the FSx file system