PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Test 31 — 15 Questions

Question 1

An SAP system administrator is troubleshooting a performance issue on an SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) system running on AWS. The system uses an Oracle database on an EC2 instance with EBS volumes. Users report that some transactions are slow, especially during month-end closing. The administrator checks CloudWatch metrics and notices that the EBS volume read latency is high (average 20 ms) and the queue depth is consistently 0. The volume type is gp2 with 3000 IOPS. The administrator suspects the volume is not meeting the IOPS demand. What should the administrator do to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Increase the EBS volume size to increase the baseline IOPS. Option D is correct because increasing the volume size increases baseline IOPS for gp2. Option A is wrong as switching to gp3 may help but not directly address queue depth. Option B is wrong as throughput is not the issue. Option C is wrong as increasing IOPS without volume size increase is not possible for gp2.

Answer

Switch the volume type from gp2 to gp3

Answer

Increase the volume throughput to 250 MB/s

Answer

Enable EBS optimization on the EC2 instance

Question 2

A company runs a critical SAP HANA database on an m5.24xlarge EC2 instance. The operations team notices that the database performance degrades during peak hours. Which AWS service should be used to identify whether the instance is experiencing CPU throttling due to CPU credit exhaustion?

Accepted Answer

Use CloudWatch to monitor the CPUUtilization metric.. Option B is correct because T2/T3 instances use CPU credits, but m5 instances are dedicated performance instances and do not use CPU credits. However, the question tests if the candidate knows that m5 instances do not have CPU credit concepts; thus the correct answer is to check CloudWatch metrics for CPU Utilization, which directly measures CPU usage. Option A is wrong because m5 instances do not have CPU credit metrics. Option C is wrong because CloudTrail logs API calls, not performance metrics. Option D is wrong because Trusted Advisor gives best-practice recommendations, not real-time CPU metrics.

Answer

Use CloudTrail to review the EC2 instance launch configuration.

Answer

Use AWS Trusted Advisor to check for instance performance issues.

Answer

Use CloudWatch to monitor the CPUCreditBalance metric.

Question 3

An SAP administrator is troubleshooting an issue where SAP application servers are unable to connect to the SAP HANA database. The database is running on an EC2 instance in a private subnet. The application servers are in a different VPC connected via VPC peering. The security group for the database instance allows TCP port 3$15$13 from the application server security group. Which additional configuration is MOST likely required?

Accepted Answer

Enable DNS resolution for the VPC peering connection.. Option C is correct because VPC peering does not automatically resolve DNS hostnames between VPCs. The application servers must resolve the database hostname to the private IP of the database instance. Option A is wrong because VPC peering does not support transitive routing, but that's not relevant here. Option B is wrong because NACLs are stateless and must allow return traffic, but the issue is DNS resolution. Option D is wrong because the security group rule already allows the port.

Answer

Modify the security group to allow traffic from the application server subnet CIDR.

Answer

Update the route tables to add a route to the database subnet.

Answer

Add a rule to the network ACL to allow inbound traffic on port 3$15$13.

Question 4

A company is using AWS Systems Manager to automate patching of SAP EC2 instances. The patching fails for some instances with the error 'Unable to retrieve SSM Agent registration'. What is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The instance does not have outbound internet access or a VPC endpoint for Systems Manager.. Option B is correct because the SSM Agent needs to connect to the Systems Manager endpoints. If the instance does not have internet access or a VPC endpoint, the agent cannot communicate. Option A is wrong because the SSM Agent runs on the instance, not in a container. Option C is wrong because the error is about registration, not permissions. Option D is wrong because patching does not require a reboot by default.

Answer

The patching window is too short and the instance times out.

Answer

The IAM role attached to the instance does not have permissions to list patches.

Answer

The SSM Agent is not installed because the instance is running in a container.

Question 5

An SAP system running on AWS uses a Multi-AZ RDS for SAP ASE database. The operations team notices that the database failover took longer than expected during a recent outage. What should the team investigate to reduce failover time?

Accepted Answer

Check for long-running transactions that delay the failover.. Option D is correct because Multi-AZ failover time is influenced by the time to complete in-flight transactions. Option A is wrong because synchronous replication is used, not asynchronous. Option B is wrong because Multi-AZ already has a standby in another AZ. Option C is wrong because increasing instance size may not reduce failover time.

Answer

Increase the allocated storage for the database to improve I/O performance.

Answer

Ensure that the standby instance is in the same Availability Zone as the primary.

Answer

Verify that the database is using asynchronous replication.

Question 6

A company runs SAP on AWS and uses a shared file system via Amazon EFS for transport files. Recently, the SAP system experienced slowness when importing transports. The CloudWatch metrics show high BurstCreditBalance for the EFS file system. What action should be taken to improve performance?

Accepted Answer

Enable Max I/O performance mode on the EFS file system.. Option B is correct because if BurstCreditBalance is high, it means the file system is not using burst credits, so performance is limited by baseline throughput. To improve performance, enable max I/O performance mode or increase throughput. Option A is wrong because more credits are not needed. Option C is wrong because the issue is throughput, not encryption. Option D is wrong because General Purpose performance mode is the default and may not be sufficient for high throughput.

Answer

Change the performance mode to General Purpose.

Answer

Enable encryption at rest to improve data transfer speed.

Answer

Increase the BurstCreditBalance by purchasing additional credits.

Question 7

An SAP Basis administrator needs to apply an OS-level security patch to a fleet of SAP EC2 instances running Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The instances are part of an Auto Scaling group. Which approach is the MOST efficient and minimizes downtime?

Accepted Answer

Create a new AMI with the patch applied, update the launch template, and perform a rolling update via Auto Scaling.. Option A is correct because using a new AMI with the patch and launching a new instance via Auto Scaling ensures that the new instance is patched before replacing the old one. Option B is wrong because applying patches via Systems Manager to running instances may cause downtime. Option C is wrong because stopping and patching each instance causes downtime. Option D is wrong because creating an AMI from a patched instance and updating the launch configuration is similar to A but more manual.

Answer

Create a custom AMI and manually terminate each instance to launch new ones.

Answer

Stop all instances, apply the patch using a script, and restart them.

Answer

Use AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager to apply the patch to all instances simultaneously.

Question 8

A company runs SAP HANA on AWS and needs to perform a backup of the HANA database to Amazon S3. Which AWS service should be used to orchestrate the backup and ensure consistency?

Accepted Answer

AWS Backup with pre- and post-backup scripts for application-consistent backups.. Option B is correct because AWS Backup supports SAP HANA on EC2 with pre- and post-scripts for consistency. Option A is wrong because S3 Lifecycle policies manage object lifecycle, not backups. Option C is wrong because DLM manages EBS snapshots, not application-consistent backups. Option D is wrong because Storage Gateway is for hybrid storage, not SAP HANA backups.

Answer

Amazon S3 Lifecycle policies to transition backups to Glacier.

Answer

Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) to schedule EBS snapshots.

Answer

AWS Storage Gateway file gateway to back up to S3.

Question 9

During a disaster recovery test, an SAP administrator finds that the SAP application cannot connect to the replicated HANA database in the DR region. The replication is done using SAP HANA System Replication. What is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The application connection string still points to the primary database endpoint.. Option C is correct because HANA System Replication replicates the database, but the application connection strings must be updated manually or via automation. Option A is wrong because replication is asynchronous, so there is no mismatch. Option B is wrong because the replication is not interrupted by lack of connectivity. Option D is wrong because the DR database is a separate instance; application restart is not sufficient.

Answer

The replication link is down because the source database is not accessible.

Answer

The HANA database in the DR region is not synchronized due to network latency.

Answer

The application server needs to be restarted to recognize the new database.

Question 10

An SAP system is experiencing high disk I/O latency. The operations team checks the Amazon CloudWatch metrics and finds that the Average Queue Length for the EBS volumes is consistently above the recommended threshold. Which action should be taken to address this issue?

Accepted Answer

Increase the provisioned IOPS for the EBS volumes.. Option A is correct because increasing IOPS reduces queue length. Option B is wrong because increasing volume size may not increase IOPS if gp2 volumes are used (size affects burst credits). Option C is wrong because converting to st1 is for throughput, not IOPS. Option D is wrong because enabling encryption does not affect performance.

Answer

Change the volume type to Throughput Optimized HDD (st1).

Answer

Enable EBS encryption to improve I/O performance.

Answer

Increase the volume size to improve I/O performance.

Question 11

A company runs SAP on AWS and wants to automate the monitoring of SAP system health. Which TWO AWS services can be used together to achieve this? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

AWS Lambda. Option A and C are correct. CloudWatch can collect custom metrics from SAP, and Lambda can process and act on those metrics. Option B is not correct because Config is for compliance and configuration tracking. Option D is not correct because EC2 Auto Scaling is for scaling, not monitoring. Option E is not correct because SQS is a queue service.

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Answer

Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS)

Question 12

An SAP administrator is troubleshooting a performance issue where the SAP application is slow. The administrator suspects that the EBS volumes are not meeting performance requirements. Which THREE metrics should be examined in Amazon CloudWatch to confirm this? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

VolumeQueueLength. Options B, C, and D are correct. VolumeReadBytes and VolumeWriteBytes measure throughput, and VolumeQueueLength indicates pending I/O requests. Option A is not correct because BurstBalance is for t2/t3 instances, not EBS. Option E is not correct because CPUCreditBalance is for CPU credits.

Answer

CPUCreditBalance

Answer

BurstBalance

Question 13

A company is planning to migrate its SAP workloads to AWS. Which THREE AWS services are commonly used to set up a secure network connectivity between on-premises and AWS? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

AWS Transit Gateway. Options A, B, and C are correct. AWS VPN, Direct Connect, and Transit Gateway are used for hybrid connectivity. Option D is not correct because VPC Peering is for VPC-to-VPC, not on-premises. Option E is not correct because Client VPN is for individual clients.

Answer

VPC Peering

Answer

AWS Client VPN

Question 14

A company runs its SAP ERP system on AWS using a multi-tier architecture. The SAP application servers are in an Auto Scaling group across two Availability Zones, and the SAP HANA database runs on a single large EC2 instance (r5.24xlarge) with 768 GB of memory and EBS Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) volumes. The operations team recently noticed that the database performance degrades intermittently during peak business hours. CloudWatch metrics show that the database instance's CPU utilization remains below 40%, but the ReadLatency and WriteLatency for the EBS volumes spike above 10 ms during these periods, and the VolumeQueueLength metric increases significantly. The database instance uses a single EBS volume for /hana/data and another for /hana/log. The team has already verified that there are no network bottlenecks and that the SAP application servers are not overwhelming the database with queries. What is the MOST likely cause of the latency spikes, and what action should be taken?

Accepted Answer

Upgrade the EC2 instance to a Nitro-based instance type like r5b.24xlarge, which provides higher EBS bandwidth and lower latency.. Option B is correct because the symptoms suggest that the EBS volumes are not meeting the required IOPS, causing queueing and latency. Switching to Nitro instances that support EBS optimization at higher bandwidth can improve performance. Option A is wrong because adding more application servers would increase load, not reduce latency. Option C is wrong because enabling encryption does not improve IOPS. Option D is wrong because changing volume type to st1 (throughput optimized) is not suitable for low-latency database workloads.

Answer

Change the EBS volume type from io1 to st1 for higher throughput.

Answer

Add more SAP application servers to distribute the load and reduce database contention.

Answer

Enable EBS encryption on the volumes to improve I/O performance.

Question 15

A company has deployed SAP on AWS with a shared file system using Amazon EFS for the /sapmnt directory. The EFS file system is mounted on all SAP application servers. Recently, users reported that the SAP system is slow when accessing reports that are stored as PDF files in the /sapmnt directory. The operations team checks the CloudWatch metrics and finds that the EFS file system's PercentIOLimit metric is consistently at 100% during peak hours. The file system is using the General Purpose performance mode. The team also notices that the BurstCreditBalance is decreasing over time. What action should be taken to resolve this performance issue?

Accepted Answer

Switch the EFS performance mode to Max I/O to get higher throughput.. Option C is correct because switching to Max I/O performance mode provides higher IOPS and throughput for workloads with high I/O demands. Option A is wrong because the issue is I/O limit, not storage capacity. Option B is wrong because increasing burst credits is not possible; the file system needs higher baseline. Option D is wrong because lifecycle management is for cost optimization, not performance.

Answer

Enable EFS lifecycle management to move infrequently accessed files to Infrequent Access storage class.

Answer

Increase the size of the EFS file system to improve performance.

Answer

Increase the burst credit balance by enabling throughput mode.