PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Test 6 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Refer to the exhibit. An operations team sees this log entry in CloudWatch Logs for an SAP system. What is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The network connection between the ABAP application server and HANA is down.. The error indicates an RFC communication failure, which is typically due to a network issue between the ABAP application server and the HANA database. Option A is wrong because there is no indication of a HANA crash. Option B is wrong because the error is about communication, not authentication (password expiry would result in a different error). Option D is wrong because the error is not about the ABAP program itself; it is a connectivity issue.

Answer

The HANA database has crashed.

Answer

The SAP system user password has expired.

Answer

The ABAP program Z_MONITOR has a bug.

Question 2

Refer to the exhibit. An operations team uses this CloudFormation template to launch SAP application servers. After deployment, the application server fails to join the SAP system. The team verified that the security group allows outbound traffic to the SAP system. What is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The `LatestAmiId` parameter is not defined in the template.. The template uses `!Ref LatestAmiId` which does not exist as a parameter; it should be a parameter or a mapping. Option A is wrong because the instance type is parameterized. Option B is wrong because the security group is referenced correctly. Option C is wrong because the user data script is base64 encoded correctly.

Answer

The instance type is not specified correctly.

Answer

The security group ID is not properly referenced.

Answer

The user data script is not base64 encoded correctly.

Question 3

A company runs SAP on AWS and uses a multi-AZ deployment for SAP HANA. The operations team notices that the secondary HANA node in the standby replica is not automatically taking over during a planned failover test. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

HANA system replication is not configured with 'PRIMARY' and 'SECONDARY' roles.. For automatic failover in SAP HANA system replication, the secondary node must be configured with the 'SECONDARY' role and the primary with 'PRIMARY' role. If these roles are not set, the secondary will not automatically take over during a planned failover test. Option B is incorrect because security groups can block replication traffic, but that would prevent replication altogether, not just automatic failover during a planned test. Option C is incorrect because instance families do not affect automatic failover; HANA can run on different families but that is not a typical cause. Option D is incorrect because EBS replication is not a factor in HANA system replication; HANA uses its own replication mechanism.

Answer

Security Groups are blocking replication traffic.

Answer

The secondary instance is launched in a different instance family.

Answer

The EBS volumes are not configured for replication across AZs.

Question 4

An SAP administrator needs to perform an OS-level patching of the underlying EC2 instances hosting an SAP HANA database in a production environment. The HANA database is configured with system replication across two Availability Zones. What is the best practice to minimize downtime?

Accepted Answer

Fail over to the secondary HANA instance, apply patches to the primary, then fail back.. Failing over to the secondary and patching the primary reduces downtime. Option A is wrong because stopping HANA causes downtime. Option B is wrong because stopping EC2 instance causes downtime. Option D is wrong because stopping HANA causes downtime.

Answer

Stop the EC2 instance, apply patches, and start.

Answer

Take a snapshot of the volume, patch the OS, and restore if needed.

Answer

Stop the HANA database, apply patches, and restart.

Question 5

Your SAP on AWS environment uses a central S3 bucket to store SAP transport files. The operations team reports that transport import fails intermittently. Which AWS service can be used to monitor and alert on S3 API call failures?

Accepted Answer

AWS CloudTrail. CloudTrail logs all S3 API calls and can be used to monitor failures via CloudWatch Logs or EventBridge. AWS Config tracks configuration changes, not API calls. CloudWatch Metrics provides S3 metrics but is not the primary service for detailed API call monitoring. Trusted Advisor offers best-practice checks, not real-time monitoring.

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Metrics

Answer

AWS Trusted Advisor

Question 6

A company runs SAP ERP on AWS with a DR strategy using cross-region replication for SAP HANA. During a DR drill, the team discovers that the HANA database is not starting on the DR instance. Which configuration is most likely missing?

Accepted Answer

HANA system replication configuration with the correct 'PRIMARY' and 'SECONDARY' roles.. HANA system replication requires proper configuration of primary and secondary roles. Without the correct HSR configuration, the HANA database will not start on the DR instance. Option A is incorrect because IAM roles for S3 access are not necessary for HANA startup. Option B is incorrect because EBS encryption does not affect HANA startup. Option D is incorrect because CloudWatch agent is for monitoring, not for HANA startup.

Answer

IAM roles for the DR instance to access S3.

Answer

EBS encryption on the DR volumes.

Answer

CloudWatch agent for logging.

Question 7

An SAP Basis team is troubleshooting a performance issue on an SAP HANA database running on AWS. The HANA index server is consuming high CPU. The team suspects that the underlying EC2 instance is throttled. Which CloudWatch metric should be checked to confirm CPU throttling?

Accepted Answer

CPUCreditBalance. CPUCreditBalance indicates the number of CPU credits available for burstable performance instances. If the credit balance is depleted, the instance is throttled, which can cause high CPU usage with limited performance. Option A (CPUUtilization) shows CPU usage but does not directly indicate throttling. Option B (NetworkIn) and Option D (DiskReadOps) are unrelated to CPU throttling.

Answer

CPUUtilization

Answer

NetworkIn

Answer

DiskReadOps

Question 8

Your SAP system on AWS uses a shared file system with Amazon EFS. The operations team notices that the SAP application is experiencing latency when reading files from EFS. Which action can improve read performance?

Accepted Answer

Enable EFS performance mode 'max I/O'.. Enabling EFS 'max I/O' performance mode increases the file system's ability to handle a high number of concurrent read operations by distributing data across multiple servers within the AWS region. This mode is specifically designed for workloads like SAP that require high throughput and low-latency access to shared files, as it scales I/O operations horizontally without the bottleneck of a single file server.

Answer

Use Amazon FSx for Windows File Server instead.

Answer

Move the file system to Amazon EBS with provisioned IOPS.

Answer

Use Amazon S3 with Transfer Acceleration.

Question 9

An SAP administrator needs to ensure that all EC2 instances in the SAP landscape have the correct patches and configurations. Which AWS service can be used to automate OS patch management?

Accepted Answer

AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager. AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager automates the patching of EC2 instances, making it the correct choice for OS patch management. Option A is wrong because AWS CloudFormation is used for infrastructure as code, not patching. Option C is wrong because AWS OpsWorks is for configuration management with Chef/Puppet. Option D is wrong because AWS Config is for compliance auditing, not patching.

Answer

AWS CloudFormation

Answer

AWS OpsWorks

Answer

AWS Config

Question 10

A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS with a three-tier architecture. The operations team receives alerts that the application server's CPU utilization is consistently above 90%. The team wants to add an additional application server to distribute the load. Which AWS service should be used to register the new instance with the SAP system's load balancer?

Accepted Answer

Application Load Balancer (ALB). (Application Load Balancer). ALB can register EC2 instances as targets and distribute incoming traffic across multiple instances, making it suitable for adding an additional application server to distribute the load. Option A (CloudFront) is a CDN service, not a load balancer. Option B (Network Load Balancer) operates at the transport layer (TCP/UDP) and is not ideal for application-level load balancing. Option C (Route 53) is a DNS service and does not register instances directly.

Answer

Amazon CloudFront

Answer

Network Load Balancer (NLB)

Answer

Amazon Route 53

Question 11

An SAP system on AWS uses Amazon RDS for its database. The operations team needs to perform a point-in-time recovery (PITR) to restore the database to a specific timestamp. Which AWS feature enables PITR for RDS?

Accepted Answer

Automated backups. Automated backups (option C) enable point-in-time recovery (PITR) for Amazon RDS. They provide continuous backups that allow restoring the database to any point within the retention period. Option A (Manual DB snapshots) are user-initiated and not used for PITR. Option B (Read Replicas) are for read scaling, not recovery. Option D (Multi-AZ deployment) provides high availability, not PITR.

Answer

Manual DB snapshots

Answer

Read Replicas

Answer

Multi-AZ deployment

Question 12

Which TWO AWS services can be used to monitor the performance of SAP HANA on AWS and set alarms? (Select TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch. Options D and E are correct. Amazon CloudWatch is used for monitoring SAP HANA on AWS and setting alarms based on metrics. AWS Systems Manager can run scripts to collect custom metrics and trigger alarms. Option A is incorrect because CloudTrail is for API auditing, not performance monitoring. Option B is incorrect because AWS Config evaluates configuration compliance. Option C is incorrect because Trusted Advisor provides best practice checks, not real-time monitoring.

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

AWS Trusted Advisor

Question 13

Which THREE factors should be considered when designing an SAP HANA backup strategy on AWS? (Select THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Encryption of backup data at rest and in transit. Options A, D, and E are correct. Option A: Encryption of backup data at rest and in transit ensures security and compliance. Option D: Cross-region replication provides disaster recovery capability by storing backups in a different AWS region. Option E: Backup frequency and retention period directly affect recovery point objective (RPO) and compliance requirements. Option B (Security Group rules for backup traffic) is not a primary factor because backup traffic is typically encrypted and can be controlled via network ACLs or security policies; Security Groups are not the main design consideration. Option C (EC2 instance type for backup server) is irrelevant because AWS manages the underlying infrastructure for backup services like AWS Backup; you do not need to provision a separate EC2 instance for backups.

Answer

Security Group rules for backup traffic

Answer

EC2 instance type for backup server

Question 14

Which TWO AWS services can be used to automate the start and stop of SAP EC2 instances based on a schedule? (Select TWO.)

Accepted Answer

AWS Lambda with CloudWatch Events. The correct answers are A (AWS Lambda with CloudWatch Events) and C (AWS Instance Scheduler). Option A allows you to run a custom Lambda function triggered by CloudWatch Events on a schedule (e.g., cron expression) to start or stop EC2 instances. Option C is a purpose-built AWS solution for scheduling instance start and stop times. Options B (Systems Manager Run Command) is used for ad-hoc command execution, not for recurring scheduling. Option D (Auto Scaling) manages capacity based on scaling policies, not for scheduled start/stop of existing instances. Option E (AWS OpsWorks) is a configuration management service (Chef/Puppet) and not designed for scheduling instance power states.

Answer

AWS Systems Manager Run Command

Answer

AWS Auto Scaling

Answer

AWS OpsWorks

Question 15

An SAP system administrator notices that nightly SAP HANA backups to Amazon S3 are failing intermittently with 'Access Denied' errors. The backups are initiated by an AWS Lambda function that uses an IAM role. The role has a policy that grants s3:PutObject on the backup bucket. Which additional IAM action is most likely required to resolve the issue?

Accepted Answer

s3:PutObjectAcl. s3:PutObjectAcl is required when the bucket owner and the object uploader are different, or when the bucket policy requires the uploader to set ACLs to give the bucket owner full control. In this scenario, the Lambda function's IAM role likely needs this permission to successfully write objects to the S3 bucket, especially if the bucket is owned by a different AWS account or has a bucket policy that enforces specific ACLs. Without s3:PutObjectAcl, the upload may fail with 'Access Denied' when the bucket policy requires the uploader to grant the bucket owner full control. Option A (s3:ListBucket) is for listing objects, not uploading. Option C (s3:DeleteObject) is for deleting, not uploading. Option D (s3:GetObject) is for reading, not writing.

Answer

s3:ListBucket

Answer

s3:DeleteObject

Answer

s3:GetObject