PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Test 7 — 15 Questions

Question 1

An SAP Basis administrator needs to monitor the memory usage of an SAP HANA database running on an EC2 instance. Which AWS service should be used to collect and visualize custom memory metrics from the OS?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch with the CloudWatch Agent. Amazon CloudWatch with the CloudWatch Agent can collect custom memory metrics from the OS of an EC2 instance and visualize them in CloudWatch. AWS CloudTrail logs API activity, not OS metrics. AWS Systems Manager Inventory collects software inventory, not real-time memory metrics. AWS Config tracks resource configuration changes, not real-time memory usage.

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

AWS Systems Manager Inventory

Answer

AWS Config

Question 2

A company runs SAP HANA on AWS using a single EC2 instance with EBS volumes. The system experiences performance degradation during peak hours. Which approach would provide the MOST immediate improvement in disk I/O performance without downtime?

Accepted Answer

Modify the EBS volume type and IOPS using Elastic Volumes.. EBS Elastic Volumes allow modifying the volume type (e.g., to gp3 or io2) and IOPS online without detaching the volume or stopping the instance, providing immediate I/O improvement. Option A is incorrect because adding EBS volumes and configuring RAID 0 requires downtime and reconfiguration. Option B is incorrect because migrating to a larger instance type does not directly improve disk I/O; it improves compute performance. Option D is incorrect because creating a new volume and copying data with rsync involves downtime and does not provide immediate improvement.

Answer

Add additional EBS volumes and configure RAID 0 across them.

Answer

Migrate the EC2 instance to a larger instance type.

Answer

Create a new EBS volume with higher performance and copy data using rsync.

Question 3

An SAP administrator is troubleshooting a failed backup of SAP HANA to Amazon S3. The backup is initiated by an SAP HANA BACKUP command using the S3 backint agent. The error log shows 'HTTP 403 Forbidden' when the agent tries to upload to the S3 bucket. The bucket policy allows s3:PutObject from the VPC endpoint. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The VPC endpoint policy for S3 does not grant the required actions to the IAM role.. The HTTP 403 Forbidden error indicates that the request was received but denied. Since the bucket policy allows s3:PutObject from the VPC endpoint, the issue is likely that the VPC endpoint policy itself does not grant the required actions to the IAM role. VPC endpoint policies act as a separate layer that can override bucket policies. Option D is correct. Option A is wrong because the bucket exists. Option B is wrong because cross-region access would not cause a 403. Option C is wrong because SSE-KMS would cause a 400 error, not 403.

Answer

The S3 bucket does not exist.

Answer

The S3 bucket is not in the same AWS Region as the EC2 instance.

Answer

The S3 bucket uses server-side encryption with AWS KMS (SSE-KMS) and the IAM role lacks kms:GenerateDataKey.

Question 4

An SAP administrator is restoring an SAP HANA database from a backup stored in Amazon S3. The restore fails with an error indicating that the backup file is corrupt. The backup was created using the SAP HANA BACKUP command with the S3 backint agent. What could cause the backup file to be corrupt?

Accepted Answer

The multipart upload of the backup file was interrupted and not completed.. When using the SAP HANA backint agent to back up to S3, the backup file is uploaded via multipart upload. If this multipart upload is interrupted and not completed, the resulting object in S3 will be incomplete, causing it to appear corrupt when attempting to restore. Option A is incorrect because S3 Transfer Acceleration improves transfer speed but does not affect file integrity. Option C is incorrect because S3 Versioning creates multiple versions of the same object but does not corrupt data. Option D is incorrect because S3 Cross-Region Replication creates identical copies of the object, so it would not introduce corruption.

Answer

S3 Transfer Acceleration was used during backup.

Answer

The S3 bucket has versioning enabled.

Answer

The backup was replicated to another AWS Region using S3 Cross-Region Replication.

Question 5

An SAP system administrator needs to restart a critical SAP application server EC2 instance that is part of a cluster. Which approach minimizes downtime?

Accepted Answer

Reboot the instance from the AWS Management Console.. Rebooting the instance restarts the operating system without changing the underlying host. The instance retains its public and private IP addresses, elastic network interfaces, and instance store data, minimizing downtime for the SAP application. Modifying the instance type (Option A) requires a stop/start, which moves the instance to a new host and increases downtime. Stopping and starting the instance (Option C) also changes the host and takes longer than a reboot. Terminating the instance and launching a new one (Option D) loses any data on instance store volumes and requires full reconfiguration, causing prolonged downtime.

Answer

Modify the instance type in the AWS Management Console.

Answer

Stop and start the instance from the AWS Management Console.

Answer

Terminate the instance and launch a new one with the same AMI.

Question 6

A company runs SAP HANA on AWS and needs to back up the database to Amazon S3. Which TWO AWS services can be used to automate the backup process?

Accepted Answer

AWS Lambda. AWS Backup can be used to automate backups of SAP HANA databases to S3, providing a managed backup service with scheduling and retention policies. AWS Lambda can run custom scripts to orchestrate backups, for example, using the SAP HANA backup API to back up to S3. Options C, D, and E are incorrect: CloudFormation is for infrastructure provisioning, CloudTrail is for auditing API calls, and S3 Transfer Acceleration is a feature to speed up uploads, not a service for automating backups.

Answer

AWS CloudFormation

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration

Question 7

An SAP system administrator is troubleshooting an issue where SAP users cannot log in to the SAP system. The administrator checks the SAP application server logs and finds that the connection to the SAP HANA database is failing with 'connection refused'. Which THREE AWS resources should be investigated to resolve the issue?

Accepted Answer

Network ACLs for the database subnet. Options B, D, and E are correct. Network ACLs for the database subnet must allow inbound and outbound traffic between the application server and database. Security group rules for the database instance must permit traffic from the application server's security group on the database port. Route tables for the application server subnet must have a route to the database subnet. Option A is incorrect because a VPC peering connection is not needed unless the resources are in different VPCs. Option C is incorrect because an Internet Gateway is not required for internal communication within a VPC.

Answer

VPC peering connection

Answer

Internet Gateway

Question 8

A company uses AWS Systems Manager to automate patching of SAP application servers. Which TWO resources are required to use Systems Manager Patch Manager?

Accepted Answer

AWS Systems Manager Agent (SSM Agent) installed on the EC2 instances. The correct answers are B and D. AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager requires the SSM Agent to be installed on the EC2 instances (B) to receive and apply patches. Additionally, the instances must be associated with an IAM role that grants Systems Manager permissions (D) to allow the service to communicate with the instances and perform patching actions. Options A, C, and E are not required. An Application Load Balancer (A) is not needed for patching. A NAT gateway (C) is not necessary because you can use VPC endpoints for Systems Manager instead of outbound internet access. An internet gateway (E) is also not required if VPC endpoints are used.

Answer

An Application Load Balancer in front of the instances

Answer

A NAT gateway for outbound internet access

Answer

An internet gateway attached to the VPC

Question 9

A company is running a critical SAP application on AWS. The operations team receives a notification that the SAP HANA database is running low on memory. Which AWS service should be used to automatically increase memory capacity without downtime?

Accepted Answer

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling. Mazon EC2 Auto Scaling (Option B). For SAP HANA on AWS, increasing memory capacity without downtime is achieved through HANA scale-out, which adds additional nodes to the HANA cluster. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling can automatically launch new EC2 instances configured as HANA worker nodes, thereby increasing the total available memory. This approach allows the database to accommodate higher memory demand without restarting the existing instance. Option A (ElastiCache) provides a separate caching layer but does not increase HANA's own memory. Option C (DynamoDB) and Option D (Lambda) are irrelevant for this purpose.

Answer

Amazon ElastiCache

Answer

Amazon DynamoDB

Answer

AWS Lambda

Question 10

An SAP administrator needs to back up the SAP HANA database daily with a retention period of 30 days. The backups must be stored in a cost-effective manner and be instantly accessible for recovery. Which AWS service should be used?

Accepted Answer

Amazon S3 Standard. Amazon S3 Standard provides durable, cost-effective storage with immediate access, ideal for SAP HANA database backups that require a 30-day retention and instant recovery. Option A is incorrect because Amazon S3 Glacier has retrieval delays (minutes to hours) that do not meet the 'instantly accessible' requirement. Option C is incorrect because Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive has very long retrieval times (hours to days), unsuitable for instant recovery. Option D is incorrect because Amazon EBS Snapshots are designed for EC2 block-level volumes, not for directly storing HANA database backups as files.

Answer

Amazon S3 Glacier

Answer

Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive

Answer

Amazon EBS Snapshots

Question 11

A company runs SAP on AWS and wants to monitor operating system metrics such as memory usage, disk space, and process status using Amazon CloudWatch. Which agent configuration is required on the SAP application and database servers to send these metrics to CloudWatch?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Agent. The Amazon CloudWatch Agent can be installed on EC2 instances to collect operating system-level metrics such as memory usage, disk space, and process status and send them to CloudWatch. Option A is incorrect because the AWS X-Ray Daemon is used for distributed tracing, not metric collection. Option B is incorrect because the EC2 Launch Agent is used to run startup scripts, not to collect metrics. Option D is incorrect because the AWS Systems Manager Agent is used for management and patching, not for sending custom metrics to CloudWatch.

Answer

AWS X-Ray Daemon

Answer

EC2 Launch Agent

Answer

AWS Systems Manager Agent

Question 12

An SAP system running on AWS experiences high latency when accessing data in Amazon S3. The operations team suspects network bandwidth limitations. Which AWS service can be used to monitor the network throughput between the EC2 instances and S3?

Accepted Answer

VPC Flow Logs. (VPC Flow Logs) is correct because VPC Flow Logs capture IP traffic information and can help analyze network throughput between EC2 instances and S3. Option A is incorrect because CloudWatch S3 metrics are request-level, not network-level. Option B is incorrect because Trusted Advisor provides best practice checks, not real-time monitoring. Option C is incorrect because AWS Config records resource changes, not network performance.

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch S3 metrics

Answer

AWS Trusted Advisor

Answer

AWS Config

Question 13

A company uses an SAP HANA database on AWS. The database administrator wants to back up the database using Backint integration with AWS. Which AWS service is the recommended target for Backint backups?

Accepted Answer

Amazon S3. Amazon S3 is the standard target for SAP HANA Backint backups on AWS. Backint is an SAP HANA feature that integrates directly with Amazon S3 to back up database files. Option A is incorrect because Amazon EFS is a file system service and not directly integrated with Backint. Option B is incorrect because Amazon EBS volumes are not directly used by Backint for backups. Option C is incorrect because Amazon S3 Glacier is a cold storage service and is not directly integrated with Backint; Backint targets standard S3 buckets, not Glacier.

Answer

Amazon EFS

Answer

Amazon EBS

Answer

Amazon S3 Glacier

Question 14

An SAP on AWS environment includes multiple instances across Availability Zones. The operations team needs to automatically replace an unhealthy EC2 instance that is part of an SAP application cluster. Which AWS service can automatically detect and replace the instance based on health checks?

Accepted Answer

Auto Scaling group. An Auto Scaling group with health checks can automatically detect and replace unhealthy EC2 instances. This is commonly used for SAP applications to maintain high availability across Availability Zones. Option A is incorrect because Elastic Load Balancing distributes traffic but does not replace instances. Option B is incorrect because AWS Systems Manager Automation can automate maintenance tasks but does not automatically replace instances based on health checks. Option D is incorrect because Amazon CloudWatch alarms can notify on health status but do not automatically replace instances.

Answer

Elastic Load Balancing

Answer

AWS Systems Manager Automation

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch alarms

Question 15

A company runs SAP on AWS and needs to patch the operating system of multiple EC2 instances on a schedule. The instances are part of an Auto Scaling group. Which AWS service can be used to apply patches without disrupting the Auto Scaling group's desired capacity?

Accepted Answer

AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager. AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager can be used to apply OS patches to EC2 instances on a schedule. It integrates with Auto Scaling groups to maintain desired capacity, for example by using instance refresh to roll out patches without disrupting the group's capacity. Option B (Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling) is incorrect because it manages scaling, not patching. Option C (AWS CloudFormation) is incorrect because it is used for infrastructure provisioning, not patching. Option D (AWS CodeDeploy) is incorrect because it is for application deployments, not OS patching.

Answer

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Answer

AWS CloudFormation

Answer

AWS CodeDeploy