PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Test 8 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company runs SAP on AWS and wants to implement a disaster recovery solution with a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 4 hours and a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes. The primary site is in us-east-1, and the DR site is in us-west-2. Which strategy meets these requirements for SAP HANA database?

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

Accepted Answer

Configure SAP HANA System Replication across regions. HANA System Replication with log shipping can achieve RPO of minutes and RTO within hours. Option A is incorrect because EBS snapshots cannot achieve 15-minute RPO. Option B is incorrect because S3 cross-region replication is for files, not live HANA replication. Option C is incorrect because DMS is for heterogeneous migrations, not real-time HANA replication.

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for ongoing replication

Answer

Take EBS snapshots every 15 minutes and copy them to us-west-2

Answer

Use Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication for HANA data files

Question 2

Which TWO AWS services can be used to automate the startup and shutdown of SAP application servers based on a schedule to reduce costs? (Select TWO.)

Accepted Answer

AWS Instance Scheduler. AWS Instance Scheduler (option C) is a solution that automatically starts and stops EC2 instances based on a schedule, reducing costs for non-production SAP systems. AWS Systems Manager Maintenance Windows (option E) can be configured to stop and start instances during scheduled maintenance windows, enabling automated start/stop. Option A (CloudWatch Events) can trigger actions via Lambda but does not natively schedule instance start/stop. Option B (CodePipeline) is for CI/CD, not scheduling. Option D (Auto Scaling) adjusts capacity based on demand, not schedule-based start/stop of specific instances.

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Events

Answer

AWS CodePipeline

Answer

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Question 3

Which THREE steps should be taken when troubleshooting a slow-running SAP HANA database on AWS? (Select THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Review HANA SQL plan cache for slow queries. To troubleshoot a slow-running SAP HANA database on AWS, start by reviewing the HANA SQL plan cache to identify slow queries (B). Check CloudWatch metrics for CPU utilization and disk I/O to detect resource bottlenecks (C). Verify HANA memory allocation and check for memory pressure, as memory issues are a common cause of slowdowns (E). Scaling up the EC2 instance (A) is premature without analysis, and reviewing IAM roles (D) is unrelated to performance troubleshooting.

Answer

Immediately scale up the EC2 instance type

Answer

Review IAM roles attached to the instance

Question 4

Which TWO AWS services can be used to monitor the health of SAP systems and send notifications? (Select TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch. Amazon CloudWatch (option B) is used to monitor metrics and logs from SAP systems, and can trigger alarms based on thresholds. Amazon SNS (option E) is used to send notifications (e.g., email, SMS) when alarms are triggered. AWS Config (A) tracks configuration changes, not health. AWS CloudTrail (C) logs API calls for auditing. Amazon Athena (D) is a query service, not for monitoring.

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

Amazon Athena

Question 5

A company is running an SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance with a single EBS volume for /hana/data. The performance team reports high write latency during peak hours. Which change would most effectively reduce write latency without compromising data durability?

Accepted Answer

Configure multiple EBS volumes in a striped RAID 0 array for the /hana/data directory. Configuring multiple EBS volumes in a striped RAID 0 array is the most effective way to reduce write latency for SAP HANA's /hana/data directory because it distributes I/O across multiple volumes, increasing throughput and reducing latency. This approach is recommended by AWS for high-performance SAP HANA workloads. Option A (switching to io1 with high IOPS) could improve performance but is more expensive and may not provide the same level of throughput as striping. Option B (increasing volume size) only increases baseline IOPS for gp2/gp3 volumes but does not guarantee latency reduction. Option C (moving to gp2) is a downgrade from the current volume type (likely gp3 or io1) and would likely increase latency.

Answer

Switch the EBS volume type to Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) with high IOPS

Answer

Increase the size of the EBS volume to gain more baseline IOPS

Answer

Move the /hana/data directory to a General Purpose SSD (gp2) volume

Question 6

An SAP administrator notices that the SAP application server is failing health checks in the Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) target group. The application server runs on an EC2 instance behind an Application Load Balancer. The health check path is /sap/public/ping. What is the most likely cause of the failure?

Accepted Answer

The SAP application (e.g., disp+work) is not running on the instance. If the SAP application (disp+work) is not running, it cannot respond to the health check, causing the ELB to mark it unhealthy. Option A is incorrect because SAProuter does not block health check requests; it routes connections to the SAP system. Option B is incorrect because the health check path is correctly configured as /sap/public/ping, which is the standard SAP health check endpoint. Option C is incorrect because security groups not allowing inbound traffic from ELB would cause connection timeout, not a health check failure on a specific path.

Answer

SAProuter is blocking the health check requests

Answer

The health check path is incorrectly configured in the target group

Answer

The EC2 instance security group does not allow inbound traffic from the ELB

Question 7

A company runs SAP ERP on AWS using a Multi-AZ RDS for SAP HANA database. The operations team needs to automate the rotation of the database master password. Which AWS service should be used to securely store and rotate the password?

Accepted Answer

AWS Secrets Manager. AWS Secrets Manager, is the correct choice because it is designed to securely store secrets and provides built-in capabilities to automatically rotate credentials for supported services like RDS. Option A (Systems Manager Parameter Store) can store secrets but does not natively support automatic rotation of RDS passwords. Option C (CloudHSM) is a hardware security module used for key management, not password rotation. Option D (IAM) manages user permissions and policies, not database passwords.

Answer

AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store

Answer

AWS CloudHSM

Answer

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Question 8

An SAP Basis administrator is monitoring the health of an SAP HANA database on AWS. The administrator wants to receive alerts when the CPU utilization of the HANA instance exceeds 90% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which combination of AWS services should be used?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch metrics and CloudWatch Alarms with Amazon SNS. Amazon CloudWatch collects the CPU utilization metric for the HANA instance. A CloudWatch Alarm can be configured to trigger when the metric exceeds 90% for 5 consecutive minutes, and the alarm action sends a notification via Amazon SNS (e.g., email or SMS). Option A is incorrect because AWS X-Ray is for distributed tracing, and CloudWatch Logs is for log data, not for CPU metrics or alarms. Option B is incorrect: AWS CloudTrail logs API calls and is not used for monitoring resource metrics; AWS Lambda could be used but is unnecessary for a simple threshold alarm. Option C is incorrect: AWS Config is for configuration compliance and auditing, not real-time metric monitoring; SES is an email service but not the standard integration for CloudWatch Alarms (SNS is used for notifications).

Answer

AWS X-Ray and Amazon CloudWatch Logs

Answer

AWS CloudTrail and AWS Lambda

Answer

AWS Config and Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)

Question 9

An SAP system on AWS is experiencing slow performance. The operations team suspects a memory bottleneck on the SAP HANA database. Which CloudWatch metric should be monitored to confirm memory pressure?

Accepted Answer

SwapUsage (custom metric from HANA). (SwapUsage). SAP HANA uses swap space extensively when memory is under pressure; high swap usage directly indicates memory bottlenecks. Option A (CPUUtilization) measures processor load, not memory. Option C (DiskReadOps) measures storage I/O operations, which may be a symptom but not a direct memory metric. Option D (NetworkIn) measures network throughput, unrelated to memory.

Answer

CPUUtilization

Answer

DiskReadOps

Answer

NetworkIn

Question 10

A company needs to back up its SAP HANA database running on Amazon EC2. The database is 500 GB. What is the recommended approach for backups?

Accepted Answer

Use SAP HANA Studio to back up to an S3 bucket directly. Option A (automated backups) is not applicable for EC2 instances running SAP HANA. Option B (manual EBS snapshots) can lead to inconsistent backups and is not recommended. Option C (mysqldump) is for MySQL databases, not SAP HANA. The correct approach is to use SAP HANA Studio with the Backint agent to back up directly to an S3 bucket, which is a supported and recommended method for SAP HANA running on Amazon EC2.

Answer

Enable automated backups and configure the backup retention period

Answer

Create manual EBS snapshots of the RDS instance

Answer

Export the database using mysqldump and store the dump in S3

Question 11

An SAP system is deployed across multiple Availability Zones using an Application Load Balancer. The operations team wants to perform a blue/green deployment of a new SAP application version with zero downtime. Which AWS service should be used?

Accepted Answer

AWS Elastic Beanstalk. AWS Elastic Beanstalk supports blue/green deployments. Option B (CloudFormation) is for infrastructure management. Option C (CodeDeploy) can do blue/green but is more complex and less integrated for SAP. Option D (OpsWorks) is for Chef/Puppet management.

Answer

AWS CloudFormation

Answer

AWS CodeDeploy

Answer

AWS OpsWorks

Question 12

An SAP HANA database on EC2 is experiencing high I/O latency. The database uses a single EBS volume for /hana/log. The volume is a gp2 volume with 1000 GB size. The administrator notices that the volume's burst balance is depleted. Which action should be taken to improve latency?

Accepted Answer

Change the volume type to Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) with sufficient IOPS. Switching to io1 provides consistent IOPS without burst balance. Option C (increasing size to 2000 GB) would double the baseline IOPS but not eliminate burst dependency. Option B (adding more volumes) may help but is more complex. Option A (using st1) is for throughput, not low latency.

Answer

Change the volume type to Throughput Optimized HDD (st1)

Answer

Add additional gp2 volumes and stripe them in a RAID 0

Answer

Increase the volume size to 2000 GB to double the baseline IOPS

Question 13

An SAP administrator needs to ensure that all API calls made to create, modify, or delete AWS resources are logged for auditing. Which AWS service should be enabled?

Accepted Answer

AWS CloudTrail. AWS CloudTrail logs API calls. Option A (CloudWatch) is for monitoring metrics. Option C (Config) is for resource configuration. Option D (GuardDuty) is for security threats.

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

Amazon GuardDuty

Question 14

An SAP system on AWS uses an Application Load Balancer (ALB) to distribute traffic to multiple EC2 instances. The operations team wants to enable sticky sessions (session affinity) for the ALB. Which TWO steps are required? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Set the stickiness duration in seconds. To enable sticky sessions on an ALB, two steps are required: First, enable stickiness (session affinity) at the target group level. Second, set the stickiness duration, which defines how long the session remains sticky. Option A is correct because setting the duration in seconds is a necessary configuration. Option E is correct because stickiness must be enabled on the target group. Option B (configure proxy protocol policy) is not related to stickiness; it is used to preserve client IP information. Option C (enable cross-zone load balancing) distributes traffic across zones but does not affect stickiness. Option D (create a custom cookie on the application server) is not required because the ALB can generate its own cookie (AWSALB) when stickiness is enabled on the target group.

Answer

Configure a proxy protocol policy

Answer

Enable cross-zone load balancing

Answer

Create a custom cookie on the application server

Question 15

A company runs SAP HANA on EC2 with a Multi-AZ deployment. The database uses EBS volumes for /hana/data and /hana/log. The operations team needs to implement a disaster recovery strategy with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 2 hours. Which THREE actions should be taken? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Take periodic EBS snapshots of the data and log volumes. Options A, B, and D are correct. A: EBS snapshots provide a backup mechanism for data and log volumes, contributing to the RPO. B: AWS CloudFormation automates the creation of DR infrastructure in another region, helping to achieve the RTO. D: SAP HANA system replication provides near-synchronous replication to a secondary instance, meeting the RPO of 15 minutes. C is incorrect because Amazon RDS for SAP HANA is not suitable for DR of an existing EC2-based HANA system; it would require migration and does not align with the given architecture. E is incorrect because AWS DMS is designed for database migrations, not for continuous replication of SAP HANA.

Answer

Migrate the database to Amazon RDS for SAP HANA

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for continuous replication