PAS-C01 Technology Practice Test 16 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company has deployed SAP S/4HANA on AWS using a single EC2 instance for the HANA database. The database volume is an EBS io1 volume with 5,000 provisioned IOPS. The company wants to implement a high availability (HA) solution for the database using SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) with automatic failover. They plan to use a second EC2 instance in a different Availability Zone. The database administrator is concerned about data consistency during replication. Which additional AWS service should be used to ensure data consistency and minimize data loss during failover?

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

Accepted Answer

Amazon Route53 with health checks to automatically redirect traffic to the standby instance.. Amazon Route 53 with health checks is the correct answer because it provides the DNS-based automatic failover mechanism required for SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) with automatic failover. In an HSR setup across Availability Zones, the primary and standby HANA instances are in different AZs, and a virtual IP (VIP) or DNS endpoint must be redirected to the standby when the primary fails. Route 53 health checks continuously monitor the primary's endpoint; upon failure, Route 53 automatically updates the DNS record to point to the standby instance, enabling clients to reconnect with minimal manual intervention. This directly addresses the requirement for automatic failover and helps minimize data loss by ensuring rapid redirection to the standby, which already has replicated data. Note: While Route 53 handles failover, data consistency itself is ensured by HSR's synchronous or near-synchronous replication modes, not by Route 53; however, among the options, Route 53 is the only service that enables automatic failover as described.

Answer

AWS Backup to schedule backups of the HANA database.

Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to continuously replicate data.

Answer

Amazon EBS snapshots to capture point-in-time copies of the data volume.

Question 2

A company runs a critical SAP HANA database on an m5.24xlarge EC2 instance. The database has high transaction volume and requires low latency storage. The current setup uses EBS gp2 volumes with 10,000 IOPS. During peak hours, the database performance degrades due to IOPS burst balance depletion. Which storage solution should the company use to maintain consistent performance?

Accepted Answer

Provision EBS io2 Block Express volumes with 10,000 provisioned IOPS.. EBS io2 Block Express volumes are designed for the highest-performance, mission-critical databases like SAP HANA, offering sub-millisecond latency, durability of 99.999%, and the ability to provision IOPS independently of capacity. Unlike gp2, io2 does not rely on burst credits, so performance remains consistent under sustained peak loads. With 10,000 provisioned IOPS, io2 Block Express meets the low-latency, consistent-performance requirement that gp2 failed to deliver.

Answer

Migrate to EBS gp3 volumes with provisioned IOPS of 10,000.

Answer

Use EC2 Instance Store (NVMe SSD) for the database data and logs.

Answer

Move the database to Amazon EFS with provisioned throughput.

Question 3

An SAP administrator needs to monitor the memory usage of an SAP HANA database running on an EC2 instance. The administrator wants to receive alerts when memory usage exceeds 90% for more than 5 minutes. Which AWS service should be used to set up this monitoring and alerting?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch with custom metrics. CloudWatch can collect custom metrics from the HANA instance and trigger alarms. Option A is wrong because Trusted Advisor provides best practice checks, not custom monitoring. Option C is wrong because AWS Config is for configuration compliance, not monitoring. Option D is wrong because CloudTrail is for API auditing.

Answer

AWS Trusted Advisor

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Question 4

An SAP on AWS deployment uses an Auto Scaling group for the SAP application tier. The application is stateless and can scale out and in based on CPU utilization. Which scaling policy should be used to add new instances during peak load and remove them when the load decreases?

Accepted Answer

Target tracking scaling policy with a target CPU utilization of 70%.. A target tracking scaling policy is the simplest and most automated way to maintain a target CPU utilization. Option A is wrong because simple scaling does not adjust dynamically. Option C is wrong because step scaling requires manual configuration of steps. Option D is wrong because scheduled scaling is for predictable loads, not dynamic.

Answer

Simple scaling policy based on CPU utilization.

Answer

Step scaling policy with multiple steps for different CPU thresholds.

Answer

Scheduled scaling policy to add instances during business hours.

Question 5

A company runs SAP on AWS and uses AWS KMS for encryption of EBS volumes. The security team requires that the EBS volumes used for SAP HANA data and log files be encrypted with a customer-managed key. They also want to ensure that the key cannot be deleted. What should the security team do to protect the KMS key?

Accepted Answer

Set a key policy that prevents the kms:ScheduleKeyDeletion action.. The security team needs to prevent deletion of the customer-managed KMS key. AWS KMS key policies control access to the key, including the ability to schedule deletion. By setting a key policy that explicitly denies the kms:ScheduleKeyDeletion action, they ensure that no principal (including the key administrator) can delete the key. This directly addresses the requirement to protect the key from deletion.

Answer

Use an AWS managed key instead of a customer-managed key.

Answer

Store the key in AWS Secrets Manager.

Answer

Enable automatic key rotation.

Question 6

An SAP Basis administrator needs to apply an SAP kernel patch to the SAP Central Services (ASCS) instance running on an EC2 instance in a Multi-AZ deployment. The ASCS instance is configured with a floating IP address using Elastic IP. The administrator wants to minimize downtime during the patching process. Which approach should the administrator take?

Accepted Answer

Create a new EC2 instance with the patched kernel, associate the Elastic IP to the new instance, and terminate the old one.. It implements a blue/green deployment, allowing the patch to be applied on a new EC2 instance without affecting the running ASCS instance. After patching, associate the Elastic IP to the new instance and terminate the old one, minimizing downtime to a brief DNS propagation delay. Option A is wrong because stopping the instance causes downtime during the patch. Option C is wrong because an Application Load Balancer does not support floating IP setups like Elastic IP for ASCS. Option D is wrong because Auto Scaling rolling updates are designed for scaling groups, not a single ASCS instance, and would still cause downtime.

Answer

Stop the ASCS instance, apply the patch, and start the instance.

Answer

Add the ASCS instance to an Application Load Balancer and then perform the patch.

Answer

Use an Auto Scaling group with a rolling update to apply the patch.

Question 7

A company runs its SAP HANA database on a single EC2 instance with EBS storage. The database is critical and the company needs to ensure data durability and recoverability in case of a disaster. Which TWO actions should the company take?

Accepted Answer

Take periodic EBS snapshots and copy them to another region.. Option B is correct because EBS snapshots are point-in-time, incremental backups of the EBS volumes hosting the SAP HANA database, and copying those snapshots to another region provides cross-region durability and recoverability if the primary region is lost. Option C is correct because SAP HANA supports native database backups written to Amazon S3, which gives an application-consistent, restorable copy of the database independent of the underlying EBS volumes and can be retained across regions. Option A is incorrect because SAP HANA on RDS is not a supported deployment model in this scenario — the company runs HANA on a single EC2 instance, and Multi-AZ RDS applies to RDS-managed engines, not self-managed HANA on EC2. Option D is incorrect because EBS Cross-Region Replication is not a native EBS feature; cross-region durability for EBS is achieved via snapshot copy, not volume replication. Option E is incorrect because HANA System Replication to another Availability Zone provides high availability within a region, not disaster recovery across regions, so it does not satisfy the cross-region durability requirement.

Answer

Enable Multi-AZ deployment for the HANA database on RDS.

Answer

Use Cross-Region Replication for the EBS volumes.

Answer

Set up HANA System Replication to a secondary instance in a different Availability Zone.

Question 8

An SAP system on AWS is experiencing performance issues during peak hours. The system includes SAP application servers and a HANA database. The CloudWatch metrics show high CPU utilization on the application servers and high disk read latency on the database EBS volumes. Which THREE actions should be taken to improve performance?

Accepted Answer

Increase the provisioned IOPS on the EBS volumes attached to the HANA database.. Increasing provisioned IOPS on the EBS volumes reduces disk read latency, addressing the high disk read latency issue. Option B is correct because upgrading the HANA database to a larger instance type provides more CPU and memory, which helps with high CPU utilization and overall performance. Option C is correct because adding more SAP application servers distributes the load, reducing high CPU utilization on existing servers. Option D is incorrect because a NAT Gateway is for outbound internet traffic and does not improve internal network performance or address CPU/disk latency. Option E is incorrect because a read replica for HANA would not help with disk read latency or CPU utilization; it is typically used for disaster recovery or offloading reporting, not for improving performance of the primary database under high write or read load.

Answer

Add a NAT Gateway to the VPC to improve network performance.

Answer

Deploy a read replica for the HANA database.

Question 9

A company is deploying a new SAP S/4HANA system on AWS. The system will be used by 500 concurrent users. The SAP application server and the HANA database will run on separate EC2 instances. The company needs to ensure that the database instance has enough memory for the HANA database, which requires 512 GB of RAM. The application server requires 32 vCPUs and 128 GB of RAM. The company wants to minimize costs while meeting these requirements. Which combination of EC2 instance types should the company choose?

Accepted Answer

Use an r5.24xlarge for the database and an r5.8xlarge for the application server.. The r5.24xlarge instance provides 768 GB of RAM, which exceeds the 512 GB requirement for the HANA database, and is memory-optimized for in-memory workloads. The r5.8xlarge offers 32 vCPUs and 256 GB of RAM, meeting the application server's 32 vCPU and 128 GB RAM requirement with room to spare. This combination is cost-effective because r5 instances are generally cheaper than x1e instances for equivalent memory, and the r5.24xlarge is the smallest r5 that meets the 512 GB memory need.

Answer

Use an r5.12xlarge for the database and an m5.4xlarge for the application server.

Answer

Use an x1e.8xlarge for the database and an r5.8xlarge for the application server.

Answer

Use an x1e.32xlarge for the database and an m5.8xlarge for the application server.

Question 10

A company is running an SAP S/4HANA system on AWS. The SAP application is deployed on EC2 instances in a Multi-AZ setup with a shared /sapmnt directory using Amazon EFS. The database is running on Amazon RDS for SAP ASE. Performance monitoring reveals that the /sapmnt volume is experiencing high read latency during peak hours. Which action would most effectively reduce latency?

Accepted Answer

Migrate /sapmnt to Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP.. Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP provides significantly lower latency and higher throughput than Amazon EFS, especially for small-file, metadata-heavy workloads like SAP's /sapmnt directory. EFS is designed for general-purpose, elastic file storage and can introduce latency under high concurrency, whereas FSx for ONTAP offers sub-millisecond latencies and supports NFS with better performance characteristics for SAP. Migrating /sapmnt to FSx for ONTAP directly addresses the high read latency by providing a more performant file system.

Answer

Use Amazon ElastiCache for Redis to cache /sapmnt data.

Answer

Increase the provisioned throughput on the EFS file system.

Answer

Increase the size of the EC2 instances running SAP.

Question 11

An SAP ERP system on AWS is experiencing intermittent connectivity issues between the SAP application servers and the database server. Both are in the same VPC, but in different subnets. The security group for the database allows traffic from the application security group. Network ACLs are default (allow all). Despite this, some application servers cannot connect during peak loads. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The connection tracking table for the database security group is full, dropping new connections.. AWS security groups are stateful and track connections. Under peak loads, the connection tracking table can become full, causing new connections to be dropped. Option A is wrong because security groups do not have a rule evaluation limit; they evaluate all rules. Option C is wrong because a NAT Gateway is used for outbound internet traffic, not for internal VPC communication. Option D is wrong because VPC Endpoints are used for accessing AWS services privately, not for database connectivity.

Answer

The security group inbound rule for the database has reached its rule evaluation limit.

Answer

The application servers are using a single NAT Gateway for outbound traffic, causing a bottleneck.

Answer

The database is accessed through a VPC Endpoint, which is rate-limiting connections.

Question 12

A company is migrating its SAP ECC system to SAP S/4HANA on AWS. The current database is running on Oracle. They want to minimize downtime during the migration. Which TWO services or features should they consider to achieve a near-zero downtime migration? (Select TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Snowball to transfer the initial Oracle data dump to AWS.. Option A is correct because AWS Snowball provides a physical, high-capacity data transfer appliance that is well suited for moving the large initial Oracle data dump to AWS without consuming WAN bandwidth, which is a standard first step in a near-zero downtime migration where the bulk copy happens offline while the source system keeps running. Option D is correct because AWS DMS supports ongoing (change data capture) replication from Oracle to SAP HANA, allowing incremental changes made on the source Oracle database to be continuously applied to the target during the migration window, so only a short final cutover is needed. Option B is not appropriate here because SAP HANA System Replication replicates between HANA systems, not from an Oracle source, so it cannot synchronize the existing Oracle database. Option C is not suitable because EC2 Hibernate suspends an EC2 instance's memory state and does not provide cross-database replication or reduce SAP migration downtime. Option E is not correct because EBS Snapshots provide block-level backup and point-in-time recovery of volumes, not ongoing logical replication from Oracle to HANA.

Answer

Use SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) for the final synchronization.

Answer

Use EC2 Hibernate to pause the source instance during cutover.

Answer

Use Amazon EBS Snapshots for point-in-time recovery and replication.

Question 13

A company is running SAP HANA on AWS with a single Availability Zone (AZ). They want to improve high availability (HA) by deploying across multiple AZs. Which THREE components must be configured to support a multi-AZ SAP HANA HA setup? (Select THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Elastic Load Balancer (ALB or NLB) for the SAP application tier. Option B is correct because a multi-AZ SAP HANA HA setup requires an Elastic Load Balancer (ALB or NLB) to distribute traffic across the SAP application tier in different AZs, providing resilience if one AZ fails. Option D is correct because SAP HANA System Replication is the native mechanism to replicate data synchronously or asynchronously between HANA instances in different AZs, enabling failover to a secondary node. Option E is correct because a shared file system such as Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP is needed to host /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans so both HANA nodes and application servers can access the same SAP transport and profile data across AZs. Option A is not required because Route 53 health checks are typically used for DNS-based global failover, not for the intra-region multi-AZ HA of SAP HANA, which relies on clustering and load balancing. Option C is not required because CloudFront is a CDN for caching content at edge locations and does not provide the low-latency, stateful connectivity or failover needed for SAP HANA HA.

Answer

Amazon Route 53 health checks for automatic failover

Answer

Amazon CloudFront distribution in front of the application servers

Question 14

An SAP customer is planning to use AWS for their SAP HANA environment. They need to ensure that the chosen EC2 instance types are certified by SAP for HANA. Which THREE sources can they use to verify SAP HANA certification for AWS instance types? (Select THREE.)

Accepted Answer

AWS documentation on SAP HANA certified instances. Options A, B, and E are correct. AWS documentation on SAP HANA certified instances provides a list of certified instance types. The SAP Cloud Appliance Library offers pre-configured HANA environments that are certified. The SAP HANA Hardware Directory is the official SAP source for certified hardware, including AWS instances. Option C (AWS Support Center) can provide guidance but is not a direct source for certification lists. Option D (AWS Pricing Calculator) does not include certification information.

Answer

AWS Support Center

Answer

AWS Pricing Calculator

Question 15

You are an SAP Basis consultant for a company running SAP ECC on Oracle on AWS. The system is hosted on a single EC2 instance (r5.8xlarge) with a separate EC2 instance for the database (Oracle on RDS). Recently, users have reported that the system becomes unresponsive for a few minutes every day at 10:00 AM. You check CloudWatch metrics and see a spike in CPU utilization on the application server at that time, but the database metrics are normal. The application server is running SAP instance and also a custom batch job that runs daily at 10:00 AM. The batch job is using a significant amount of CPU. You need to resolve the issue without losing the functionality of the batch job. Which action should you take?

Accepted Answer

Move the custom batch job to a separate EC2 instance dedicated to running batch processes.. Moving the custom batch job to a separate EC2 instance dedicated to batch processing isolates the CPU-intensive workload from the SAP application server, preventing the daily 10:00 AM unresponsiveness while preserving the batch job's functionality. This addresses the root cause (resource contention) without altering the job's schedule or losing functionality.

Answer

Reschedule the batch job to run at a different time, such as 2:00 AM.

Answer

Upgrade the application server instance to a larger size, such as r5.16xlarge.

Answer

Create an RDS read replica and offload the batch job's database queries to it.