PAS-C01 Technology Practice Test 17 — 15 Questions

Question 1

An SAP environment on AWS uses Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP for shared storage. The system is experiencing high write latency. The storage administrator suspects the volume is not optimized for SAP workloads. Which configuration change would most likely reduce write latency?

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

Accepted Answer

Enable tiering policy to allow all data to be served from the SSD tier.. Enabling the tiering policy to allow all data to be served from the SSD tier ensures that all volume data resides on the high-performance SSD storage pool of the FSx for ONTAP file system. This eliminates read/write latency caused by accessing data from the capacity pool (Amazon S3), which has higher latency. For SAP workloads that require consistent low-latency I/O, keeping all data on the SSD tier is critical to reduce write latency.

Answer

Enable data compression on the volume.

Answer

Enable the capacity pool tiering to auto-tier cold data to Amazon S3.

Answer

Increase the size of the volume.

Question 2

A company is running SAP BusinessObjects on AWS. The application is deployed on EC2 instances with an Application Load Balancer. Users are reporting that the application is sometimes unreachable. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The target group health checks are failing intermittently on the EC2 instances.. Intermittent unreachability of an application behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB) is most commonly caused by health checks failing on the target EC2 instances. When health checks fail intermittently, the ALB will periodically mark the instances as unhealthy and stop routing traffic to them, causing the application to become unreachable during those windows. This matches the symptom of 'sometimes unreachable' rather than a persistent failure.

Answer

The security group for the instances is not allowing traffic from the load balancer.

Answer

The load balancer is not configured with sticky sessions.

Answer

The Route 53 TTL is too short for DNS resolution.

Question 3

Which TWO of the following are best practices for securing an SAP HANA database on AWS? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Deploy the HANA instance in a private subnet without direct internet access.. Deploying the HANA instance in a private subnet without direct internet access ensures that the database is not exposed to the public internet, reducing the attack surface. This follows the AWS security best practice of using private subnets for sensitive workloads, with access only through bastion hosts or VPN/Direct Connect. It also aligns with SAP's own security recommendations for HANA deployments.

Answer

Disable SSL/TLS for client connections to improve performance.

Answer

Use a single Availability Zone to simplify network security group management.

Answer

Assign a public IP address to the HANA instance for easy access from the internet.

Question 4

Which THREE of the following are requirements for running SAP HANA in an AWS multi-zone HA cluster? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

At least two EC2 instances in different Availability Zones per node type.. SAP HANA in a multi-zone HA cluster requires at least two EC2 instances per node type (e.g., worker, standby) deployed in different Availability Zones to ensure high availability. This architecture allows automatic failover between zones, maintaining SAP HANA system replication and cluster quorum in the event of an AZ failure.

Answer

Use of an Elastic Load Balancer to distribute traffic to the HANA nodes.

Answer

All nodes must use instance store volumes for the HANA data.

Question 5

Which TWO of the following are valid methods for monitoring SAP system performance on AWS? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Configure SAP Solution Manager to send monitoring data to Amazon CloudWatch via the SAP Cloud Platform.. SAP Solution Manager can be configured to forward monitoring data to Amazon CloudWatch via the SAP Cloud Platform (now SAP BTP) using the Cloud Management Gateway or direct integration. This allows SAP-specific metrics like system load, work process usage, and response times to be visualized and alerted on in CloudWatch, enabling unified monitoring alongside AWS infrastructure metrics.

Answer

Enable AWS CloudTrail to capture system performance logs.

Answer

Use AWS Trusted Advisor to monitor real-time CPU utilization.

Answer

Use VPC Flow Logs to monitor database query performance.

Question 6

A company runs a critical SAP application on an SAP HANA database in a single Availability Zone on AWS. The database is 2 TB in size. The company needs to implement a disaster recovery (DR) strategy with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 2 hours. The DR region must be in a different AWS Region. Which solution meets these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to continuously replicate data from the HANA database to a HANA database in the DR region.. AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with continuous replication (change data capture) can achieve an RPO of 15 minutes for a 2 TB SAP HANA database across AWS Regions. The RTO of 2 hours is achievable by provisioning the target HANA instance in advance and applying changes. This solution uses a fully managed AWS service, reducing operational overhead compared to manual scripting or third-party tools. While SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) is native, cross-region synchronous replication is not feasible due to latency; asynchronous HSR could meet the RPO but is not listed as an option. DMS provides continuous replication with minimal setup and monitoring, making it the best choice among the given options.

Answer

Configure SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) in a multitier setup with a primary in the source region and a synchronous secondary in the DR region. Use HANA takeover for failover.

Answer

Deploy a second HANA node in a different Availability Zone in the same region and configure HANA System Replication. Use AWS Global Accelerator to route traffic to the standby.

Answer

Use AWS Backup to schedule daily snapshots of the HANA database and copy them to the DR region. In the event of a disaster, restore the latest snapshot to a new HANA instance.

Question 7

An SAP Basis administrator is migrating an SAP ERP system from an on-premises environment to AWS. The system uses an SAP HANA database. The migration must have minimal downtime. The administrator plans to use SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) to synchronize data to an AWS HANA instance. However, the network latency between on-premises and AWS is consistently around 50 ms. What should the administrator do to ensure that HSR can maintain synchronization without impacting source system performance?

Accepted Answer

Configure HSR in asynchronous mode with full sync disabled to avoid affecting source transaction performance.. With 50 ms network latency, synchronous replication would block source transactions while waiting for acknowledgment from the target, severely impacting performance. Asynchronous mode with full sync disabled allows HSR to send log buffers without waiting for the target to confirm, ensuring source system performance is unaffected while still maintaining eventual consistency for migration.

Answer

Use synchronous replication with a lower sync timeout setting to avoid blocking.

Answer

Keep synchronous replication but increase the replication timeout value in the HANA global.ini file.

Answer

Enable HANA delta merge operations during replication to reduce the amount of data transferred.

Question 8

A company is deploying an SAP BusinessObjects (BOBJ) platform on AWS. The platform consists of multiple web application servers, a CMS database, and an audit database. The company wants to ensure high availability for the CMS database using native SAP tools. Which AWS service should be used to host the CMS database to facilitate the use of SAP's native replication?

Accepted Answer

Amazon RDS. Amazon RDS is the correct choice because it provides managed relational database instances that support database engines like SQL Server and Oracle, which are compatible with SAP BusinessObjects CMS. RDS offers Multi-AZ deployments for high availability and can be used with SAP's native database replication methods such as log shipping or Always On availability groups, meeting the high availability requirement without managing the underlying infrastructure. DynamoDB, ElastiCache, and S3 are not relational databases and do not support the native replication tools needed for the CMS database.

Answer

Amazon DynamoDB

Answer

Amazon ElastiCache

Answer

Amazon S3

Question 9

An SAP system administrator is troubleshooting an issue where the SAP HANA database is using more memory than expected on an Amazon EC2 instance. The instance type is an x1e.32xlarge with 3,904 GB of RAM. The HANA global.ini file includes the parameter 'memorymanager = global'. The administrator suspects that the HANA memory limit is not set correctly. What should the administrator check to confirm the memory limit?

Accepted Answer

Run the SQL statement 'SELECT * FROM M_SERVICE_MEMORY' and compare with 'SELECT VALUE FROM M_INIFILE WHERE KEY='global_allocation_limit'.'. When `memorymanager = global` is set in HANA, the effective memory limit is determined by the `global_allocation_limit` parameter in the `global.ini` file, not by the OS-level memory. Running `SELECT * FROM M_SERVICE_MEMORY` shows actual per-service memory usage, while `SELECT VALUE FROM M_INIFILE WHERE KEY='global_allocation_limit'` retrieves the configured limit. Comparing these two values directly confirms whether the memory limit is set correctly and if HANA is respecting it.

Answer

Review Amazon CloudWatch metrics for HANA memory usage.

Answer

Check the output of 'free -g' command on the EC2 instance.

Answer

Check the 'global_allocation_limit' parameter in the global.ini file.

Question 10

A company is running an SAP S/4HANA system on AWS. The system uses an SAP HANA database with a current size of 1.5 TB. The company wants to implement a backup strategy that allows point-in-time recovery (PITR) with an RPO of 5 minutes and an RTO of 4 hours. The backup must be stored in Amazon S3. Which combination of steps should the company take? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Configure log backup to run every 5 minutes using Backint.. The correct options are B and C. Option B configures log backups every 5 minutes using Backint, achieving the required RPO of 5 minutes. Option C installs the Backint agent to stream both full and log backups to Amazon S3, meeting the storage requirement. Option A is incorrect because a 2-hour log backup interval exceeds the 5-minute RPO. Option D is incorrect because EBS snapshots provide volume-level recovery, not point-in-time database recovery. Option E is incorrect because SAP HANA System Replication is for high availability, not backup.

Answer

Schedule full backups every 12 hours and log backups every 2 hours.

Answer

Use Amazon EBS snapshots of the HANA data volume as the primary backup mechanism.

Answer

Set up SAP HANA System Replication to a second instance in another Availability Zone.

Question 11

A company is deploying SAP NetWeaver on AWS and wants to use Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP as the shared file system for the SAP transport directory (/usr/sap/trans). The company needs to ensure that the transport directory is highly available and can be accessed from multiple SAP application servers across different Availability Zones. Which configuration should the SAP administrator use?

Accepted Answer

Create an FSx for ONTAP file system with Multi-AZ configuration and mount the NFS share on all SAP servers.. Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP with Multi-AZ configuration provides a highly available NFS share that can be accessed from SAP application servers across multiple Availability Zones, meeting the requirements for the SAP transport directory. Option A is incorrect because Amazon EFS, while highly available, is not the specified service required by the scenario (FSx for ONTAP is explicitly mentioned). Option B is incorrect because mounting from a single EC2 instance is not highly available and introduces a single point of failure. Option C is incorrect because Amazon S3 is not a POSIX-compliant file system and is not suitable for SAP transport directories.

Answer

Use Amazon EFS with a mount target in each AZ.

Answer

Mount the transport directory from an Amazon EC2 instance running NFS in the same AZ.

Answer

Store the transport directory in Amazon S3 and use an S3 mount point.

Question 12

A company is running SAP HANA on an EC2 instance with multiple EBS volumes for data and log. The instance is experiencing high write latency on the log volume. The administrator notices that the log volume is a gp2 EBS volume with 1,000 GB size and 3,000 IOPS baseline. The average write IOPS to the log volume is 4,000, with peaks up to 5,500. Which action should the administrator take to resolve the latency?

Accepted Answer

Replace the gp2 volume with an io2 Block Express volume provisioned at 6,000 IOPS.. The gp2 volume's baseline IOPS is 3,000, but the log volume requires an average of 4,000 write IOPS with peaks up to 5,500, which exceeds the burst balance, causing latency. Replacing with an io2 Block Express volume provisioned at 6,000 IOPS provides consistent high IOPS and low latency, ideal for SAP HANA log volumes. Option B is incorrect because st1 volumes are throughput-optimized, not IOPS-optimized, and would not address the IOPS bottleneck. Option C is incorrect because striping additional gp2 volumes adds complexity and still relies on burst performance, which may not sustain the required IOPS. Option D is incorrect because while increasing gp2 size to 2,000 GB doubles baseline IOPS to 6,000, gp2 still uses a burst model; if the burst balance is depleted, latency can occur. io2 Block Express provides provisioned, consistent performance without bursting.

Answer

Change the volume type to st1 (throughput optimized) to improve throughput.

Answer

Add a second log volume and stripe them using LVM.

Answer

Increase the gp2 volume size to 2,000 GB to double the baseline IOPS.

Question 13

A company wants to migrate its SAP ERP system from on-premises to AWS using the SAP Application Performance Standard (SAPS) sizing approach. The current on-premises system has a SAPS rating of 15,000. The company needs to select an EC2 instance type that can provide sufficient compute capacity. Which EC2 instance family is most suitable for SAP HANA workloads?

Accepted Answer

x1e. (x1e) is correct because SAP HANA is an in-memory database that requires high memory capacity, and the x1e instance family is memory-optimized and certified for SAP HANA workloads. Option A (c5) is wrong because it is compute-optimized and does not offer the memory required for HANA. Option B (p3) is wrong because it is GPU-optimized for machine learning, not memory-intensive databases. Option D (m5) is wrong because it is general-purpose and may not provide the dedicated memory or certification for HANA.

Answer

c5

Answer

p3

Answer

m5

Question 14

An SAP system administrator is configuring an SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance with multiple EBS volumes. The administrator wants to ensure that the data volumes are mirrored to protect against volume failure. Which RAID configuration should the administrator use for the HANA data volumes?

Accepted Answer

RAID 10. RAID 10 (striping + mirroring) is recommended for SAP HANA data volumes on AWS because it provides both high performance through striping and redundancy through mirroring, protecting against EBS volume failure. RAID 0 offers no fault tolerance. RAID 5 and RAID 6 introduce significant write penalties due to parity calculations, which can degrade HANA performance.

Answer

RAID 5

Answer

RAID 0

Answer

RAID 6

Question 15

A company is running an SAP S/4HANA system on AWS. The system experiences high memory usage. The administrator wants to monitor the SAP HANA memory consumption and set alarms for when memory usage exceeds 85% of available memory. Which steps should the administrator take to achieve this? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Use SAP HANA SQL queries to monitor memory usage and publish custom metrics to CloudWatch.. Options B, C, and E are correct. B: SAP HANA provides detailed memory consumption metrics via SQL views, which can be queried and published as custom CloudWatch metrics. C: The CloudWatch agent collects OS-level memory metrics from the EC2 instance, enabling monitoring of overall system memory. E: A CloudWatch alarm can be set on the memory metric (either custom HANA metric or OS-level metric) with a threshold of 85% to trigger notifications via SNS. Option A is incorrect because SNS alone does not provide monitoring; it only delivers notifications. Option D is incorrect because CloudWatch Synthetics is used for endpoint monitoring, not for HANA memory metrics.

Answer

Configure an Amazon SNS topic to send email notifications when memory usage is high.

Answer

Use Amazon CloudWatch Synthetics to monitor HANA memory.