PAS-C01 Technology Practice Test 21 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company is running SAP BusinessObjects on AWS. The application server is on an EC2 instance, and the database is on Amazon RDS for SQL Server. Users report that reports are taking longer to generate than expected. Which AWS service can be used to analyze the performance bottleneck?

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

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch with enhanced monitoring for RDS. Amazon CloudWatch with enhanced monitoring provides detailed OS-level metrics for RDS (CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network), along with EC2 metrics, enabling analysis of performance bottlenecks in SAP BusinessObjects. Option A (AWS Trusted Advisor) offers best-practice recommendations, not performance analysis. Option B (AWS CloudTrail) audits API calls, which is unrelated to performance. Option C (AWS X-Ray) is designed for tracing requests in distributed applications, not for database-level performance monitoring.

Answer

AWS Trusted Advisor

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

AWS X-Ray

Question 2

A company is migrating its SAP ERP system to AWS and needs to ensure that the SAP application can communicate with the corporate LDAP server for authentication. The LDAP server is on-premises. Which AWS service should be used to establish a secure connection?

Accepted Answer

AWS Site-to-Site VPN. AWS Site-to-Site VPN creates an encrypted tunnel over the public internet using IPsec, enabling secure communication between the SAP application in the VPC and the on-premises LDAP server. This is the most straightforward and cost-effective option for establishing a secure connection when a dedicated physical link is not required.

Answer

AWS Direct Connect

Answer

VPC Peering

Answer

AWS Transit Gateway

Question 3

A company is running SAP HANA in a multi-node scale-out configuration on AWS. The cluster uses AWS Placement Groups with the 'cluster' placement strategy. The system is experiencing network latency between nodes. Which change should the company make to reduce latency?

Accepted Answer

Enable Enhanced Networking (ENA) on all instances in the cluster.. Enabling Enhanced Networking (ENA) on all instances reduces network latency and jitter by offloading network processing to dedicated hardware on the Elastic Network Adapter. For SAP HANA scale-out clusters requiring low-latency inter-node communication, ENA provides higher packet-per-second performance and lower latency compared to the default Xen-net driver, directly addressing the latency issue in the cluster placement group.

Answer

Change the placement group to 'spread' to reduce interference.

Answer

Use larger instance sizes to increase network bandwidth.

Answer

Use EBS-optimized instances to improve storage performance.

Question 4

A company needs to automate the start and stop of SAP applications in non-production environments to reduce costs. The SAP systems run on multiple EC2 instances. Which AWS service can be used to schedule start and stop actions?

Accepted Answer

AWS Instance Scheduler. AWS Instance Scheduler is a purpose-built solution that automates the start and stop of EC2 instances based on a defined schedule, making it ideal for reducing costs in non-production SAP environments. It uses AWS CloudFormation to deploy a scheduler that triggers Lambda functions to stop and start instances at specified times, and it natively supports tagging to identify which instances to manage, without requiring custom code.

Answer

AWS OpsWorks

Answer

AWS Lambda with custom code

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Events

Question 5

A company is setting up SAP HANA database backups to Amazon S3. Which TWO actions are required to ensure secure and efficient backup operations? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Create an IAM role for the EC2 instance running SAP HANA with permissions to write to the S3 bucket.. The EC2 instance running SAP HANA must assume an IAM role that grants permissions to write backup files to the S3 bucket. This follows the principle of least privilege and avoids embedding long-term credentials in the instance, which is a security best practice for automated backup operations.

Answer

Enable S3 Transfer Acceleration on the backup bucket.

Answer

Enable server-side encryption with AWS KMS for the S3 bucket.

Answer

Set up an S3 Lifecycle policy to move older backups to Amazon Glacier.

Question 6

A company is designing a highly available SAP NetWeaver system on AWS. The architecture includes two EC2 instances running the ABAP application server in an Auto Scaling group. Which THREE components are required to maintain session persistence and distribute traffic? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Health checks on the target group to detect unhealthy instances. Health checks on the target group are required to detect unhealthy EC2 instances running the ABAP application server. When an instance fails a health check, the load balancer automatically stops routing traffic to it, ensuring that only healthy instances serve requests. This is critical for maintaining high availability in an SAP NetWeaver environment, as it prevents session failures caused by underlying instance issues.

Answer

A shared file system (e.g., Amazon EFS) for /sapmnt

Answer

A Multi-AZ deployment for the SAP application servers

Question 7

A company is running SAP HANA on an EC2 instance. The storage is provided by multiple EBS volumes. Which THREE considerations are important when configuring EBS volumes for SAP HANA? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Use RAID 0 striping across multiple EBS volumes to increase throughput.. Options A, C, and E are correct. Option A is correct because using RAID 0 striping across multiple EBS volumes increases aggregated throughput and IOPS, which benefits SAP HANA workloads. Option C is correct because separating data and log volumes prevents I/O contention and aligns with SAP best practices. Option E is correct because SAP HANA requires consistent, sufficient IOPS; provisioning volumes with adequate provisioned IOPS meets performance requirements. Option B is incorrect because gp2 burst credits are not reliable for production HANA; provisioned IOPS volumes (e.g., io1/io2) or gp3 are recommended. Option D is incorrect because EBS bursting introduces variability and is not suitable for production HANA; volumes should be sized for baseline performance.

Answer

Use gp2 volumes with burst credits to handle peak IOPS.

Answer

Enable EBS bursting for all volumes to ensure high throughput.

Question 8

Refer to the exhibit. An IAM policy is created for an automated script that starts and stops EC2 instances. The script is failing to stop an instance with the tag 'Environment: non-production'. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The EC2 instance does not have the tag 'Environment' with value 'non-production'.. The IAM policy is configured with a condition that requires the EC2 instance to have the tag 'Environment' with value 'non-production' for both StartInstances and StopInstances actions. If the instance does not have this exact tag, the action is denied. Option B is incorrect because the policy likely includes the ec2:StopInstances action, but the condition is not met. Option C is incorrect because the policy does not require ec2:Describe* actions for the stop operation to work. Option D is incorrect because the condition is applied equally to both StartInstances and StopInstances.

Answer

The policy does not include ec2:StopInstances action.

Answer

The policy does not allow ec2:Describe* actions for instances.

Answer

The condition is applied to the ec2:StartInstances action but not ec2:StopInstances.

Question 9

Refer to the exhibit. An SAP HANA administrator runs the command to check the attached volume. The volume is attached to an instance but the database is reporting low IOPS. What should the administrator check next?

Accepted Answer

Check if the EC2 instance is EBS-optimized and has sufficient network bandwidth.. The volume is provisioned with 10,000 IOPS (io1), but the database still reports low IOPS. The most likely cause is that the EC2 instance is not EBS-optimized, which limits the dedicated bandwidth for EBS traffic and can throttle performance. Checking EBS optimization and network bandwidth is the proper next step. Option A is wrong because volume size does not directly determine IOPS; provisioning size does not increase IOPS. Option C is wrong because changing to gp2 would reduce maximum IOPS (gp2 burst credits would not sustain 10,000 IOPS). Option D is wrong because NVMe drivers are required for EBS volumes on Nitro-based instances; if the instance uses Nitro, the NVMe driver must be installed and configured properly. However, low IOPS is more likely due to EBS optimization than driver issues.

Answer

Check if the volume size is sufficient; increase to 1 TB.

Answer

Check if the volume type should be changed to gp2 for better burst performance.

Answer

Check if the instance is using the NVMe driver for the EBS volume.

Question 10

Refer to the exhibit. A CloudFormation template is used to launch an SAP application server. The stack creation succeeds, but the application server fails to start correctly. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The UserData script may not be executed due to timing issues; the sleep command may be insufficient.. The UserData script includes a 'sleep 30' command, which may not be sufficient if the instance takes longer to become ready, causing the application server to fail to start correctly. Option A is incorrect because missing an output parameter does not affect the startup of the application server; outputs are for stack information. Option B is incorrect because the r5.2xlarge instance type is supported for SAP application servers on AWS. Option C is incorrect because AMI IDs can contain numeric characters; the example AMI ID is valid.

Answer

The template is missing an output parameter to verify the instance status.

Answer

The instance type r5.2xlarge is not supported for SAP application servers.

Answer

The AMI ID is invalid because it contains numeric characters.

Question 11

A company is running a critical SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance with a single EBS volume for /hana/data. They need to ensure high durability and recoverability of the data. Which storage configuration meets SAP best practices?

Accepted Answer

Use a single gp3 EBS volume with provisioned IOPS.. For SAP HANA on AWS, a single gp3 EBS volume can be configured with up to 16,000 IOPS and speeds of up to 1,000 MB/s. This meets the performance requirements for many production HANA systems. RAID 0 striping adds complexity and does not improve durability; durability is achieved through backup and snapshots. Using a single gp3 volume with sufficient provisioned IOPS is more cost-effective and simpler to manage. Therefore, option C is the best configuration for high durability and recoverability.

Answer

Mount an Amazon EFS filesystem for /hana/data.

Answer

Configure RAID 0 over multiple EBS volumes for the /hana/data filesystem.

Answer

Use EBS Multi-Attach to attach the same volume to multiple instances.

Question 12

An SAP system is experiencing high CPU utilization on the application server. CloudWatch metrics show that the CPU credit balance for the T3 instance is frequently depleted. What is the most cost-effective solution to resolve this issue while maintaining performance?

Accepted Answer

Enable T3 unlimited on the instance.. Enabling T3 unlimited allows the instance to burst beyond its baseline CPU utilization by spending credits, and when credits are exhausted, it can still burst by incurring a small additional charge per vCPU-hour. This is the most cost-effective solution as it avoids the need to migrate to a larger or different instance type, while maintaining performance for the SAP system's variable workloads.

Answer

Add more vCPUs by changing to a C5 instance.

Answer

Change the instance type to M5.large.

Answer

Increase the size of the EBS volumes.

Question 13

A company is migrating an SAP ERP system to AWS and needs to connect on-premises users to the SAP application securely. The SAP application is deployed in a VPC private subnet. Which service should be used to provide secure access for remote users?

Accepted Answer

AWS Client VPN. AWS Client VPN is a managed service that allows remote users to securely connect to AWS resources using OpenVPN-based VPN clients. Since the SAP application is in a private subnet, remote users need individual encrypted tunnels to access it, which Client VPN provides by authenticating users and routing traffic through a VPC endpoint.

Answer

AWS Site-to-Site VPN

Answer

AWS Transit Gateway

Answer

AWS Direct Connect

Question 14

An SAP system administrator needs to automate the creation of an SAP HANA database backup and copy it to another AWS Region for disaster recovery. The backup is stored in an Amazon S3 bucket. Which AWS service should be used to replicate the backup to another Region?

Accepted Answer

S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR). S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) is the correct service because it automatically replicates objects from a source S3 bucket in one AWS Region to a destination bucket in another Region, meeting the requirement to copy the SAP HANA database backup to a different Region for disaster recovery. CRR operates asynchronously and can be configured with the appropriate IAM role to replicate existing and new objects, ensuring the backup is continuously available in the DR Region.

Answer

S3 Lifecycle Policies

Answer

S3 Batch Operations

Answer

S3 Transfer Acceleration

Question 15

A company runs SAP on AWS and is experiencing high latency for database queries after moving the SAP HANA database to a larger instance type. CloudWatch metrics show that the EBS volume queue length is consistently high. What is the most likely cause of the latency?

Accepted Answer

The EBS volume does not have enough provisioned IOPS.. A consistently high EBS volume queue length indicates that the volume is receiving more I/O requests than it can process, causing requests to queue up. Since the SAP HANA database was moved to a larger instance type, the workload likely demands more IOPS than the EBS volume is provisioned for, leading to throttling and increased latency. Option C correctly identifies that insufficient provisioned IOPS is the most likely cause.

Answer

The instance's network bandwidth is saturated.

Answer

The instance's CPU is under-provisioned.

Answer

The EBS volume is not encrypted.