PAS-C01 Technology Practice Test 3 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company migrates its SAP HANA database to an EC2 instance with 1 TB of memory. The system is used for both OLTP and OLAP workloads. The performance team notices that memory utilization is high but the CPU is underutilized. Which configuration change would best improve overall system throughput?

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

Accepted Answer

Enable HANA Large Pages to reduce TLB misses and improve memory access. HANA Large Pages (also known as huge pages) reduce the number of Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) misses by mapping large contiguous memory regions with fewer page table entries. In a 1 TB memory system, the default 4 KB page size causes excessive TLB pressure, especially under OLAP workloads with large data scans. Enabling large pages improves memory access efficiency, allowing the CPU to spend less time on page walks and more time on actual processing, thereby improving overall throughput without requiring a hardware change.

Answer

Use a smaller instance type with higher CPU to memory ratio

Answer

Increase the swap space on the instance store volumes

Answer

Disable HANA compression to reduce CPU overhead

Question 2

Which TWO of the following are valid considerations when sizing an SAP HANA instance on AWS for a production environment? (Choose 2.)

Accepted Answer

Consider instance store volumes for temporary data and high I/O throughput. Option B is correct because SAP HANA production workloads on AWS benefit from instance store (NVMe) volumes for temporary data such as redo logs, tempdb, and swap, since they deliver very high I/O throughput and low latency without consuming EBS network bandwidth. Option C is correct because EBS-optimized instance types provide dedicated network bandwidth between the EC2 instance and attached EBS volumes, which is essential for meeting HANA's storage throughput and latency KPIs in production. Option A is not a valid sizing consideration: EBS consistency groups are not a standard AWS feature for snapshot backups, and snapshots are not the primary sizing factor for HANA. Option D is incorrect because HANA production sizing is driven by SAPS, memory bandwidth, and the specific TDI/SAP-certified instance type, not a fixed 64 GB per node minimum. Option E is incorrect because using a single large EBS volume does not address HANA's requirement for separate data, log, and backup volumes with appropriate IOPS and throughput characteristics.

Answer

Use EBS consistency groups for snapshot backups

Answer

Select an instance with at least 64 GB memory per HANA node

Answer

Use a single large EBS volume to simplify management

Question 3

A company is running a production SAP HANA database on an AWS EC2 instance with a single EBS gp3 volume. The database frequently experiences high write latency during peak hours. Which design change would MOST effectively reduce write latency?

Accepted Answer

Replace the single gp3 volume with multiple io2 Block Express volumes configured in a RAID 0 stripe.. Replacing a single gp3 volume with multiple io2 Block Express volumes in a RAID 0 stripe increases the available IOPS and reduces write latency by distributing write operations across multiple volumes in parallel. io2 Block Express volumes offer up to 256,000 IOPS per volume and sub-millisecond latency, which directly addresses the high write latency during peak hours. RAID 0 striping further aggregates the IOPS and throughput of multiple volumes, providing the performance needed for SAP HANA's demanding write workloads.

Answer

Increase the size of the existing gp3 volume to maximize its baseline throughput.

Answer

Migrate the database to a larger EC2 instance type with higher network bandwidth.

Answer

Move the SAP HANA database to Amazon RDS for SAP HANA.

Question 4

A company is planning to migrate its SAP landscape to AWS. The SAP systems include a production system, a QA system, and a development system. All systems use the same SAP S/4HANA version. Which strategy is MOST cost-effective for the DR (disaster recovery) setup?

Accepted Answer

Use a pilot light strategy with AWS DMS ongoing replication.. For SAP systems where all environments use the same S/4HANA version, the most cost-effective DR approach is a pilot light strategy using AWS DMS ongoing replication. This minimizes costs by replicating only the data (e.g., via DMS) and keeping only essential infrastructure running (e.g., a small standby database) while leaving additional compute resources (application servers, etc.) off until failover. In contrast, cross-Region replication with reserved instances (Option B) incurs significant ongoing costs because reserved instances must be paid for upfront or over time even when not running, and the DR systems would need to be sized for peak capacity, leading to waste. Warm standby (Option A) and active-active (Option D) are more expensive due to the need for continuously running infrastructure or load balancing across regions. Therefore, pilot light with DMS is the most cost-effective for this scenario.

Answer

Set up warm standby in a second Region with a standby application server and database.

Answer

Use cross-Region replication with AWS reserved instances for the DR systems.

Answer

Deploy active-active SAP systems in two AWS Regions with Elastic Load Balancing.

Question 5

An SAP administrator needs to ensure that Amazon EBS snapshots of SAP HANA data volumes are crash-consistent. The HANA database is on a single EC2 instance with multiple EBS volumes. What is the correct approach?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Backup with application-consistent snapshots using pre- and post-scripts.. AWS Backup with application-consistent snapshots uses pre- and post-scripts to quiesce the SAP HANA database, ensuring that all EBS volumes are captured in a crash-consistent state. This approach coordinates the snapshot process across multiple volumes without stopping the EC2 instance, maintaining data integrity for SAP HANA's data volumes.

Answer

Configure the volumes as a RAID 0 array and take a snapshot of the array.

Answer

Take snapshots of each volume individually while the instance is running.

Answer

Stop the EC2 instance, take snapshots of all volumes, then start the instance.

Question 6

A company is designing a network architecture for SAP S/4HANA on AWS. The architecture must support high availability by distributing application servers across two Availability Zones. Which AWS service can provide automatic failover for the SAP central services (ASCS) instance?

Accepted Answer

Amazon Route 53 with DNS failover routing. Amazon Route 53 with DNS failover routing is correct because SAP ASCS (ABAP SAP Central Services) requires a virtual hostname that clients use to connect. Route 53 can monitor the health of the ASCS instance in the primary Availability Zone and automatically update DNS resolution to point to the standby ASCS instance in the secondary Availability Zone when a failure is detected. This provides the automatic failover needed for SAP central services without requiring a shared IP address across zones.

Answer

AWS Direct Connect

Answer

Application Load Balancer (ALB)

Answer

Amazon CloudFront

Question 7

A company is migrating its SAP ERP system from on-premises to AWS. The migration involves a heterogeneous database migration from Oracle to SAP HANA. Which AWS service should be used to perform the database migration with minimal downtime?

Accepted Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) with a heterogeneous migration using the SAP HANA target endpoint. AWS DMS supports heterogeneous migrations, including from Oracle to SAP HANA, by using built-in conversion capabilities or integrating with AWS SCT for schema transformation. This allows continuous data replication with minimal downtime, as DMS can perform ongoing changes from the source during the migration window.

Answer

AWS Schema Conversion Tool (AWS SCT)

Answer

AWS Server Migration Service (SMS)

Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) with a homogeneous migration

Question 8

A company is deploying SAP S/4HANA on AWS and needs to choose a storage solution for the HANA data volume that provides high IOPS and low latency. Which TWO storage options are suitable? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon EC2 instance store (NVMe SSD). Option B, Amazon EC2 instance store (NVMe SSD), is correct because it provides the highest IOPS and lowest latency storage directly attached to the host, which is why AWS and SAP certify it for HANA data and log volumes on supported instance types. Option C, Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes, is correct because they deliver sub-millisecond latency and very high IOPS (up to 256,000 IOPS per volume) with SAP-certified performance for S/4HANA data volumes. Option A, gp2, is not suitable because its baseline performance is IOPS-per-GB dependent and it cannot meet HANA's sustained high-IOPS, low-latency requirements. Option D, EFS, is a shared NFS file system and is not certified for HANA data volumes due to latency and protocol limitations. Option E, S3, is object storage and cannot serve as a block-level HANA data volume.

Answer

Amazon EBS gp2 volumes

Answer

Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)

Answer

Amazon S3

Question 9

An SAP administrator is configuring high availability for SAP HANA using HANA system replication (HSR) across multiple Availability Zones. The administrator must ensure that the replication traffic is encrypted and uses the most efficient network path. Which TWO configurations meet these requirements? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Enable SAP HANA system replication with TLS/SSL encryption.. Option A is correct because SAP HANA system replication natively supports TLS/SSL encryption for the replication channel, which directly satisfies the requirement that replication traffic be encrypted between the primary and secondary HANA instances. Option D is correct because subnets in different Availability Zones within the same AWS Region are already connected through the VPC's implicit routing, and VPC peering (or simply the default VPC routing) provides the most efficient, lowest-latency network path without traversing the public internet or additional hops. Option B is incorrect because storing replication data in Amazon S3 and having the secondary pull it is not how HANA system replication works; HSR uses a continuous log-shipping channel between HANA nodes, not object storage. Option C is incorrect because AWS Direct Connect is a dedicated private connection between an on-premises data center and AWS, not a mechanism for connecting Availability Zones within a Region. Option E is incorrect because a VPN connection between Availability Zones is unnecessary and would add encryption/decryption overhead and latency, whereas intra-VPC traffic across AZs already uses AWS's private backbone.

Answer

Store replication data in Amazon S3 and have the secondary instance pull it.

Answer

Use AWS Direct Connect to connect the Availability Zones.

Answer

Configure a VPN connection between the Availability Zones.

Question 10

A company is running an SAP NetWeaver system on AWS. The system includes a primary application server (PAS) and a dialog instance. The administrator wants to monitor the SAP system health using Amazon CloudWatch. Which THREE metrics should be monitored to proactively detect performance issues? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

EBS Volume Queue Length. Option A (EBS Volume Queue Length) is correct because it measures the number of I/O requests waiting to be serviced on the EBS volume, and rising queue length on the database or SAP data volumes is a leading indicator of storage latency that will degrade SAP dialog response times. Option C (EC2 CPU Utilization) is correct because sustained high CPU on the PAS or dialog instance indicates the application server is saturating its compute capacity, which directly slows SAP work processes and user transactions. Option E (SAP work process usage via SAP monitoring) is correct because SAP work processes are the actual execution units for dialog, background, and update tasks, so monitoring their utilization and availability detects SAP-level bottlenecks (e.g., all dialog work processes busy) that infrastructure metrics alone cannot reveal. Option B (EC2 SwapUsage as a custom metric) is not among the marked answers because swap usage is not a native CloudWatch EC2 metric and, while useful, is not one of the three targeted SAP performance indicators here. Option D (EC2 NetworkIn) is not marked because inbound network volume alone is a throughput counter, not a direct indicator of SAP performance degradation, and it lacks the diagnostic value of queue length, CPU saturation, and work process utilization.

Answer

EC2 SwapUsage (as custom metric)

Answer

EC2 NetworkIn

Question 11

An SAP application running on AWS is experiencing high latency for database write operations. The system uses SAP ASE on Amazon EC2 with gp2 EBS volumes. Which change is most likely to improve write performance?

Accepted Answer

Migrate to io1/io2 EBS volumes with provisioned IOPS.. SAP ASE on Amazon EC2 with gp2 EBS volumes is experiencing high latency for database write operations. gp2 volumes use a burst-bucket model that can exhaust IOPS credits under sustained heavy writes, causing throttled performance. Migrating to io1 or io2 EBS volumes with provisioned IOPS guarantees consistent, low-latency write throughput, which directly addresses the bottleneck for database write workloads.

Answer

Move database write logs to Amazon S3 for better throughput.

Answer

Migrate to gp3 EBS volumes with higher baseline performance.

Answer

Use instance store volumes for database data files.

Question 12

An SAP system on AWS sends large amounts of batch data via RFC calls between two EC2 instances in the same VPC. The application team reports high network latency. Which configuration change would most effectively reduce latency?

Accepted Answer

Place both EC2 instances in the same cluster placement group.. Cluster placement groups provide low-latency, high-throughput network connectivity by placing instances in a single Availability Zone within a logical group, ensuring they are in close physical proximity. For SAP RFC batch data transfer between two EC2 instances in the same VPC, this reduces network hops and latency significantly compared to instances placed in different racks or AZs.

Answer

Assign Elastic IP addresses to both instances.

Answer

Enable Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) on both instances.

Answer

Use Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA) for network communication.

Question 13

A company running SAP on AWS needs to back up their SAP HANA database daily with point-in-time recovery. Which service should they use to achieve this with minimal operational overhead?

Accepted Answer

AWS Backup with the SAP HANA backup plan.. AWS Backup with the SAP HANA backup plan is the correct choice because it provides a fully managed, policy-driven backup service that integrates directly with SAP HANA to perform database-consistent, log-based backups for point-in-time recovery. This eliminates the need for custom scripts or manual orchestration, minimizing operational overhead while ensuring compliance with SAP's backup requirements.

Answer

Amazon RDS automated backups.

Answer

Amazon EBS snapshots via a script.

Answer

Amazon S3 with lifecycle policies.

Question 14

An SAP system is running on EC2 and uses a Classic Load Balancer to distribute traffic to web dispatchers. The operations team notices that the load balancer is not distributing traffic evenly. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The load balancer uses a flow hash algorithm that may not evenly distribute requests with many long-lived connections.. Classic Load Balancers use a flow hash algorithm based on the source IP, destination IP, source port, destination port, and protocol to route requests. This algorithm can cause uneven distribution when many long-lived connections (such as SAP GUI or HTTP persistent connections) are present, because the same flow hash consistently maps to the same backend instance, leading to imbalance. This is the most likely cause given the scenario of an SAP system with web dispatchers.

Answer

Cross-zone load balancing is disabled.

Answer

Connection draining is not enabled.

Answer

The health check interval is set too high.

Question 15

A company is deploying SAP S/4HANA on AWS and needs to ensure that the system can handle a sudden increase in user load during month-end closing. Which architectural change would best address this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Configure auto-scaling for the SAP application tier based on CPU utilization.. SAP S/4HANA on AWS supports auto-scaling for the application tier (ASCS/PAS/AAS) using AWS Auto Scaling groups based on CPU utilization. This allows the system to dynamically add or remove application server instances to handle sudden spikes in user load during month-end closing, ensuring performance without manual intervention.

Answer

Deploy the application across multiple Availability Zones.

Answer

Increase the provisioned IOPS on the database EBS volumes.

Answer

Use a larger EC2 instance type for the application server.