PAS-C01 Technology Practice Test 5 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company is deploying SAP S/4HANA on AWS and needs to choose instance types that are certified by SAP. Which TWO instance families are SAP-certified for production SAP HANA workloads?

Accepted Answer

R5. The question asks for two certified instance families for production SAP HANA workloads. Among the provided options, only R5 (A) and X1e (C) are SAP-certified for production HANA. T3, M5, and P3 are not certified. Therefore, the correct answers are A and C.

Answer

T3

Answer

M5

Answer

P3

Question 2

An SAP administrator needs to set up disaster recovery for an SAP system on AWS. Which TWO AWS services can be used to replicate data across regions?

Accepted Answer

Amazon EBS snapshots copied to another region. Amazon EBS snapshots can be copied to another AWS region, providing a reliable mechanism for disaster recovery of SAP systems by creating point-in-time backups of critical volumes. This allows the SAP administrator to restore the system in a different region if the primary region fails, ensuring data durability and recoverability.

Answer

Amazon CloudFront

Answer

Amazon EFS replication

Answer

Amazon RDS read replicas in another region

Question 3

An SAP administrator attaches this IAM policy to a user. Which action will the user be allowed to perform on an EC2 instance with the tag 'Environment: Production'?

Accepted Answer

Reboot the instance. The IAM policy grants the ec2:RebootInstances action with a condition that the resource must have the tag 'Environment: Production'. Therefore, the user is allowed to reboot any EC2 instance that carries that tag. The other actions (start, terminate, modify instance type) are not explicitly allowed by the policy, so they are denied by default.

Answer

Start the instance

Answer

Terminate the instance

Answer

Modify the instance type

Question 4

An administrator needs to retrieve the private IP address of an ASCS instance that was deployed via AWS CloudFormation. What is the most efficient way to get this IP address?

Accepted Answer

Modify the CloudFormation template to add the private IP as an output.. CloudFormation stack outputs are the intended mechanism for exposing resource attributes, such as private IP addresses, after stack creation. By modifying the template to include the private IP as an output, the administrator can retrieve it directly via the AWS CLI `describe-stacks` command without additional API calls or manual lookups, making it the most efficient and automated approach.

Answer

Check the CloudFormation stack events for the private IP.

Answer

Use the AWS CLI to describe the EC2 instance using the instance ID.

Answer

Use AWS Systems Manager to find the IP from the instance ID.

Question 5

An administrator receives this error when trying to register an SAP system in AWS Systems Manager. What is the likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The SAP Host Agent is not installed on the EC2 instance.. The error occurs because AWS Systems Manager requires the SAP Host Agent to be installed and running on the EC2 instance to register an SAP system. Without the SAP Host Agent, Systems Manager cannot discover or manage the SAP instance, even if the SSM Agent and IAM permissions are correctly configured.

Answer

The IAM role assigned to the instance does not have the required permissions.

Answer

The AWS Systems Manager Agent (SSM Agent) is not running.

Answer

The SAP system is not installed correctly.

Question 6

A company is running an SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance with an EBS gp3 volume. The workload is write-intensive and latency-sensitive. Which configuration change would provide the most consistent I/O performance?

Accepted Answer

Use an EBS io2 Block Express volume with provisioned IOPS. An SAP HANA database is extremely sensitive to I/O latency and requires consistent, high IOPS for write-intensive workloads. EBS io2 Block Express volumes provide up to 256,000 provisioned IOPS with 99.999% durability, delivering the predictable low-latency performance that gp3 volumes cannot guarantee under sustained write pressure. This makes D the correct choice for consistent I/O performance.

Answer

Switch to an EBS st1 (throughput-optimized HDD) volume

Answer

Enable EBS Multi-Attach for the gp3 volume

Answer

Increase the size of the existing gp3 volume to increase baseline throughput

Question 7

A company is planning a migration of their SAP ERP system to AWS. They want to use SAP HANA as the database. The current on-premises database size is 2 TB. The migration must have minimal downtime. Which combination of AWS services and methods should be used to achieve a near-zero downtime migration?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS DMS with a SAP HANA source and target, configuring ongoing replication to minimize downtime. AWS DMS with a SAP HANA source and target, configuring ongoing replication, is correct because it supports near-zero downtime migration by continuously replicating changes from the on-premises HANA database to the target HANA database on AWS until cutover. DMS uses log-based change data capture (CDC) to capture ongoing transactions, allowing the source to remain operational during the bulk load and then switch with minimal interruption.

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with an SAP HANA source and S3 as target

Answer

Use SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) to replicate data to an EC2 instance in AWS

Answer

Use AWS Backup to perform a continuous backup of the on-premises HANA database and restore to AWS

Question 8

An SAP system running on AWS is experiencing intermittent network connectivity issues between the application server and the database server. Both servers are in the same VPC but in different Availability Zones. The network ACLs and security groups are properly configured. What is the most likely cause and solution?

Accepted Answer

The route tables are not correctly configured for cross-AZ traffic; verify and update route tables. The most likely cause is that the route tables in the subnets do not have routes for the destination CIDR of the other Availability Zone (AZ). By default, each subnet in a VPC is associated with a route table, and for traffic to flow between subnets in different AZs, the route tables must include a local route for the VPC CIDR. If the route tables are misconfigured (e.g., missing the local route or pointing to an incorrect target), cross-AZ traffic will fail, causing intermittent connectivity issues between the application and database servers.

Answer

The security groups are stateful and blocking return traffic; use network ACLs instead

Answer

Use AWS Transit Gateway to connect the subnets in different AZs

Answer

The network ACLs are blocking traffic between Availability Zones; update the NACLs

Question 9

A company operates an SAP system on AWS with a shared SAP HANA database across multiple SAP applications. The database size is 5 TB. The operations team wants to implement a disaster recovery strategy with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 2 hours. Which solution meets these requirements with the least operational overhead?

Accepted Answer

Configure SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) to a secondary instance in another AWS Region. SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) to a secondary instance in another AWS Region meets the RPO of 15 minutes and RTO of 2 hours with the least operational overhead because HSR provides synchronous or near-synchronous replication at the database level, ensuring minimal data loss and fast failover. It is natively supported by SAP HANA, requires no additional third-party tools, and integrates directly with AWS for cross-Region networking via VPC peering or Direct Connect, making it the most efficient and low-maintenance DR solution for a shared 5 TB HANA database.

Answer

Use AWS DMS to replicate data to an S3 bucket in a different Region

Answer

Use SAP HANA backup to S3 and restore in another Region

Answer

Use AWS CloudEndure Disaster Recovery to replicate the entire server

Question 10

An SAP customer has a mission-critical system running on AWS. They need to ensure that the SAP application can survive an Availability Zone failure without manual intervention. The SAP application is stateless. The database is SAP HANA with System Replication. What is the most comprehensive architecture to achieve automatic failover?

Accepted Answer

Deploy the SAP application in an Auto Scaling group across multiple AZs and configure SAP HANA System Replication with automatic failover using AWS resources. It combines stateless SAP application auto-scaling across multiple Availability Zones (AZs) with SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) configured for automatic failover. HSR uses synchronous replication to keep the standby HANA database in sync, and when combined with AWS services like Amazon Route 53 health checks or a cluster manager (e.g., Pacemaker), the failover occurs automatically without manual intervention. This architecture ensures both the application and database tiers survive an AZ failure seamlessly.

Answer

Use Amazon Route 53 health checks to switch DNS to a standby instance in another AZ

Answer

Deploy the SAP application in an Auto Scaling group across two AZs and use Amazon RDS Multi-AZ for HANA

Answer

Deploy the SAP application behind an Application Load Balancer and use SAP HANA System Replication with manual failover scripts

Question 11

An SAP system running on AWS is experiencing high CPU usage on the application server during peak hours. The system is already using the largest instance type available in the current generation. What is the most cost-effective solution to handle the peak load?

Accepted Answer

Add an additional SAP application server in the same Availability Zone. SAP on AWS supports horizontal scaling by adding more application servers to distribute the load, which is the most cost-effective approach when the current instance type is already the largest available. Option C correctly adds an additional SAP application server in the same Availability Zone, leveraging SAP's native architecture to handle peak CPU usage without incurring the cost of a larger, potentially unavailable instance.

Answer

Upgrade to a larger instance type from a different instance family

Answer

Purchase Reserved Instances to reduce cost and allocate more resources

Answer

Use Auto Scaling to automatically add instances during peak hours

Question 12

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?

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 13

An SAP customer is using AWS Direct Connect to connect their on-premises network to AWS. They have multiple SAP systems in different VPCs. The network team wants to centralize connectivity and simplify routing. Which AWS service should they use to connect all VPCs to the on-premises network?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Transit Gateway to connect all VPCs and the Direct Connect gateway. AWS Transit Gateway acts as a central hub that interconnects VPCs and on-premises networks via a Direct Connect Gateway. This allows the customer to attach multiple VPCs to a single Transit Gateway and connect that Transit Gateway to the Direct Connect Gateway, simplifying routing and eliminating the need for multiple Direct Connect Virtual Interfaces (VIFs) or complex peering arrangements.

Answer

Use a VPN connection from each VPC to the on-premises network

Answer

Use VPC Peering between each VPC and the Direct Connect VIF

Answer

Use AWS PrivateLink to connect services across VPCs

Question 14

Which TWO of the following are benefits of using SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) on AWS? (Choose 2.)

Accepted Answer

Supports replication across AWS Regions for disaster recovery. SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) supports asynchronous replication across AWS Regions, enabling disaster recovery by maintaining a secondary system in a different geographic region. This allows failover to the secondary site if the primary region becomes unavailable, meeting RPO and RTO requirements for cross-region DR scenarios.

Answer

Improves query performance by distributing workloads

Answer

Automatically scales storage based on database growth

Answer

Automatically load balances read queries between primary and secondary

Question 15

Which THREE of the following are best practices for securing an SAP HANA database on AWS? (Choose 3.)

Accepted Answer

Enable encryption at rest for EBS volumes attached to the HANA instance. Encrypting EBS volumes at rest protects the underlying storage of the SAP HANA database from unauthorized physical access or snapshot theft. AWS KMS-managed keys or customer-managed keys can be used to enforce encryption for all data written to the EBS block devices, which is a fundamental security best practice for any sensitive workload on AWS.

Answer

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

Answer

Disable the HANA password policy to simplify user access