PAS-C01 Technology Practice Test 9 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company is migrating its SAP ERP system to AWS and wants to use SAP HANA as the database. Which AWS service can be used to automate the installation and configuration of SAP HANA?

Accepted Answer

AWS Systems Manager. AWS Systems Manager provides the capability to automate the installation and configuration of SAP HANA through its Automation and Run Command features, which can execute custom scripts and workflows. Specifically, AWS offers pre-built Automation documents (e.g., AWS-ConfigureSAP) and integration with SAP Landscape Management to streamline SAP HANA deployment on EC2 instances. This makes Systems Manager the correct choice for automating SAP HANA setup in a migration context.

Answer

AWS CodePipeline

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AWS CloudFormation

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AWS OpsWorks

Question 2

An SAP application is experiencing high latency when writing to an Amazon EBS volume. The volume is a gp2 type attached to an m5.4xlarge instance. Which change would improve write performance?

Accepted Answer

Change the volume type to io2 and provision sufficient IOPS.. The gp2 volume's baseline performance of 3 IOPS per GiB (max 16,000 IOPS) is insufficient for the SAP application's write-intensive workload, causing high latency. Changing to io2 with provisioned IOPS ensures consistent, high-performance writes by decoupling IOPS from volume size, directly addressing the latency issue.

Answer

Increase the size of the gp2 volume to 1 TB.

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Change the volume type to st1.

Answer

Enable EBS optimization on the EC2 instance.

Question 3

Which TWO AWS services can be used to monitor the performance of an SAP HANA database running on EC2? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

AWS Systems Manager. Amazon CloudWatch (E) is correct because it collects and tracks metrics, logs, and events from EC2 instances and can monitor SAP HANA performance via the CloudWatch agent and custom metrics such as memory, CPU, and disk I/O. AWS Systems Manager (A) is correct because it provides operational monitoring and management capabilities, including Run Command, Automation, and OpsCenter, and can collect inventory and performance-related data from EC2 instances running SAP HANA. AWS CloudTrail (B) is not correct because it records API activity and audit events, not database performance metrics. AWS Trusted Advisor (C) is not correct because it provides best-practice checks and recommendations, not real-time SAP HANA performance monitoring. AWS Config (D) is not correct because it tracks resource configuration changes and compliance, not performance metrics.

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

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AWS Trusted Advisor

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AWS Config

Question 4

An SAP administrator creates this IAM policy for an EC2 instance role used by SAP HANA Backint to back up to S3. The backups are failing with access denied errors for S3 operations. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The policy does not include kms:Encrypt action.. SAP HANA Backint for S3 typically uses Server-Side Encryption with AWS KMS (SSE-KMS) to encrypt backups at rest. The IAM policy must include the `kms:Encrypt` action on the KMS key to allow the EC2 instance role to encrypt objects during upload. Without this permission, the S3 PutObject call fails with an access denied error, even if the S3 actions are correctly allowed.

Answer

The policy does not allow s3:ListBucket action.

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The policy uses a wildcard in the resource ARN for the bucket.

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The policy does not include kms:ReEncrypt action.

Question 5

An SAP HANA administrator runs the AWS CLI command shown in the exhibit. The volume is attached to an SAP HANA server. The HANA database is experiencing low write throughput. Which action would most likely improve performance?

Accepted Answer

Change the volume type to io2 and provision 6000 IOPS.. The AWS CLI command output shows the volume is a gp2 volume with a size of 500 GB. gp2 volumes provide a baseline IOPS of 3 per GB, so this volume has 1,500 baseline IOPS. For SAP HANA workloads requiring high write throughput, gp2's burst model is insufficient. Changing to io2 Block Express with provisioned 6000 IOPS delivers consistent, high-performance IOPS needed for sustained write operations, directly addressing the low write throughput issue.

Answer

Detach the volume and reattach it to a different instance.

Answer

Increase the volume size to 1 TB to double the baseline IOPS.

Answer

Enable EBS optimization on the attached instance.

Question 6

A company runs its SAP ERP system on AWS using SAP HANA as the database. The HANA database is deployed on an EC2 instance with 488 GiB of memory. The system has been running for months, but recently the application team reported that some queries are taking significantly longer than usual. The operations team checks the CloudWatch metrics and sees that the database instance's CPU utilization is consistently above 90% during peak hours. They also notice that the EBS volume used for HANA data files has a read latency of over 20 ms. The volume is a gp3 volume with 16,000 IOPS. The instance type is an x1e.8xlarge. The team suspects that the instance is not optimized for the workload. What should they do to resolve the performance issue?

Accepted Answer

Replace the instance with an x1e.16xlarge instance to increase CPU and memory capacity.. The x1e.8xlarge instance provides 4 vCPUs and 488 GiB of memory, which are insufficient for the workload causing consistently high CPU utilization. Upgrading to an x1e.16xlarge instance increases vCPUs to 8 and memory to 976 GiB, directly addressing the CPU bottleneck and memory pressure. The high EBS read latency may be a secondary effect of the overloaded instance, and additional capacity can help alleviate storage performance issues. Option A is incorrect because changing to gp2 with a larger size does not guarantee lower latency and does not address the CPU constraint. Option B is incorrect because increasing IOPS on the gp3 volume only addresses storage performance, not the compute bottleneck. Option D is incorrect because EBS optimization is enabled by default on x1e instances; there is no additional setting to toggle.

Answer

Change the EBS volume type to gp2 with a larger size.

Answer

Increase the gp3 volume IOPS to 32,000 to reduce read latency.

Answer

Enable EBS optimization on the EC2 instance.

Question 7

A company is planning to migrate its SAP ERP system from an on-premises data center to AWS. The system uses SAP HANA as the database. The current on-premises HANA database size is 1 TB. The company wants to minimize downtime during the migration. The network connection between on-premises and AWS has a bandwidth of 1 Gbps. The company has already set up a Direct Connect connection. They plan to use SAP HANA system replication to replicate the database to an EC2 instance in AWS. However, the initial data transfer will take too long due to the large dataset. What should they do to reduce the initial replication time?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Snowball Edge to physically transfer the initial HANA backup.. Using AWS Snowball Edge to physically transfer the initial HANA backup is much faster than transferring over the network, even with Direct Connect. Option A is wrong because ordering an additional Direct Connect circuit is costly and does not address the time limitation of the 1 Gbps link. Option B is wrong because enabling compression on HANA system replication may help but is still constrained by the available bandwidth. Option C is wrong because setting up a VPN over the internet is typically slower and less reliable than the existing Direct Connect connection.

Answer

Order an additional Direct Connect circuit to increase bandwidth.

Answer

Enable compression on the HANA system replication.

Answer

Set up a VPN connection over the internet for faster transfer.

Question 8

A company runs its SAP Business Suite on AWS with an Oracle database on an EC2 instance. The database is stored on multiple EBS volumes configured as a RAID 0 array. The company wants to migrate the database to SAP HANA on a new EC2 instance. The SAP HANA instance will use EBS volumes for data and log storage. The current Oracle database size is 500 GB. The company needs to minimize downtime during the migration. Which migration strategy should they use?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to migrate from Oracle to SAP HANA.. AWS DMS supports Oracle as a source and SAP HANA as a target, enabling continuous replication with minimal downtime by performing a full load followed by change data capture (CDC). This lets the source Oracle database remain online while data is migrated and synchronized to HANA, which is the standard approach for heterogeneous database migrations on AWS.

Answer

Use AWS Application Migration Service to migrate the entire EC2 instance.

Answer

Use SAP HANA System Replication to replicate data from the source Oracle database to the target HANA database.

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Export the Oracle database to a flat file and import into SAP HANA.

Question 9

An SAP system is deployed on AWS using an Auto Scaling group of EC2 instances for the SAP application server layer. The application servers are stateless. The company wants to ensure that when a new instance is launched, it automatically registers with the SAP Web Dispatcher. The Web Dispatcher is configured with an Application Load Balancer (ALB). What is the best way to achieve automatic registration?

Accepted Answer

Attach the Auto Scaling group to an ALB target group.. Attaching the Auto Scaling group directly to an ALB target group ensures that any instance launched by the Auto Scaling group is automatically registered with the ALB. Since the SAP Web Dispatcher is configured behind the ALB, this automatically registers the instance with the Web Dispatcher. Option C is incorrect because user data scripts can be used for initial configuration, but relying on them for registration is less reliable and does not integrate with the ALB's health checks. Option A is incorrect because using CloudWatch Events and Lambda adds unnecessary complexity and latency. Option B is incorrect because AWS Systems Manager State Manager is designed for maintaining consistent state, not for immediate registration upon launch.

Answer

Use Amazon CloudWatch Events to trigger an AWS Lambda function that registers the instance.

Answer

Use AWS Systems Manager State Manager to run a registration script on the instance.

Answer

Configure the EC2 instance's user data to run a script that registers with the Web Dispatcher.

Question 10

A company is running SAP HANA on an EC2 instance with an EBS volume for data storage. The company wants to take daily snapshots of the EBS volume for backup. However, they are concerned about data consistency because the database is running. What should they do to ensure consistent snapshots?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Backup with pre-scripts and post-scripts to quiesce SAP HANA.. AWS Backup supports SAP HANA-aware backup with pre-scripts and post-scripts that quiesce the database (e.g., suspend I/O or put HANA in a consistent state) before the EBS snapshot and resume afterward. This ensures application-consistent snapshots rather than crash-consistent ones, which is critical for a running SAP HANA database. It is the AWS-recommended approach for consistent EBS snapshots of SAP HANA.

Answer

Freeze the filesystem using fsfreeze before taking the snapshot.

Answer

Stop the EC2 instance before taking the snapshot.

Answer

Take the snapshot while the database is running without any preparation.

Question 11

An SAP application on AWS needs to be migrated to a new virtual private cloud (VPC). The SAP system uses SAProuter to connect to SAP support. Which THREE components must be updated or re-configured during the migration to ensure uninterrupted connectivity?

Accepted Answer

Update the Amazon Route 53 DNS records for the SAP application and database servers.. Option B is correct because moving the SAP application and database servers into a new VPC changes their private IP addresses, so the Route 53 DNS records (A/AAAA or CNAME) that resolve the SAP application and database hostnames must be updated to point to the new addresses for clients and SAProuter to reach them. Option C is correct because SAProuter connectivity to SAP support depends on the saprouttab configuration, which contains route entries referencing the SAProuter host/IP and permitted destinations; if the SAProuter instance's IP or hostname changes in the new VPC, the saprouttab (and related SAProuter parameters) must be modified so the route strings and access rules still match the new network layout. Option E is correct because security groups and network ACLs are VPC-scoped and tied to the old subnet/CIDR ranges, so they must be recreated or updated in the new VPC to permit the required SAP traffic (e.g., SAProuter port 3299, SAP GUI, RFC, and database ports) between the SAP servers, SAProuter, and SAP support. Option A is not required because S3 bucket policies govern access to S3 resources and are not part of SAProuter-to-SAP support connectivity; the migration does not inherently require changing S3 bucket policy for VPC access. Option D is not required because IAM roles are global identity constructs, not VPC-bound, and do not need to be recreated merely because the instances move to a new VPC; existing roles can be attached to the new instances.

Answer

Adjust the S3 bucket policy to allow access from the new VPC.

Answer

Recreate IAM roles for the SAP application servers.

Question 12

A company runs its SAP ERP system on AWS using an SAP HANA database on a single EC2 instance. The system experiences intermittent performance degradation during peak hours. The operations team suspects CPU contention, as the instance type is an r5.4xlarge (16 vCPUs). When they check Amazon CloudWatch metrics, they notice that the CPU utilization averages 60%, but occasionally spikes to 100% for a few seconds. The team wants to improve performance without changing the instance type. They are considering using AWS Compute Optimizer or enabling T2/T3 unlimited. What is the MOST effective action to address the CPU spikes?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Global Accelerator to improve network performance and reduce CPU overhead.. AWS Global Accelerator improves network performance by routing traffic over the AWS global network, reducing latency and jitter. This reduces the CPU overhead incurred by the EC2 instance for handling network processing, which can help alleviate CPU spikes during peak hours. The other options are either ineffective or require changing the instance type, which the team wants to avoid.

Answer

Attach an Elastic Fabric Adapter to offload network processing from the CPU.

Answer

Upgrade the instance to a larger size in the r5 family, such as r5.8xlarge, to provide more CPU capacity.

Answer

Enable T3 unlimited on the instance to allow sustained high CPU performance.

Question 13

A company is running SAP S/4HANA on AWS with a high-availability setup using SAP HANA System Replication and a Pacemaker cluster. The cluster consists of two EC2 instances in different Availability Zones, each with an EBS volume for HANA data. The cluster uses a virtual IP address (VIP) managed by the AWS Route 53 health check and failover mechanism. During a recent failover test, the secondary node took over as primary, but the application was unable to connect to the database for several minutes. The investigation reveals that the VIP did not update correctly. The company wants to ensure fast and reliable VIP failover. What should the team do to improve the failover time?

Accepted Answer

Place the SAP HANA database behind an internal Network Load Balancer (NLB) and use the NLB's TCP health checks to route traffic to the active instance.. Placing SAP HANA behind an internal Network Load Balancer with TCP health checks allows the NLB to route traffic to the active instance based on health check status, providing fast, reliable failover at the network layer without relying on DNS TTL propagation. NLB supports static IPs and can be integrated with Pacemaker via a resource agent, enabling sub-second to few-second failover. This addresses the VIP update problem by removing DNS dependency.

Answer

Increase the DNS TTL to 300 seconds to reduce lookups and rely on the Pacemaker VIP update.

Answer

Assign an Elastic IP address to the active node and use a script to reassign it during failover.

Answer

Reduce the Route 53 health check interval to 10 seconds and lower the DNS TTL to 60 seconds.

Question 14

A company has deployed SAP BusinessObjects (BO) on AWS using a multi-tier architecture with a Windows-based application server and a SQL Server database hosted on Amazon RDS. The application server is behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB) that handles HTTPS traffic. Users report that sometimes they receive a '502 Bad Gateway' error when accessing the BO web interface. The error occurs intermittently and is not reproducible on demand. The operations team checks the ALB logs and sees that the target response time occasionally exceeds 120 seconds. The BO application has a default timeout of 60 seconds. The team also notices that the ALB idle timeout is set to 60 seconds. What is the most likely cause of the 502 errors?

Accepted Answer

Increase the idle timeout of the Application Load Balancer to 180 seconds.. The 502 errors occur because the ALB idle timeout (60 seconds) matches the BO application's default timeout (60 seconds), but the ALB logs show target response times occasionally exceed 120 seconds. When the ALB idle timeout expires before the backend completes its response, the ALB closes the connection and returns a 502 error. Increasing the ALB idle timeout to 180 seconds allows sufficient time for the backend to respond, preventing premature connection termination.

Answer

Place an Amazon CloudFront distribution in front of the ALB to cache responses and reduce load.

Answer

Increase the max_connections parameter in the RDS SQL Server instance.

Answer

Increase the deregistration delay on the ALB target group to 300 seconds.

Question 15

A company is running SAP NetWeaver on AWS with an Oracle database on an EC2 instance. The database uses Oracle Data Guard for disaster recovery across Regions. The primary database is in us-east-1, and the standby is in us-west-2. The database size is 500 GB and the network link between Regions has about 100 Mbps throughput. During a recent disaster recovery drill, the failover to the standby took over 2 hours because the Data Guard redo logs were not fully applied. The team wants to reduce the recovery time objective (RTO). They are considering using Amazon S3 to store archived redo logs, increasing the bandwidth, or using a different replication method. What is the MOST effective action to reduce the RTO?

Accepted Answer

Increase the network bandwidth between the Regions to reduce redo log shipping lag.. The most effective action to reduce RTO is to increase network bandwidth between the Regions. The current 100 Mbps link is insufficient to ship the redo logs quickly, causing the standby to lag. Higher bandwidth directly reduces redo log shipping lag, allowing the standby to stay more synchronized and enabling faster failover.

Answer

Configure the primary database to automatically archive redo logs to Amazon S3, and have the standby download them from S3.

Answer

Use Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM) to mirror data across Regions.

Answer

Replace Oracle Data Guard with Amazon EBS snapshot replication across Regions.