PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Test 10 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company runs SAP ERP on AWS with an Oracle database. The architect wants to implement a backup strategy that provides point-in-time recovery (PITR) with an RPO of 5 minutes and an RTO of 2 hours. Which TWO solutions should the architect consider? (Choose TWO.)

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

Accepted Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication to an Oracle instance in another AZ. Option B is correct because Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) with the database in ARCHIVELOG mode captures archived redo logs, which are exactly what enables point-in-time recovery to any second within the retention window; writing those backups to Amazon S3 provides durable off-instance storage, and with 5-minute archive log switches the RPO of 5 minutes is achievable while restore within 2 hours is realistic for an Oracle database of typical SAP size. Option A is correct because AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing (change data capture) replication continuously applies source changes to a standby Oracle instance in another Availability Zone, giving a near-real-time replica from which you can fail over; the replica's lag can be kept under 5 minutes, satisfying the RPO, and promoting the replica satisfies the 2-hour RTO. Option C is wrong because S3 Lifecycle policies to Glacier only change the storage class of existing backup objects and affect cost/retention, not recovery point or recovery time capability. Option D is wrong because S3 Transfer Acceleration only speeds up uploads over long distances using edge locations; it does not provide PITR or define RPO/RTO. Option E is wrong because EBS snapshots every 5 minutes are crash-consistent volume copies, not transaction-consistent Oracle PITR, and AWS does not support a 5-minute snapshot frequency for volumes (minimum is typically hourly via policies), so it cannot meet the stated RPO with PITR.

Answer

Amazon S3 Lifecycle policies to move backups to Glacier

Answer

Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration for backup uploads

Answer

EBS snapshots every 5 minutes

Question 2

An architect is designing a highly available SAP NetWeaver architecture on AWS. The system uses an SAP Central Services (ASCS) instance. Which THREE components are required to achieve high availability for the SAP environment? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Shared file storage (e.g., Amazon EFS or EBS Multi-Attach). Option A is correct because SAP ASCS high availability requires shared file storage for the /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans directories, and services like Amazon EFS or EBS Multi-Attach provide the shared, concurrently accessible storage needed for the cluster nodes. Option B is correct because a cluster manager such as Pacemaker (often with Corosync and STONITH/fencing) is required to detect failures and orchestrate the failover of the ASCS instance and its associated resources between nodes. Option E is correct because a Network Load Balancer is used to provide a stable virtual IP/endpoint that redirects client and application server traffic to the active ASCS node, enabling transparent failover. Option C is not required for ASCS high availability, as a NAT Gateway only provides outbound internet access for private subnets and does not contribute to failover of the SAP central services. Option D is not required either, since an Internet Gateway enables inbound/outbound internet connectivity for public subnets but is not a component of the ASCS HA failover mechanism.

Answer

A NAT Gateway for outbound traffic

Answer

An Internet Gateway for inbound traffic

Question 3

A company is running SAP S/4HANA on AWS and needs to ensure high availability for the database layer. Which AWS service should be used to replicate the database to a standby instance in a different Availability Zone?

Accepted Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS). AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) supports ongoing replication from an SAP HANA source database to a standby instance in a different Availability Zone using change data capture (CDC). This allows continuous data synchronization without requiring native SAP HANA replication features, making it suitable for high-availability setups where the database layer must be replicated across AZs.

Answer

EC2 Auto Scaling

Answer

Amazon S3

Answer

Amazon RDS Multi-AZ

Question 4

A company is planning to migrate their SAP ECC system to AWS. They want to minimize downtime and use an automated approach. Which AWS service should be used for the migration?

Accepted Answer

AWS Launch Wizard. AWS Launch Wizard for SAP is the correct choice because it provides a guided, automated deployment of SAP ECC on AWS, including infrastructure provisioning, OS configuration, and SAP installation. It minimizes downtime by automating the entire migration process, from sizing to deployment, using predefined best practices.

Answer

AWS Application Discovery Service

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AWS CloudFormation

Answer

AWS Server Migration Service

Question 5

A company is planning to migrate its SAP HANA database to AWS. Which instance type is specifically designed for SAP HANA workloads on AWS?

Accepted Answer

x1e.32xlarge. The x1e.32xlarge instance is specifically designed and certified by SAP for production SAP HANA workloads on AWS. It offers 3.9 TB of memory and high storage throughput, meeting SAP's stringent memory-to-vCPU ratio and performance requirements for HANA databases.

Answer

r5.24xlarge

Answer

c5.18xlarge

Answer

t3.2xlarge

Question 6

A company is running SAP ERP on AWS and wants to ensure high availability for the SAP Central Services (ASCS) instance. Which AWS service should be used to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Elastic Load Balancer (NLB). For SAP ASCS high availability, AWS recommends using a Network Load Balancer (NLB) to manage the virtual IP address (VIP) required by SAP. The NLB handles the failover of the ASCS instance between two EC2 nodes by directing traffic to the active node, ensuring seamless client connectivity without relying on a floating IP or custom scripts.

Answer

EC2 Auto Scaling

Answer

Amazon Route 53

Answer

AWS Global Accelerator

Question 7

An SAP system on AWS is experiencing high read latency from the SAP HANA database. The system uses Provisioned IOPS EBS volumes. Which action would most likely improve read latency?

Accepted Answer

Increase the provisioned IOPS on the EBS volumes.. Increasing the provisioned IOPS on the EBS volumes directly addresses high read latency by raising the I/O performance ceiling for the SAP HANA database. Since the system already uses Provisioned IOPS (io1/io2) volumes, higher IOPS reduces queue depth and read latency under heavy workloads. Other options are incorrect: changing to gp2 reduces IOPS, disabling write caching does not improve read latency, and instance store volumes are ephemeral and not recommended for HANA data persistence.

Answer

Change the EBS volume type to gp2.

Answer

Disable write caching on the EBS volumes.

Answer

Move the HANA data to instance store volumes.

Question 8

A company is deploying a new SAP HANA database on AWS and needs to ensure the EBS volumes are optimized for throughput. Which EBS volume type should be used for the HANA data and log volumes?

Accepted Answer

io2 Block Express. For SAP HANA data and log volumes, io2 Block Express (option B) is the correct choice because it provides the highest throughput and IOPS consistency required for SAP HANA's demanding workload. io2 Block Express supports up to 256,000 IOPS and 4,000 MB/s throughput per volume, with 99.999% durability, making it ideal for mission-critical SAP HANA databases on AWS.

Answer

sc1

Answer

gp3

Answer

st1

Question 9

Which TWO of the following are recommended best practices for deploying SAP HANA on AWS? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Use EBS-optimized instances for HANA workloads.. Option D is correct because EBS-optimized instances provide dedicated bandwidth for Amazon EBS I/O, which is essential for SAP HANA's demanding storage throughput and latency requirements, and AWS recommends EBS-optimized instances (or instances with EBS optimization enabled by default) for HANA workloads. Option E is correct because EBS snapshots provide point-in-time, incremental backups of HANA data volumes that can be used for recovery or cloning, and AWS documents snapshot-based backup as a supported best practice for SAP HANA on AWS. Option A is not recommended because SAP HANA production deployments should use multiple Availability Zones or a high-availability configuration to avoid a single point of failure, not a single AZ purely to cut costs. Option B is incorrect because AWS and SAP generally recommend leaving hyper-threading enabled for HANA on supported instance types, since disabling it reduces vCPU capacity and is not a standard best practice. Option C is incorrect because instance store volumes are ephemeral and data is lost if the instance stops or fails, making them unsuitable for persistent HANA data volumes, which should reside on EBS.

Answer

Deploy HANA in a single Availability Zone to reduce costs.

Answer

Disable hyper-threading on the HANA instance.

Answer

Store HANA data on instance store volumes for better performance.

Question 10

Which THREE of the following are valid methods to secure network traffic between SAP application servers and the SAP HANA database on AWS? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Use VPC peering to connect different VPCs securely.. Option A (VPC peering) is correct because it establishes a private, encrypted-capable network route between SAP application servers and the SAP HANA database when they reside in different VPCs, keeping traffic off the public internet. Option C (network ACLs) is correct because NACLs are stateless subnet-level firewalls that can allow or deny specific inbound and outbound traffic to the subnets hosting the SAP and HANA instances, adding a layer of traffic control. Option D (security groups) is correct because security groups act as stateful instance-level virtual firewalls that restrict which ports and source/destination addresses can reach the SAP application servers and HANA database. Option B (AWS Direct Connect) is not correct because Direct Connect provides a dedicated private network connection but does not itself encrypt traffic; encryption would require a VPN or application-level encryption. Option E (AWS Shield) is not correct because Shield is a managed DDoS protection service, not an encryption mechanism for network traffic.

Answer

Use AWS Direct Connect to encrypt traffic.

Answer

Use AWS Shield to encrypt traffic.

Question 11

A company is designing a disaster recovery (DR) strategy for SAP HANA on AWS. Which TWO of the following are valid DR approaches? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Configure HANA System Replication to a secondary Region.. Option A is correct because SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) can be configured across AWS Regions, replicating data synchronously or asynchronously to a secondary HANA system in another Region for DR failover. Option C is correct because EBS snapshots backing HANA data and log volumes can be copied to another Region using the cross-Region snapshot copy feature, enabling restore-based DR in the target Region. Option B is not a valid DR approach for HANA because S3 CRR only replicates backup files, not the running HANA database, and does not provide a recoverable HANA instance by itself. Option D is not appropriate because AWS Backup cross-Region copy does not natively support SAP HANA database backups on EC2 in the way HANA-specific backup/recovery requires. Option E is invalid because Amazon RDS does not support SAP HANA; HANA runs on EC2 (or SAP HANA on AWS), not as an RDS engine.

Answer

Use S3 cross-Region replication (CRR) to copy HANA backups.

Answer

Use AWS Backup with cross-Region copy.

Answer

Use Amazon RDS cross-Region read replicas for HANA.

Question 12

An SAP administrator runs the AWS CLI command shown in the exhibit for an EC2 instance running SAP HANA. The administrator notices that the /dev/sdf volume does not have DeleteOnTermination set to true. What is the impact of this configuration?

Accepted Answer

The volume will persist after instance termination, preserving data.. When the DeleteOnTermination attribute of an EBS volume is set to false (as indicated by the absence of 'true' in the AWS CLI output for /dev/sdf), the volume will not be automatically deleted when the EC2 instance is terminated. Instead, the volume enters a 'available' state and persists independently, preserving all data for later use or reattachment. This is critical for SAP HANA workloads where data volumes must survive instance termination for disaster recovery or migration scenarios.

Answer

The volume will be detached but not deleted.

Answer

The volume will be automatically deleted when the instance is terminated.

Answer

The volume cannot be attached to another instance.

Question 13

An administrator creates a CloudFormation stack with the template shown in the exhibit. The stack creates an Auto Scaling group with a desired capacity of 2. However, only one instance is launched. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The Auto Scaling group is unable to launch the second instance due to capacity constraints.. The Auto Scaling group's desired capacity of 2 cannot be met if there are insufficient EC2 instance resources (e.g., vCPU, memory, or network capacity) in the selected Availability Zones. AWS Auto Scaling will launch as many instances as possible up to the desired capacity, but if the second instance launch fails due to a capacity constraint (e.g., insufficient m5.large capacity in the specified AZs), only one instance will be launched. The stack creation will still succeed, but the Auto Scaling group will remain at the lower count until capacity becomes available.

Answer

The instance type m5.large is not available in the selected AZs.

Answer

The DesiredCapacity is set incorrectly to 1.

Answer

The MinSize is set to 1, so only one instance is allowed.

Question 14

An SAP administrator needs to monitor the disk I/O performance of EBS volumes attached to an SAP HANA instance. Which AWS service should be used to capture the average read latency and queue depth metrics?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch. Amazon CloudWatch provides the metrics necessary to monitor disk I/O performance, including `VolumeReadOps`, `VolumeQueueLength`, and `VolumeReadBytes` for EBS volumes. These metrics allow you to calculate average read latency (by dividing `VolumeReadBytes` by `VolumeReadOps`) and directly observe queue depth via `VolumeQueueLength`, making it the correct service for SAP HANA disk I/O monitoring.

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

AWS Health

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Question 15

An SAP Basis team is designing a high-availability (HA) setup for SAP NetWeaver on AWS. They plan to use a shared file system for transport directories. Which storage solution provides the most cost-effective NFS share with support for automatic failover across Availability Zones?

Accepted Answer

Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP. Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP is the correct choice because it provides a fully managed, highly available NFS share that supports automatic failover across Availability Zones (AZs) using NetApp's SnapMirror and multi-AZ HA pair architecture. It is the most cost-effective solution for SAP transport directories that require a shared file system with cross-AZ failover, as it offers native NFSv3/v4.1 support, consistent performance, and lower total cost of ownership compared to alternatives for this specific SAP workload.

Answer

Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)

Answer

Amazon EBS Multi-Attach gp3 volume

Answer

Amazon S3 with AWS Storage Gateway file gateway