PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Test 22 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company is designing a new SAP environment on AWS. The SAP application servers communicate with the database over the network. The architect wants to minimize latency and maximize throughput. Which placement strategy should the architect use?

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

Accepted Answer

Place all servers in a single Availability Zone and use a cluster placement group.. A cluster placement group is the correct choice because it provides the lowest possible latency and highest throughput by ensuring that all SAP application and database servers are placed in close physical proximity within a single Availability Zone. This placement minimizes network hops and leverages non-blocking, high-bandwidth networking, which is critical for SAP's latency-sensitive communication between application and database layers.

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Place the application servers in one Availability Zone and the database in a different Availability Zone.

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Place the application servers in one VPC and the database in a different VPC connected via VPC peering.

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Place the application servers in one AWS Region and the database in another Region.

Question 2

A company is migrating its SAP NetWeaver system to AWS and wants to implement a high-availability architecture for the SAP Central Services (ASCS) and Enqueue Replication Server (ERS). Which TWO of the following are required components in a recommended AWS HA setup for ASCS and ERS?

Accepted Answer

A shared file system (e.g., Amazon EFS) to store the SAP transport directory and global profile.. In an SAP NetWeaver high-availability architecture on AWS, a shared file system such as Amazon EFS is required to store the SAP transport directory and global profile. This ensures that both the ASCS and ERS instances can access consistent configuration and transport files, which is essential for failover and cluster operations. Without a shared file system, the instances would have divergent configurations, breaking the HA setup.

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An Application Load Balancer to distribute traffic between ASCS and ERS instances.

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A read replica of the SAP HANA database to offload application traffic.

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A secondary Windows Server Failover Cluster in a different Availability Zone.

Question 3

A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS with a large HANA database (10 TB). The database uses EBS gp3 volumes. The system experiences performance degradation due to high disk I/O. The architect decides to migrate to EBS io2 Block Express volumes. Which THREE factors should the architect consider when planning the migration?

Accepted Answer

The maximum IOPS per volume supported by io2 Block Express is 256,000.. Io2 Block Express volumes support a maximum IOPS of 256,000 per volume, which is significantly higher than the 16,000 IOPS limit of gp3. This high IOPS capability is critical for large SAP HANA databases (10 TB) that experience performance degradation due to high disk I/O, as it allows the database to handle bursty workloads without throttling.

Answer

SAP HANA supports RAID 0 across multiple io2 volumes without additional software.

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io2 Block Express volumes can be attached to multiple EC2 instances simultaneously using EBS Multi-Attach.

Question 4

A company plans to migrate their SAP HANA database to AWS. They require the highest availability with automatic failover in case of an AZ failure. Which architecture should they use?

Accepted Answer

Multi-AZ with HANA System Replication in sync mode and automatic failover.. It meets the requirement for highest availability with automatic failover in case of an AZ failure. HANA System Replication (HSR) in synchronous mode ensures zero data loss (RPO=0) by committing transactions only after they are replicated to the standby, and when combined with Multi-AZ deployment, it provides automatic failover across Availability Zones. This architecture is the AWS-recommended pattern for SAP HANA high availability, leveraging the AWS Multi-AZ concept with HSR's built-in automatic takeover capability.

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Single AZ with HANA System Replication to a standby in the same AZ.

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Single AZ with daily backups to Amazon S3.

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Multi-AZ with HANA System Replication in async mode and manual failover.

Question 5

A company runs SAP Business Suite on AWS. They notice that their SAP application servers are not evenly distributing load across multiple instances. They have configured an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in front of the SAP Web Dispatchers. What is the MOST likely cause of uneven load distribution?

Accepted Answer

Sticky sessions (session stickiness) are enabled on the ALB.. When sticky sessions (session stickiness) are enabled on an Application Load Balancer, the ALB uses a cookie to bind a client's session to a specific target (SAP Web Dispatcher). This prevents the load balancer from distributing subsequent requests from that client to other healthy targets, causing an uneven distribution of load across the SAP application servers, especially if a few clients generate a disproportionate number of requests.

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The ALB health check interval is too short.

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Cross-zone load balancing is enabled.

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The ALB is using the least outstanding requests routing algorithm.

Question 6

A company is running SAP HANA on an r5.8xlarge instance. They want to scale up to meet increased memory requirements. Which instance family would be the MOST suitable for a scale-up scenario?

Accepted Answer

x1e.32xlarge. The x1e.32xlarge instance is part of the X1e family, which is specifically designed for high-memory workloads like SAP HANA. With 3,904 GiB of memory, it provides the largest memory capacity among AWS instances, making it the most suitable for scaling up SAP HANA to meet increased memory requirements. SAP HANA is an in-memory database, so scaling up requires instances with high memory-to-vCPU ratios, which the X1e family delivers.

Answer

r5.24xlarge

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i3.16xlarge

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c5.18xlarge

Question 7

Which TWO of the following are best practices for securing SAP workloads on AWS?

Accepted Answer

Use IAM roles to grant EC2 instances access to AWS services.. IAM roles allow EC2 instances to securely access AWS services (e.g., S3, DynamoDB) without embedding long-term credentials. By attaching an IAM role to an EC2 instance, the instance can obtain temporary credentials via the instance metadata service, which is a best practice for securing SAP workloads on AWS.

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Disable encryption in transit between application and database tiers.

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Allow SSH access from the internet for administration.

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Store SAP backup files in a public S3 bucket for easy access.

Question 8

An SAP workload on AWS uses an Auto Scaling group for the SAP Central Services (ASCS) and Enqueue Replication Server (ERS) instances. The instances are launched with a custom AMI that includes the SAP software. During a recent failover test, the ASCS instance failed to start after being terminated and re-launched by the Auto Scaling group. The error log indicates that the ASCS instance cannot find the quorum device. What is the most likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

The quorum device (EBS volume) was not re-attached or was not available in the same Availability Zone as the new ASCS instance.. In an SAP on AWS high-availability setup, the ASCS and ERS instances rely on a shared quorum device (typically an EBS volume or an Amazon EFS file system) to maintain cluster state and prevent split-brain scenarios. When the Auto Scaling group terminates and re-launches the ASCS instance, the new instance must have the quorum device attached and be in the same Availability Zone as the EBS volume (since EBS volumes are AZ-specific). If the quorum device is not re-attached or is in a different AZ, the SAP cluster cannot find it, causing the ASCS instance to fail to start.

Answer

The instance type of the new ASCS instance is different from the original, causing incompatibility with the SAP kernel.

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The ASCS instance does not have a public IP address, preventing communication with the quorum device.

Answer

The Security Group associated with the ASCS instance does not allow inbound traffic on the quorum port.

Question 9

A company is planning to migrate its SAP ERP system to AWS. The database is SAP HANA with a size of 3 TB. The company wants to minimize downtime during the migration. Which migration strategy should the company use?

Accepted Answer

Use HANA System Replication to replicate the database to an EC2 instance running HANA in the target AWS environment, then perform a takeover.. HANA System Replication (HSR) is the optimal strategy for minimizing downtime because it continuously replicates data from the on-premises HANA database to an EC2 instance running HANA in AWS. When the migration window opens, a simple takeover (failover) occurs, typically completing in minutes, which meets the requirement for minimal downtime. This approach avoids the lengthy export/import or backup/restore processes that would take hours for a 3 TB database.

Answer

Export the HANA database to flat files using SAP HANA Studio, upload the files to Amazon S3, and import them into an EC2 HANA instance.

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Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication to migrate the database to Amazon RDS for SAP HANA.

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Use AWS Backup to take a full backup of the on-premises HANA database and restore it to an EC2 instance in AWS.

Question 10

A company is designing a high-availability architecture for SAP NetWeaver on AWS. The architecture includes two application server instances in different Availability Zones, a shared file system using Amazon EFS, and a database using SAP HANA with HANA System Replication (HSR). During a failover test, the application servers cannot connect to the database after the HANA secondary becomes the primary. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The SAP application servers are configured with the hostname of the primary HANA instance, which did not update after failover.. In SAP NetWeaver, application servers connect to the database using a fixed hostname or virtual IP address. After HANA System Replication (HSR) failover, the secondary becomes the primary but retains its own hostname unless a virtual hostname (e.g., using Amazon Route 53 or Elastic IP) is configured to automatically update. If the application servers are hardcoded with the original primary's hostname, they cannot resolve or reach the new primary, causing connection failure.

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HANA System Replication is not configured correctly for automatic failover.

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The Amazon EFS file system is not available in the secondary Availability Zone.

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The security group of the application servers does not allow outbound traffic to the secondary HANA instance.

Question 11

A company is running an SAP HANA database on AWS using an i3.16xlarge instance. The database storage is configured with multiple EBS gp2 volumes in a RAID 0 stripe to meet IOPS requirements. During a workload spike, the application experiences increased latency and the database performance degrades. The CloudWatch metrics show high Average Queue Length (avg_queue_len) on the EBS volumes but not 100% utilization of the CPU. Which design change is MOST likely to resolve the performance issue?

Accepted Answer

Replace gp2 volumes with io2 Block Express volumes to provide consistent IOPS performance.. The high Average Queue Length indicates that the EBS volumes are saturating their IOPS capacity, causing requests to queue up. gp2 volumes have a burst-bucket model that can exhaust credits under sustained high I/O, leading to throttled performance. io2 Block Express volumes provide consistent, provisioned IOPS without burst limitations, directly resolving the queuing issue without requiring instance or stripe changes.

Answer

Move the database to an i3en.24xlarge instance to increase network and EBS bandwidth.

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Enable EBS optimization on the existing instance to improve throughput.

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Add two additional gp2 volumes to the RAID 0 stripe to increase throughput.

Question 12

Drag and drop the steps to set up an SAP HANA system replication in AWS using the SAP HANA Cockpit into the correct order.

Accepted Answer

Configure network connectivity between primary and secondary SAP HANA instances, then enable system replication on the primary, then register the secondary system, then start replication.. SAP HANA system replication requires two instances, network connectivity, enabling replication on primary, registering secondary, and then starting replication.

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Enable system replication on the primary, then configure network connectivity, then register the secondary, then start replication.

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Configure network connectivity, then register the secondary, then enable system replication on the primary, then start replication.

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Configure network connectivity, then enable system replication on the primary, then start replication, then register the secondary.

Question 13

Drag and drop the steps to perform a backup and restore of an SAP HANA database using AWS Backup into the correct order.

Accepted Answer

Create an AWS Backup plan, then assign SAP HANA database resources to the plan, then execute the backup, then select the backup to restore from, then restore the database.. AWS Backup requires a plan, resource assignment, backup execution, selection of backup, and restore.

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Create an AWS Backup plan, then execute the backup, then assign SAP HANA database resources to the plan, then select the backup to restore from, then restore the database.

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Create an AWS Backup plan, then assign SAP HANA database resources to the plan, then select the backup to restore from, then execute the backup, then restore the database.

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Create an AWS Backup plan, then restore the database, then assign SAP HANA database resources to the plan, then execute the backup, then select the backup to restore from.

Question 14

Drag and drop the steps to implement disaster recovery for SAP S/4HANA using AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (DRS) into the correct order.

Accepted Answer

Install the AWS Replication Agent on source SAP server, then configure replication settings and start continuous replication, then launch a recovery drill to test failover, then in a disaster initiate recovery and perform post-recovery tasks.. DRS involves agent installation, configuration, testing, recovery initiation, and post-recovery steps.

Answer

Install the AWS Replication Agent on source SAP server, then launch a recovery drill, then configure replication settings and start continuous replication, then in a disaster initiate recovery and perform post-recovery tasks.

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Configure replication settings and start continuous replication, then install the AWS Replication Agent on source SAP server, then launch a recovery drill, then in a disaster initiate recovery and perform post-recovery tasks.

Answer

Install the AWS Replication Agent on source SAP server, then configure replication settings and start continuous replication, then in a disaster initiate recovery and perform post-recovery tasks, then launch a recovery drill.

Question 15

Match the SAP system type to its typical AWS deployment pattern.

Accepted Answer

SAP Production System: Typically deployed across multiple Availability Zones with SAP HANA System Replication for high availability.. SAP production systems require high availability and are typically deployed across multiple AZs. Development and sandbox systems have lower availability needs and are often in single AZs.

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SAP Production System: Typically deployed in a single Availability Zone for cost optimization.

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SAP Development System: Typically deployed across multiple Regions for disaster recovery.

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SAP Sandbox System: Typically deployed across multiple Availability Zones with high availability.