PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Test 25 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS and needs to back up the SAP HANA database to Amazon S3. They want to automate backups and ensure they are encrypted at rest. Which solution should they use?

Accepted Answer

Configure SAP HANA Backint agent to back up directly to S3 with SSE-S3 encryption. SAP HANA Backint is the native, certified method for integrating SAP HANA backups directly with Amazon S3. The Backint agent handles automated backup scheduling and, when configured with SSE-S3, ensures data is encrypted at rest using Amazon S3's server-side encryption, meeting both automation and encryption requirements without additional infrastructure.

Answer

Use AWS Backup to schedule backups to S3

Answer

Use an S3 lifecycle policy to transition backups to S3

Answer

Use AWS KMS to encrypt backups and store them manually

Question 2

An organization is deploying a large SAP HANA system on AWS. They need to ensure that the EBS volumes for the /hana/data and /hana/log directories are configured with optimal performance and resilience. Which configuration should they use?

Accepted Answer

Use io2 Block Express volumes with /hana/data on a RAID 0 set and /hana/log on a RAID 1 set. SAP HANA requires high IOPS and low latency for /hana/data, which benefits from RAID 0 striping across multiple io2 Block Express volumes to maximize throughput and capacity. For /hana/log, RAID 1 mirroring provides the necessary resilience to protect against volume failure while maintaining the write performance critical for transaction log durability. io2 Block Express volumes offer up to 256,000 IOPS and 4,000 MB/s throughput per volume, making them ideal for this high-performance workload.

Answer

Use io2 Block Express volumes with /hana/data on a RAID 1 set and /hana/log on a RAID 0 set

Answer

Use a single large gp3 EBS volume for both /hana/data and /hana/log

Answer

Use io2 Block Express volumes with /hana/data on one volume and /hana/log on another, no RAID

Question 3

A company runs SAP NetWeaver on AWS and notices that the application server is experiencing high CPU utilization during peak hours. They need to scale out the SAP application tier. What is the best approach?

Accepted Answer

Use an Auto Scaling group to automatically launch additional application servers and register them with the SAP application load balancer. It provides an automated, elastic scaling solution for the SAP application tier. An Auto Scaling group can dynamically launch additional EC2 instances based on CPU utilization metrics and automatically register them with the SAP application load balancer, ensuring seamless distribution of incoming user traffic across multiple application servers without manual intervention.

Answer

Use AWS Global Accelerator to distribute traffic

Answer

Increase the instance size of the existing application server

Answer

Manually launch additional EC2 instances and configure them as application servers

Question 4

Which THREE factors should be considered when sizing an EC2 instance for SAP HANA? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Total memory available on the instance. SAP HANA is an in-memory database, meaning all data must reside in RAM for processing. The total memory available on the EC2 instance directly determines the maximum size of the HANA database that can be supported, as the database must fit entirely within the instance's memory. AWS provides specific EC2 instance types (e.g., x1e.32xlarge, u-6tb1.112xlarge) with large memory capacities to meet HANA's requirements.

Answer

GPU acceleration for HANA calculations

Answer

Instance store availability for HANA data

Question 5

Which TWO configurations are mandatory for an SAP HANA system replication setup on AWS? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

A virtual IP (VIP) address for the HANA system. SAP HANA system replication requires a virtual IP (VIP) address to enable automatic failover and client reconnection. The VIP is managed by a cluster manager (e.g., Pacemaker with AWS Route53 or Elastic IP) and moves between primary and secondary instances during a takeover, ensuring clients can always reach the active HANA instance without manual reconfiguration. Option C is also correct because a dedicated replication network between primary and secondary is mandatory to ensure reliable and low-latency replication traffic, separate from the client-facing network. This dedicated network is required for optimal performance and to avoid contention with other traffic.

Answer

An Application Load Balancer in front of the HANA instances

Answer

Encryption of data in transit using SSL

Answer

A separate VPC for the secondary instance

Question 6

A company is running SAP on AWS and needs to back up their SAP HANA database daily. The backup must be stored cost-effectively and retained for 7 years for compliance. Which AWS service should be used for long-term backup storage?

Accepted Answer

Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive. Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive is the correct choice because it provides the lowest-cost storage for long-term archival data, with retrieval times ranging from 12 to 48 hours, which is acceptable for a daily backup retained for 7 years. This service is specifically designed for compliance and regulatory retention where infrequent access is expected, making it the most cost-effective option for the given requirements.

Answer

Amazon S3 One Zone-IA

Answer

Amazon S3 Standard

Answer

Amazon EBS Snapshots

Question 7

An SAP administrator notices that the SAP application server is experiencing high latency when reading from the shared /sapmnt directory mounted from an Amazon EFS file system. The EFS file system is in General Purpose performance mode and uses Bursting throughput mode. The administrator checks CloudWatch metrics and sees that BurstCreditBalance is near zero. What is the most cost-effective solution to address the latency?

Accepted Answer

Enable Provisioned Throughput mode on the EFS file system. The BurstCreditBalance is near zero, indicating the file system has exhausted its burst credits under Bursting throughput mode. Enabling Provisioned Throughput mode allows you to specify a consistent throughput level independent of the file system's size, eliminating reliance on burst credits and resolving the latency for the /sapmnt directory. This is the most cost-effective solution as it avoids the need to increase storage size (Option A) or migrate to a different storage service.

Answer

Increase the size of the EFS file system to increase the burst credit balance

Answer

Mount the /sapmnt directory from an Amazon EBS gp3 volume instead

Answer

Change the EFS performance mode to Max I/O

Question 8

A company is planning to migrate their SAP system to AWS. They need to ensure that the SAP application servers and database servers are in the same AWS Region but in different Availability Zones for high availability. The network latency between Availability Zones must be minimal. Which AWS service should be used to connect the instances?

Accepted Answer

Use the default VPC network within the same VPC spanning multiple Availability Zones. A single VPC can span multiple Availability Zones within the same AWS Region, and by default, instances in different AZs within the same VPC communicate over the AWS private network with low latency, typically under 1-2 ms. This meets the requirement for minimal latency between SAP application and database servers while keeping them in the same Region for high availability.

Answer

Set up VPC Peering between the Availability Zones

Answer

Establish an AWS Direct Connect connection

Answer

Use AWS Transit Gateway to connect the subnets

Question 9

A company runs SAP HANA on AWS using an m5.24xlarge instance. The storage is configured with multiple EBS io1 volumes striped with LVM. Recently, the database performance has degraded. CloudWatch shows that the EBS write latency averages 5 ms, and the queue depth is consistently below 1. What is the most likely cause of the performance degradation?

Accepted Answer

The LVM stripe width is misconfigured causing uneven I/O distribution. With EBS write latency averaging 5 ms and queue depth consistently below 1, the storage subsystem is not saturated; the bottleneck is likely an uneven distribution of I/O across the LVM striped volumes. A misconfigured stripe width (e.g., too small or not aligned with the SAP HANA page size of 16 KB) can cause certain volumes to handle disproportionate write traffic, leading to localized latency spikes and overall performance degradation even when aggregate metrics appear acceptable.

Answer

The EBS-optimized instance feature is not enabled

Answer

The EBS volume type should be changed to gp3

Answer

The EBS write latency is too high and requires a larger instance

Question 10

A company is running SAP NetWeaver on AWS with a multi-ABAP application server setup. They want to implement a load balancing solution for HTTP traffic to the SAP Web Dispatcher. The solution must be highly available and support SSL termination. Which AWS service should be used?

Accepted Answer

Application Load Balancer (ALB). The Application Load Balancer (ALB) is the correct choice because it operates at Layer 7, can route HTTP/HTTPS traffic to SAP Web Dispatchers, supports SSL termination natively, and integrates with AWS Auto Scaling and health checks to provide high availability. SAP Web Dispatcher expects HTTP-based load balancing, and ALB’s content-based routing and stickiness features align with SAP’s recommended architecture for multi-ABAP application server setups.

Answer

Amazon CloudFront

Answer

Classic Load Balancer (CLB)

Answer

Network Load Balancer (NLB)

Question 11

An SAP Basis administrator needs to automate the start and stop of SAP application servers on AWS to reduce costs during non-business hours. The instance must be stopped (not terminated) to preserve the data. Which AWS service can be used to schedule the start and stop?

Accepted Answer

AWS Instance Scheduler. AWS Instance Scheduler is a solution that uses AWS Lambda and Amazon CloudWatch Events (Amazon EventBridge) to automatically start and stop EC2 instances based on a defined schedule. For SAP Basis administrators, this allows stopping (not terminating) SAP application server instances during non-business hours, preserving all data on the attached EBS volumes. The solution supports tagging instances with schedule tags, making it ideal for cost optimization without data loss.

Answer

AWS Auto Scaling

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Alarms

Answer

AWS Systems Manager Maintenance Windows

Question 12

A company is migrating an SAP HANA system from on-premises to AWS. The database size is 3 TB, and the network bandwidth to AWS is 1 Gbps. The migration window is limited to 48 hours. What is the most efficient migration strategy?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Snowball Edge to transfer the HANA backup. The 3 TB database size and 1 Gbps bandwidth would require approximately 7 hours for data transfer alone, but the 48-hour migration window includes backup, transfer, and restore time. AWS Snowball Edge provides a petabyte-scale physical data transport solution that bypasses network constraints entirely, making it the most efficient strategy for transferring a 3 TB HANA backup within the limited window. Snowball Edge supports direct integration with SAP HANA backup workflows via NFS or S3-compatible endpoints, ensuring minimal migration time.

Answer

Set up an AWS Direct Connect connection and use HANA backup and restore

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for continuous replication

Answer

Upload the HANA backup to Amazon S3 using multipart upload

Question 13

A company runs SAP on AWS and uses a shared Amazon EFS file system for /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans. The administrator wants to control access to specific directories based on the source IP address of the SAP application servers. Which method should be used to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon EFS access points with IAM policies. Amazon EFS access points can be combined with IAM policies to enforce a specific POSIX user and directory path per application, and IAM conditions can restrict access based on the source IP address of the SAP application servers. This allows fine-grained control over which EC2 instances (by IP) can access specific subdirectories like /sapmnt or /usr/sap/trans without modifying the NFS client configuration.

Answer

Configure security group rules to allow only specific IP addresses

Answer

Use Amazon S3 bucket policies with IP conditions

Answer

Use network ACLs to restrict access by IP

Question 14

Which TWO of the following are best practices for running SAP HANA on AWS? (Choose 2)

Accepted Answer

Use separate EBS volumes for HANA data and log files. SAP HANA requires separate EBS volumes for data and log files to ensure I/O isolation and meet performance requirements. Data and log volumes have different I/O patterns (sequential for logs, random for data), and using separate volumes prevents contention, which is critical for HANA's high-throughput demands.

Answer

Stop HANA instances when not in use to save costs

Answer

Use general-purpose instances (e.g., t3) to reduce costs

Answer

Launch all HANA instances in a single placement group

Question 15

Which THREE of the following are valid disaster recovery strategies for SAP on AWS? (Choose 3)

Accepted Answer

SAP backup to Amazon S3 with cross-region replication. SAP backup to Amazon S3 with cross-region replication is a valid disaster recovery strategy. By backing up SAP data (e.g., database backups, log files) to S3 and enabling cross-region replication (CRR), you automatically replicate backups to a secondary AWS Region. This ensures that backup data is available in another Region for recovery in the event of a regional disaster, providing a durable and cost-effective DR solution without requiring a running standby system.

Answer

Maintain a cold standby environment in another Region

Answer

AWS RDS Multi-AZ deployment for SAP HANA