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

Question 1

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. Option C is correct because if the stripe width is not optimal, the I/O may not be distributed evenly, leading to hot spots. Option A is wrong because io1 volumes can handle high IOPS. Option B is wrong because 5 ms latency is acceptable. Option D is wrong because EBS-optimized instances by default provide dedicated bandwidth.

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 2

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). Option B is correct because Application Load Balancer supports HTTP/HTTPS traffic, SSL termination, and is highly available across AZs. Option A is wrong because NLB is for TCP/UDP, not HTTP-specific features. Option C is wrong because CloudFront is a CDN. Option D is wrong because Classic Load Balancer is legacy and less feature-rich.

Answer

Amazon CloudFront

Answer

Classic Load Balancer (CLB)

Answer

Network Load Balancer (NLB)

Question 3

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. Option D is correct because AWS Instance Scheduler is a solution that uses CloudWatch Events and Lambda to start/stop instances on a schedule. Option A is wrong because Auto Scaling is for scaling based on demand, not scheduling. Option B is wrong because CloudWatch Alarms can trigger actions but not easily for complex schedules. Option C is wrong because Systems Manager Maintenance Windows are for patching, not start/stop.

Answer

AWS Auto Scaling

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Alarms

Answer

AWS Systems Manager Maintenance Windows

Question 4

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. Option C is correct because AWS Snowball Edge provides high-capacity storage and can transfer data faster than over the network given the bandwidth constraint. Option A is wrong because S3 multipart upload over 1 Gbps would take more than 48 hours. Option B is wrong because DMS is for ongoing replication, not initial load. Option D is wrong because Direct Connect still limited to 1 Gbps.

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 5

An SAP system administrator is designing the storage layout for an SAP HANA database on AWS. The HANA data volume requires 5000 IOPS and 250 MB/s throughput. Which EBS volume type and configuration should be used to meet these requirements cost-effectively?

Accepted Answer

Use a single io1 volume with 5000 provisioned IOPS and 250 MB/s throughput. Option B is correct because a single io1 volume can be provisioned with 5000 IOPS and 250 MB/s throughput. Option A is wrong because gp3 can provide up to 3000 IOPS and 125 MB/s. Option C is wrong because st1 is throughput-optimized but not for database workloads. Option D is wrong because sc1 is cold storage.

Answer

Use a single gp3 volume with 5000 IOPS and 250 MB/s throughput

Answer

Use a single sc1 volume with 5000 IOPS and 250 MB/s throughput

Answer

Use a single st1 volume with 5000 IOPS and 250 MB/s throughput

Question 6

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. Option C is correct because EFS access points with IAM authorization can enforce user/group and root directory permissions, and IAM policies can restrict access based on source IP. Option A is wrong because security group rules apply at the network level, not directory level. Option B is wrong because NACLs are stateless and not directory-aware. Option D is wrong because S3 bucket policies are for S3, not EFS.

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 7

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. Options A and D are correct. A: EBS-optimized instances ensure dedicated network bandwidth for EBS. D: Separate EBS volumes for log and data help avoid I/O contention. B is wrong because placement groups reduce network latency but may limit instance diversity. C is wrong because memory-optimized instances are recommended for HANA. E is wrong because stopping instances loses memory data; HANA requires persistent storage.

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 8

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. Options A, D, and E are correct. A: HANA System Replication provides near-sync replication to another region. D: EBS Snapshots to another region enable restore. E: SAP Backup to S3 with cross-region replication ensures offsite backup. B is wrong because Multi-AZ for RDS is not applicable to HANA. C is wrong because cold standbys are not recommended; saves cost but recovery time is long.

Answer

Maintain a cold standby environment in another Region

Answer

AWS RDS Multi-AZ deployment for SAP HANA

Question 9

A company is designing a highly available SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP environment on AWS with a 2-node ASCS/ERS cluster. Which TWO of the following must be configured to ensure a successful failover? (Choose 2)

Accepted Answer

A shared file system (e.g., Amazon EFS) for /sapmnt. Options A and D are correct. A: A shared file system (e.g., EFS) is needed for /sapmnt. D: A virtual IP via Route53 or AWS CLI is required for client reconnection. B is wrong because EBS Multi-Attach is not supported for io1 volumes with Linux. C is wrong because each node needs its own instance store or EBS for local data. E is wrong because ASW is not an AWS service.

Answer

An AWS ASW (Automated SAP Workload) service

Answer

Amazon EBS io1 volumes with Multi-Attach enabled for the database

Answer

Each node must have its own /usr/sap//ASCS and /usr/sap//ERS directory on instance store

Question 10

A company is designing a new SAP S/4HANA workload on AWS. Which storage service should be used for the SAP HANA data volume to meet the required throughput and latency for production systems?

Accepted Answer

Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes. Option B is correct because SAP HANA requires high IOPS and low latency, which is best provided by Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes with provisioned IOPS. Option A is wrong because EBS gp3 may not provide sufficient performance for large production HANA systems. Option C is wrong because S3 is object storage, not block storage. Option D is wrong because EFS is file storage, not block storage.

Answer

Amazon S3

Answer

Amazon EFS

Answer

Amazon EBS gp3 volumes

Question 11

A company is migrating an SAP Business Suite system to AWS. The system has a large database and requires high network throughput between the application and database tiers. Which Amazon EC2 placement group strategy should be used?

Accepted Answer

Cluster placement group. Option C is correct because a cluster placement group provides low-latency, high-throughput connectivity within a single Availability Zone, which is optimal for application and database tier communication. Option A is wrong because spread placement groups are for high availability and reduce correlated failures, not for low latency. Option B is wrong because partition placement groups are for large distributed workloads. Option D is wrong because no placement group would not guarantee low latency.

Answer

Spread placement group

Answer

Partition placement group

Answer

No placement group

Question 12

An SAP system on AWS is experiencing high CPU ready time on the application server VMs. Which configuration change is most likely to reduce CPU contention?

Accepted Answer

Move the instance to a dedicated host. Option D is correct because CPU ready time indicates the VM is waiting for physical CPU cycles from the hypervisor. Moving to a dedicated host or dedicated instance reduces competition for CPU resources. Option A is wrong because increasing vCPUs may increase contention. Option B is wrong because memory is not the issue. Option C is wrong because changing tenancy to default does not help.

Answer

Increase the number of vCPUs assigned to the instance

Answer

Change instance tenancy to default

Answer

Increase the instance memory

Question 13

A company is running SAP HANA on AWS and needs to ensure high availability for the database. Which AWS service should be used to automatically recover the HANA primary instance in case of an instance failure?

Accepted Answer

Amazon Route 53 health checks and failover routing. Option A is correct because Amazon Route 53 can be used with health checks to automatically redirect traffic to a standby HANA instance. Option B is wrong because AWS CloudFormation is for infrastructure provisioning, not automatic recovery. Option C is wrong because AWS Lambda can be used for custom automation but is not the primary service for this. Option D is wrong because Amazon CloudWatch monitors but does not automatically recover the instance.

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch alarms

Answer

AWS CloudFormation custom resources

Answer

AWS Lambda functions

Question 14

An SAP system on AWS is using Amazon EBS volumes for the database. The company wants to take crash-consistent snapshots of the entire database volume set. Which approach is recommended?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Backup with pre- and post-scripts for volume groups. Option D is correct because the AWS Backup service can orchestrate snapshots across multiple EBS volumes with application-consistent or crash-consistent behavior. Option A is wrong because individual snapshots without coordination may not be crash-consistent. Option B is wrong because stopping the instance causes downtime. Option C is wrong because EBS Multi-Attach is for shared volumes, not for snapshot consistency.

Answer

Stop the instance, take snapshots, then restart

Answer

Use EBS Multi-Attach to attach volumes to a backup instance

Answer

Take snapshots of each volume individually at the same time

Question 15

A company is running SAP ERP on AWS and notices performance degradation during peak hours. The application servers are in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer. Which configuration change would best handle the increased load?

Accepted Answer

Change the Auto Scaling policy to use a target tracking policy based on CPU utilization. Option A is correct because scaling policies based on memory utilization are not standard; CPU utilization is a better metric for SAP application servers. Option B is wrong because increasing instance size may be costly and not as dynamic. Option C is wrong because changing to Network Load Balancer does not solve performance. Option D is wrong because a step scaling policy based on CPU utilization is appropriate, but the question asks for a change; option A directly addresses the issue of using memory-based scaling.

Answer

Increase the minimum and maximum instance count in the Auto Scaling group

Answer

Configure a step scaling policy based on memory utilization

Answer

Replace the Application Load Balancer with a Network Load Balancer