PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Test 26 — 15 Questions

Question 1

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)

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

Accepted Answer

A shared file system (e.g., Amazon EFS) for /sapmnt. SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP requires a shared /sapmnt directory accessible by both nodes in an ASCS/ERS cluster for consistent profile and configuration access during failover. Amazon EFS provides a POSIX-compliant, NFS-based shared file system that supports concurrent access from multiple EC2 instances across Availability Zones, which is essential for the cluster to function correctly. Option E is correct because a virtual IP address (VIP) is needed to provide a stable endpoint for clients to connect to the ASCS instance, regardless of which node is active. This can be achieved using Route53 health checks with failover routing or AWS CLI scripts that reassign the IP to the active node, ensuring seamless failover.

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An AWS ASW (Automated SAP Workload) service

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

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

Question 2

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. A cluster placement group is the correct choice because it provides low-latency, high-throughput networking by placing all instances in a single Availability Zone within the same logical rack. For SAP Business Suite with a large database, the application and database tiers require high network throughput (e.g., up to 100 Gbps for supported instance types) and minimal latency, which a cluster placement group delivers by ensuring all instances are in close physical proximity. In contrast, a spread placement group distributes instances across distinct hardware to reduce risk of simultaneous failure but does not optimize network performance. A partition placement group spreads instances across logical partitions to isolate failures but also lacks the high-bandwidth, low-latency benefits of a cluster group. Using no placement group may result in instances being placed on separate racks, increasing network latency and reducing throughput.

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Spread placement group

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Partition placement group

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No placement group

Question 3

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. CPU ready time indicates that the VM is ready to process instructions but is waiting for the physical CPU to become available, which is a symptom of CPU overcommitment on the host. Moving the instance to a dedicated host eliminates resource contention with other AWS customers' VMs by providing the instance with exclusive access to the physical CPU cores, thereby reducing or eliminating CPU ready time.

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Increase the number of vCPUs assigned to the instance

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Change instance tenancy to default

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Increase the instance memory

Question 4

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. Amazon Route 53 health checks and failover routing can automatically detect an instance failure and route traffic to a standby HANA primary instance. By configuring a Route 53 DNS failover record with health checks against the primary instance, DNS resolution is updated to point to the secondary instance when the primary becomes unhealthy, enabling automated recovery without manual intervention.

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Amazon CloudWatch alarms

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AWS CloudFormation custom resources

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AWS Lambda functions

Question 5

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. AWS Backup with pre- and post-scripts for volume groups is the recommended approach because it orchestrates crash-consistent snapshots across multiple EBS volumes by freezing the application (e.g., SAP HANA) and flushing I/O before the snapshot, then unfreezing after. This ensures all volumes are captured at the same point in time without downtime, which is critical for SAP databases requiring consistency across the entire volume set.

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Stop the instance, take snapshots, then restart

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

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Take snapshots of each volume individually at the same time

Question 6

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. D is correct because SAP ERP workloads are typically CPU-bound during peak hours, and a target tracking policy based on CPU utilization automatically adjusts the Auto Scaling group to maintain a target CPU metric (e.g., 70%), ensuring the application servers scale out proactively to handle increased load without manual intervention. This approach aligns with SAP's recommended scaling strategy on AWS, as it directly addresses the performance degradation caused by high CPU demand.

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

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Configure a step scaling policy based on memory utilization

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Replace the Application Load Balancer with a Network Load Balancer

Question 7

A company is planning to run SAP HANA on AWS and needs to ensure that the instance is optimally placed for low latency between the application and database tiers. Which AWS feature should be used?

Accepted Answer

Cluster placement group. A cluster placement group is the correct choice because it provides low-latency, high-throughput network connectivity by placing instances in a single Availability Zone with non-blocking, fully bisectioned bandwidth. For SAP HANA, where the application and database tiers require sub-millisecond latency for optimal performance, a cluster placement group ensures that all instances are physically close together, minimizing network hops and jitter.

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Application Load Balancer

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VPC endpoint

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Auto Scaling group

Question 8

A company is migrating an SAP system to AWS and needs to ensure that the SAP license is compliant. The current license is based on the number of users. Which AWS pricing model is most appropriate for this scenario?

Accepted Answer

On-Demand instances. On-Demand instances are the most appropriate pricing model for this SAP migration because the SAP license is based on the number of users, not on the underlying hardware or instance type. With On-Demand instances, the company pays only for compute capacity by the hour or second, avoiding any long-term commitment that could inadvertently trigger SAP license compliance issues related to dedicated hardware or specific instance sizing. This flexibility allows the company to align AWS costs directly with the user-based SAP licensing model without additional constraints.

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Spot Instances

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Reserved Instances

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Dedicated Hosts

Question 9

An SAP system on AWS is using an Oracle database. The company wants to implement automated backups to Amazon S3. Which AWS service should be used to orchestrate the backup process?

Accepted Answer

AWS Backup. AWS Backup is the correct service because it provides a fully managed, policy-driven backup solution that can orchestrate backups for SAP workloads running on Amazon EC2 with Oracle databases. It integrates directly with Amazon S3 for storing backup data and supports custom backup scripts via the AWS Backup API or AWS Lambda, enabling automated, scheduled backups without manual intervention.

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Amazon RDS for Oracle

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Amazon S3 Lifecycle policies

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AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)

Question 10

A company is designing a disaster recovery solution for SAP HANA on AWS. The primary site is in us-east-1, and the DR site is in us-west-2. Which TWO strategies can be used to replicate HANA data to the DR region? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for ongoing replication. AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) can be used for ongoing replication of SAP HANA data to a DR region by continuously capturing changes from the source HANA database and applying them to a target HANA instance in us-west-2. DMS supports HANA as both source and target, enabling near-real-time replication without requiring native HANA replication features. Additionally, SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) with ASYNC mode is a native HANA feature that replicates data at the database level asynchronously to a secondary system in the DR region. HSR ASYNC minimizes performance impact on the primary and provides a consistent database copy for failover. Both strategies are valid for cross-region disaster recovery of SAP HANA on AWS.

Answer

Copy EBS snapshots to the DR region using AWS CLI

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Configure S3 Cross-Region Replication for HANA data files

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Use AWS CloudEndure Disaster Recovery

Question 11

A company is using SAP S/4HANA on AWS and wants to optimize costs. Which THREE actions would help reduce costs without impacting performance? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Implement automatic start/stop for development and test instances. Development and test instances for SAP S/4HANA do not require 24/7 availability. Implementing automatic start/stop schedules using AWS Instance Scheduler or AWS Lambda reduces compute costs by up to 70% for these non-production instances without affecting production performance, as the instances are only active during business hours or testing windows.

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Use Dedicated Hosts for better isolation

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Replace io2 Block Express volumes with gp2 volumes

Question 12

A company is planning to run SAP NetWeaver on AWS. Which TWO services are recommended for monitoring the SAP system? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch with SAP monitoring agent. Amazon CloudWatch with the SAP monitoring agent is recommended because it collects SAP-specific metrics (e.g., work process usage, dialog response times, and queue lengths) and sends them to CloudWatch for custom dashboards and alarms. This integration is a standard AWS best practice for monitoring SAP NetWeaver health and performance. Additionally, SAP Solution Manager provides comprehensive monitoring and management capabilities for SAP landscapes, including real-time monitoring of SAP systems, alerting, and root cause analysis. It is an essential SAP tool for monitoring and is fully supported on AWS.

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Amazon Inspector

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AWS Trusted Advisor

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AWS Config

Question 13

A company is designing an SAP HANA workload on AWS. They need to ensure high availability for the SAP HANA database with automatic failover in case of an instance failure. Which AWS service should they use to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Pacemaker cluster on Amazon EC2 with EBS multi-attach. Pacemaker is a high-availability cluster resource manager that, when combined with Amazon EC2 and EBS Multi-Attach, enables automatic failover for SAP HANA. EBS Multi-Attach allows the same EBS volume to be attached to multiple EC2 instances in the same Availability Zone, which is required for SAP HANA's shared-storage-based scale-up or scale-out HA configurations. This setup supports the SAP HANA system replication or storage replication failover mechanism, ensuring automatic recovery upon instance failure.

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Amazon RDS for SAP HANA

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AWS Elastic Beanstalk

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Amazon Route 53 health checks with DNS failover

Question 14

An SAP Basis administrator is migrating an SAP NetWeaver system from on-premises to AWS. They want to minimize downtime during the migration of the database. Which AWS service is best suited for this?

Accepted Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS). AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) is best suited for migrating SAP NetWeaver databases with minimal downtime because it supports heterogeneous and homogeneous database migrations with ongoing replication. DMS can perform a full load of the database and then continuously replicate changes from the source to the target using change data capture (CDC), allowing the source database to remain operational until the cutover. This minimizes downtime to just the final switchover window, which is critical for SAP systems.

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AWS Server Migration Service (SMS)

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AWS CloudEndure Migration

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AWS Snowball Edge

Question 15

A company wants to implement a disaster recovery (DR) strategy for its SAP landscape on AWS. The primary site is in us-east-1, and the DR site is in us-west-2. They need to replicate SAP HANA database asynchronously with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes. Which AWS service should they use?

Accepted Answer

SAP HANA System Replication. SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) is the native, SAP-supported mechanism for asynchronous replication of HANA databases, capable of achieving an RPO of 15 minutes or less. It replicates at the database level using log shipping and is tightly integrated with HANA's recovery processes, making it the correct choice for this DR scenario.

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AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (DRS)

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Amazon S3 cross-region replication for HANA backup files

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AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication