PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Test 30 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company is migrating an SAP HANA database to AWS. The system requires a high-performance storage solution with low latency for database files, and the storage must be scalable without downtime. Which AWS storage solution should the company use for the SAP HANA data volume?

Accepted Answer

Amazon EBS io2 Block Express. Option B is correct because Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes provide high IOPS, low latency, and can be scaled dynamically without downtime. Option A is wrong because S3 is object storage with higher latency. Option C is wrong because EBS gp3 offers lower maximum IOPS. Option D is wrong because EBS st1 is throughput-optimized and not suitable for database workloads.

Answer

Amazon S3

Answer

Amazon EBS st1

Answer

Amazon EBS gp3

Question 2

An SAP system on AWS has an SAP Central Services (ASCS) instance running on an EC2 instance. The solution must ensure high availability for the ASCS in case of an EC2 failure. The ASCS uses a shared file system for the /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans directories. Which architecture meets the high availability requirement with the least administrative overhead?

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon EFS for /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans, and configure a Pacemaker cluster across two Availability Zones. Option A is correct because a Pacemaker cluster with Amazon EFS provides a fully managed NFS file system that is highly available and eliminates the need for a separate shared storage cluster. Option B is wrong because EBS fails over with the instance but is not shared. Option C is wrong because S3 is not a POSIX-compliant file system. Option D is wrong because it adds complexity with an additional EC2 instance for NFS.

Answer

Deploy a second ASCS instance in another AZ and use an EC2 instance running NFS server with an EBS volume

Answer

Use an Amazon EBS volume attached to the ASCS instance and replicate it to another Availability Zone using EBS Snapshots

Answer

Use Amazon S3 and mount it using s3fs-fuse for the shared file system

Question 3

A company runs SAP on AWS and wants to back up its SAP HANA database to Amazon S3. The database is 2 TB in size. The backup must be encrypted at rest in S3 and must be cost-effective. Which approach should the company use?

Accepted Answer

Install the SAP HANA Backint agent for Amazon S3 and configure it to use SSE-S3 encryption. Option C is correct because Backint agent for SAP HANA integrates with AWS Backup and uses S3, enabling server-side encryption with SSE-S3 at no extra cost. Option A is wrong because AWS Backup does not support direct backup of SAP HANA to S3 without Backint. Option B is wrong because the SAP HANA file-level backup would require backup to EBS and then to S3, adding complexity. Option D is wrong because manual copy to S3 is not automated.

Answer

Use AWS Backup to directly back up the SAP HANA database to S3 with SSE-S3

Answer

Configure a cron job to copy the SAP HANA backup files from EBS to S3 using AWS CLI

Answer

Use SAP HANA Studio to export the database to a file on EBS and then manually upload to S3

Question 4

An SAP system is experiencing performance issues during peak hours. The SAP application servers are running on EC2 instances behind a Network Load Balancer (NLB). The NLB is configured to use cross-zone load balancing. The issue is that one application server receives significantly more traffic than others. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The flow hash algorithm is causing an uneven distribution of client traffic. Option D is correct because NLB distributes traffic based on flow hash, which can lead to uneven distribution, especially with fewer flows. Option A is wrong because NLB does not use round-robin. Option B is wrong because NLB does not have a health check that would skew traffic. Option C is wrong because NLB distributes traffic regardless of instance size.

Answer

The application servers have different instance sizes, causing the NLB to send more traffic to larger instances

Answer

The NLB is using round-robin algorithm and one server is slower

Answer

The health check is failing on the other servers

Question 5

A company is designing an SAP system on AWS with SAP HANA as the database. The system must be highly available across multiple Availability Zones. Which TWO actions should the company take to meet this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Configure SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) in synchronous mode. Options A and B are correct. A: HANA System Replication is the primary method for synchronous replication across AZs. B: A Pacemaker cluster manages automatic failover. Option C is wrong because manual failover is not HA. Option D is wrong because EBS snapshots are not real-time. Option E is wrong because S3 replication is not for database.

Answer

Perform periodic EBS snapshots and restore in another AZ

Answer

Use Amazon S3 cross-region replication for the database files

Answer

Use manual failover by changing DNS records

Question 6

An SAP system on AWS is using an SAP HANA database. The database administrator wants to monitor memory usage and receive alerts when memory consumption exceeds 90%. Which THREE services can be used together to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS). Options A, B, and D are correct. A: CloudWatch can collect custom metrics. B: CloudWatch Alarms can trigger notifications. D: SNS sends email or SMS. Option C is wrong because Amazon Inspector is for security assessment. Option E is wrong because AWS Config is for compliance and configuration tracking.

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

Amazon Inspector

Question 7

A company is planning to migrate its SAP ERP system to AWS. The system currently uses an Oracle database. The company wants to switch to a supported database on AWS. Which THREE database options are supported by SAP on AWS?

Accepted Answer

SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE). SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) is a certified database platform for SAP applications on AWS. SAP officially supports ASE as a database option for SAP ERP and other SAP Business Suite systems, provided the correct SAP ASE version and patch levels are used. This makes it a valid choice for migrating from Oracle to a supported SAP database on AWS.

Answer

SAP MaxDB

Answer

Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL

Question 8

A company runs a large SAP ERP system on AWS. The SAP application servers are deployed across multiple Availability Zones using an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer. The SAP HANA database is a single-node instance on a large EC2 instance with EBS io1 volumes. The database experiences high write latency during peak hours. The administrator investigates and finds that the EBS volume write throughput is consistently at the maximum limit of 250 MB/s. The volume is 4 TB with 10,000 provisioned IOPS. The application servers are idle during the peak hour due to database slowness. The company needs a solution to reduce write latency without changing the application. Which solution should the administrator implement?

Accepted Answer

Increase the provisioned IOPS on the io1 volume to 20,000. Option C is correct because increasing the volume size increases the throughput limit (baseline throughput for io1 is 0.5 MB/s per GB, so 4 TB gives 2048 MB/s, but maximum throughput per volume is 500 MB/s; however, the current limit is 250 MB/s due to IOPS limit. Actually, io1 throughput = (provisioned IOPS) * (I/O size). At 10,000 IOPS and 256 KB I/O size, throughput is 250 MB/s. Increasing IOPS to 20,000 would double throughput to 500 MB/s. Option A is wrong because gp3 has lower throughput per GB. Option B is wrong because EBS-optimized instances are already enabled. Option D is wrong because enabling EBS Multi-Attach is not for single-node and adds complexity.

Answer

Enable EBS Multi-Attach and add additional EC2 instances to share the volume

Answer

Enable EBS-optimized on the EC2 instance

Answer

Change the volume type to gp3 and increase throughput to 500 MB/s

Question 9

A company has deployed an SAP HANA database on AWS using a single EC2 instance with EBS volumes. The database is used for a critical SAP system. The company needs to ensure that the database can be restored to a point in time within the last 24 hours with minimal data loss. The administrator currently takes nightly EBS snapshots of the data and log volumes. However, recent tests show that recovery to a specific point in time (e.g., one hour ago) is not possible because the log volume is not backed up frequently enough. The administrator must implement a solution that allows point-in-time recovery with a recovery point objective (RPO) of 15 minutes. Which solution should the administrator implement?

Accepted Answer

Configure SAP HANA Backint agent to back up log files to Amazon S3 every 15 minutes. Option B is correct because using SAP HANA Backint to stream logs to S3 every 15 minutes allows point-in-time recovery. Option A is wrong because EBS snapshots of log volumes every 15 minutes are costly and may cause I/O spikes. Option C is wrong because enabling Multi-Attach does not address backup. Option D is wrong because DLM automates snapshot creation but still has the same cost and performance issues.

Answer

Create EBS snapshots of the log volume every 15 minutes using a cron job

Answer

Use Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) to schedule snapshots of the log volume every 15 minutes

Answer

Enable EBS Multi-Attach on the log volume and attach it to a second instance to replicate logs

Question 10

A company is migrating an SAP BusinessObjects system to AWS. The system includes a Central Management Server (CMS) and several processing servers. The CMS uses a SQL Server database. The company wants to use a managed database service on AWS to reduce operational overhead. The database size is 100 GB and is expected to grow 10% annually. The company requires automatic failover to a secondary Availability Zone with minimal downtime. Which AWS database service should the company use for the CMS database?

Accepted Answer

Amazon RDS for SQL Server with Multi-AZ deployment. Option C is correct because Amazon RDS for SQL Server with Multi-AZ provides automatic failover to a standby in another AZ. Option A is wrong because Amazon Aurora is not compatible with SQL Server. Option B is wrong because SQL Server on EC2 is not managed. Option D is wrong because Amazon DynamoDB is NoSQL and not compatible with SQL Server.

Answer

Amazon EC2 with SQL Server installed

Answer

Amazon Aurora SQL Server

Answer

Amazon DynamoDB

Question 11

An SAP system on AWS uses a shared file system for /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans mounted from an EC2 instance running NFS. The NFS server experiences a failure causing downtime for all SAP application servers. The company wants a highly available shared file system with automatic failover. The budget is limited, and the company prefers a fully managed solution. Which AWS service should the company use?

Accepted Answer

Amazon EFS. Option A is correct because Amazon EFS is a fully managed NFS file system that is highly available across multiple Availability Zones. Option B is wrong because FSx for Windows File Server is not POSIX-compliant for SAP. Option C is wrong because EBS is not shared. Option D is wrong because S3 is not a POSIX file system.

Answer

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

Answer

Amazon EBS with a cluster file system

Answer

Amazon S3 with s3fs-fuse

Question 12

A company is planning to run SAP applications on AWS. The security team requires that all data transmitted between the SAP application servers and the SAP HANA database be encrypted in transit. The SAP HANA database is on an EC2 instance in the same VPC. The application servers are also in the same VPC. Which configuration should the company implement to meet the encryption requirement with minimal impact on performance?

Accepted Answer

Enable SAP HANA TLS/SSL encryption for the database connections. Option B is correct because enabling SAP HANA TLS/SSL encryption encrypts data in transit between application and database servers without network overhead. Option A is wrong because VPC peering is for cross-VPC communication. Option C is wrong because VPN adds overhead. Option D is wrong because AWS PrivateLink is for access to services, not for encryption within a VPC.

Answer

Use AWS PrivateLink to connect the application to the database

Answer

Use VPC peering between the application and database subnets

Answer

Set up a VPN connection between the application and database servers

Question 13

A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS. The system is deployed in a cluster across two Availability Zones using Pacemaker for high availability. The primary SAP HANA node fails, and the failover to the secondary node is successful. However, after failover, the application servers cannot connect to the database because the database IP address changed. The application servers are configured to use the IP address of the primary node. The company needs a solution that allows the application servers to connect to the active database node without reconfiguration after failover. Which solution should the company implement?

Accepted Answer

Deploy an internal Network Load Balancer (NLB) with a static IP and target the HANA nodes. Option D is correct because using an internal Network Load Balancer (NLB) with a static IP address for the database virtual IP allows application servers to connect to the NLB, which forwards traffic to the active node. Option A is wrong because Elastic IPs are not automatically reassigned. Option B is wrong because Route 53 health checks have DNS TTL delays. Option C is wrong because a CNAME record still has TTL issues.

Answer

Use Amazon Route 53 DNS with a health check to point to the active node's IP

Answer

Associate an Elastic IP address to the active node using a script during failover

Answer

Configure a CNAME record in Route 53 that points to the primary node's DNS name

Question 14

A company runs SAP HANA on EC2 with EBS io1 volumes. The administrator notices that the disk queue depth is consistently high during peak hours, causing increased latency. The volume is 2 TB with 5000 provisioned IOPS. The instance is an r5.4xlarge with EBS bandwidth of 4750 Mbps. The database workload is write-intensive. The administrator wants to reduce latency without increasing costs significantly. Which action should the administrator take?

Accepted Answer

Increase the provisioned IOPS to 10,000. Option A is correct because increasing IOPS to 10,000 will double the IOPS, reducing queue depth. Option B is wrong because changing to gp3 may not provide the same performance. Option C is wrong because instance size increases cost. Option D is wrong because enabling Multi-Attach does not address queue depth.

Answer

Enable EBS Multi-Attach and use multiple instances to share the volume

Answer

Change the volume type to gp3 with 5000 IOPS

Answer

Upgrade the EC2 instance to an r5.8xlarge

Question 15

A company is running SAP HANA on AWS and needs to ensure high availability for the SAP Central Services (ASCS/ERS) instance. Which TWO actions should be taken to achieve this? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Configure ASCS and ERS on separate EC2 instances in different Availability Zones.. For SAP HANA high availability, the ASCS and ERS instances must run on separate EC2 instances (or separate Availability Zones) to avoid a single point of failure. Using a Network Load Balancer with a floating IP addresses for the virtual hostname ensures seamless failover. Option B (single instance) would not provide HA. Option E (using a Classic Load Balancer) is not recommended for SAP ASCS/ERS; AWS recommends NLB. Option C (single AZ) defeats HA. Option D (application-based routing) is not needed; NLB uses IP/host-based routing.

Answer

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

Answer

Deploy both ASCS and ERS on the same EC2 instance to reduce latency.

Answer

Place both ASCS and ERS in the same Availability Zone to minimize network latency.