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

Question 1

An organization has an SAP S/4HANA system running on AWS. The system uses a multi-node HANA scale-out configuration. The company wants to implement a disaster recovery solution with an RPO of less than 1 hour and an RTO of less than 2 hours. The DR site is in a different AWS Region. Which THREE components should be included in the DR plan?

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

Accepted Answer

Cross-region Amazon Machine Image (AMI) copies for the SAP application servers.. Option A is correct because copying AMIs of the SAP application servers to the DR Region provides pre-built, bootable server images so application servers can be launched quickly in the DR Region, which supports the RTO of under 2 hours. Option C is correct because an Amazon Route 53 DNS failover routing policy automatically redirects client traffic to the DR Region when the primary Region's health check fails, enabling timely failover. Option D is correct because SAP HANA System Replication in asynchronous mode continuously ships redo logs to the DR Region, achieving an RPO well under 1 hour for the multi-node scale-out HANA database. Option B is not appropriate because AWS Global Accelerator optimizes traffic routing for performance and availability using anycast IPs, but it does not provide the DNS-based regional failover mechanism needed here. Option E is not appropriate because daily EBS snapshots copied to the DR Region yield an RPO of up to 24 hours, which fails to meet the required RPO of less than 1 hour.

Answer

AWS Global Accelerator to route traffic to the closest Region.

Answer

Daily EBS snapshots of all volumes copied to the DR Region.

Question 2

A company runs SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) on AWS with an Oracle database. The system is deployed on a single EC2 instance with EBS volumes. The company has scheduled a maintenance window for applying Oracle patches. The database administrator (DBA) will apply the patches during the maintenance window, which requires the database to be shut down. The DBA wants to minimize downtime and ensure that if the patching fails, the system can be rolled back quickly. The current setup includes daily EBS snapshots of the data volume, but these are taken at midnight. What should the DBA do to minimize downtime and ensure a quick rollback?

Accepted Answer

Create a snapshot of the EBS data volume immediately before applying the patches. If the patching fails, restore the volume from the snapshot.. Creating a snapshot of the EBS data volume immediately before applying the patches captures a point-in-time, crash-consistent state of the Oracle database. Since the database will be shut down during the maintenance window, this snapshot provides a reliable restore point. If patching fails, the DBA can quickly restore the volume from this snapshot, minimizing downtime by avoiding the need to restore from the older midnight snapshot, which would lose an entire day's worth of transactions.

Answer

Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to create a replica of the database before patching. If patching fails, redirect traffic to the replica.

Answer

Create an AMI of the entire EC2 instance before the maintenance window. If patching fails, launch a new instance from the AMI.

Answer

Stop the EC2 instance, create a snapshot of the data volume, then apply the patches. If patching fails, restore from the snapshot.

Question 3

A company runs SAP Business Warehouse (BW) on AWS. The system uses an SAP HANA database that is also used for other SAP systems. The company wants to set up monitoring to ensure that the HANA database is performing optimally. They have installed the AWS CloudWatch agent on the HANA server to collect operating system metrics. However, they also need to collect HANA-specific metrics such as memory usage and SQL execution times. Which additional step should the company take to collect these metrics?

Accepted Answer

Install and configure the SAP HANA CloudWatch agent on the HANA server.. The AWS-provided SAP HANA CloudWatch agent is specifically designed to collect HANA-specific metrics such as memory usage, SQL execution times, and other database-level performance counters. It connects to the HANA database using the SQLDBC protocol and pushes the metrics directly to CloudWatch, complementing the OS-level metrics collected by the standard CloudWatch agent. This is the only option that directly addresses the requirement to gather HANA-specific metrics without additional custom development.

Answer

Set up SAP Solution Manager to send metrics to CloudWatch via an API.

Answer

Use Amazon CloudWatch Logs to capture HANA trace files and create metric filters.

Answer

Enable AWS CloudTrail to log HANA database API calls.

Question 4

An SAP Basis administrator is troubleshooting a slow-performing SAP ERP system on AWS. The system uses Amazon EBS volumes with Provisioned IOPS (PIOPS) for database storage. Which metric in Amazon CloudWatch would best indicate whether the EBS volume is experiencing a performance bottleneck?

Accepted Answer

VolumeQueueLength. VolumeQueueLength measures the number of pending I/O requests waiting to be serviced by the EBS volume. A sustained high queue length (e.g., consistently above 1 per optimized IOPS) indicates that the volume is saturated and cannot keep up with the workload, which directly causes performance bottlenecks for SAP ERP database operations. This metric is the most direct indicator of a bottleneck because it reflects backpressure from the storage subsystem.

Answer

VolumeIdleTime

Answer

VolumeReadOps

Answer

VolumeThroughputPercentage

Question 5

An SAP administrator is setting up an SAP HANA system replication across two AWS Availability Zones (AZs). The primary and secondary instances use EBS volumes for data and log storage. What is the best practice for ensuring data consistency and minimizing data loss during a failover?

Accepted Answer

Enable synchronous replication mode in SAP HANA.. SAP HANA synchronous replication mode ensures that a transaction is committed on both the primary and secondary instances before an acknowledgment is sent to the application. This guarantees zero data loss (RPO=0) during a failover, because the secondary always has an identical copy of the committed data. For cross-AZ deployments, this is the best practice to maintain data consistency while still providing high availability.

Answer

Take frequent EBS snapshots of the primary volume and restore them on the secondary.

Answer

Use asynchronous replication mode for better performance.

Answer

Configure the EBS volumes as Multi-Attach to allow both instances to access the same volume.

Question 6

A company is deploying an SAP BusinessObjects (BO) platform on AWS. To ensure high availability of the BO servers, which AWS service should be used to distribute incoming traffic across multiple BO instances in different Availability Zones?

Accepted Answer

Application Load Balancer. The Application Load Balancer (ALB) operates at Layer 7 and can distribute HTTP/HTTPS traffic across multiple SAP BusinessObjects instances in different Availability Zones, providing high availability and health-check-based routing. ALB supports path-based routing and SSL termination, which are essential for modern web applications like SAP BO. It is the correct choice because it is designed for HTTP/HTTPS traffic and can balance load across instances in multiple AZs.

Answer

NAT Gateway

Answer

Amazon Route 53

Answer

Classic Load Balancer

Question 7

An SAP administrator needs to implement a backup strategy for an SAP HANA database on AWS that provides point-in-time recovery (PITR) with minimal RPO. Which combination of AWS services should be used?

Accepted Answer

AWS Backup with Backint agent for SAP HANA. AWS Backup with the Backint agent for SAP HANA is the correct choice because it integrates directly with SAP HANA's native backup interface (Backint), enabling log backups and full/differential backups to Amazon S3. This combination supports point-in-time recovery (PITR) with minimal RPO by continuously backing up transaction logs, which is essential for meeting strict recovery objectives.

Answer

HANA backup to NFS on Amazon EFS

Answer

Amazon EBS snapshots of the HANA data volumes

Answer

Amazon S3 lifecycle policies

Question 8

A company wants to use an SAP-certified AMI for a non-production SAP system to reduce deployment time. Which AWS service provides access to SAP-certified AMIs?

Accepted Answer

AWS Marketplace. AWS Marketplace is the correct service because it provides access to SAP-certified AMIs that have been pre-configured and validated by SAP for running SAP workloads on AWS. These AMIs are published by AWS and SAP partners, ensuring compliance with SAP's certification requirements and reducing deployment time for non-production systems.

Answer

EC2 Image Builder

Answer

AWS Systems Manager

Answer

AWS Service Catalog

Question 9

A company is designing an SAP environment on AWS and needs to ensure high availability for SAP HANA. Which TWO AWS services or features are commonly used to achieve this? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon Route 53 with failover routing. Option C is correct because Amazon Route 53 failover routing policies let you define a primary and secondary endpoint (for example, an SAP HANA primary and standby node behind an overlay IP or a Network Load Balancer) and automatically redirect client connections to the healthy endpoint when health checks detect a failure, which is a standard component of SAP HANA high availability on AWS. Option D is correct because SAP HANA system replication (HSR) across Availability Zones is the SAP-native mechanism that continuously replicates data and logs from a primary HANA instance to a secondary instance in a different AZ, enabling fast takeover with minimal data loss (depending on replication mode such as SYNC or ASYNC). Option A is not appropriate because Amazon EFS is a shared NFS file system and is not supported for hosting SAP HANA data and log volumes, which require low-latency block storage such as Amazon EBS (e.g., gp3 or io2 Block Express). Option B does not belong because Amazon S3 cross-region replication is an object-storage durability/disaster-recovery feature and is not part of an SAP HANA HA failover architecture. Option E is not correct because AWS Global Accelerator with endpoint weights is used for global traffic distribution and performance, not for the in-region HANA failover that HSR and Route 53 failover routing provide.

Answer

Amazon EFS with Multi-AZ mount targets

Answer

Amazon S3 cross-region replication

Answer

AWS Global Accelerator with endpoint weights

Question 10

An SAP administrator is setting up a disaster recovery (DR) site for SAP S/4HANA in a different AWS Region. To minimize data loss, which THREE strategies should be implemented? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Set up automated EBS snapshots of HANA volumes and copy them to the DR region.. Option A is correct because automated EBS snapshots of the HANA data and log volumes provide point-in-time backups, and copying those snapshots to the DR Region ensures the data is available for recovery even if the primary Region is lost, directly minimizing data loss. Option B is correct because Amazon EFS cross-Region replication continuously copies the SAP transport file system to the DR Region, keeping transport requests and configuration files current so recovery can proceed with minimal loss of recent changes. Option C is correct because SAP HANA system replication in asynchronous mode across Regions continuously ships redo log entries to the secondary HANA instance, providing a low recovery point objective (RPO) for the in-memory database itself. Option D is not correct because EBS Multi-Attach only allows a volume to be attached to multiple EC2 instances within a single Availability Zone, not across Regions. Option E is not correct because CloudFront is a content delivery network for caching HTTP/HTTPS content at edge locations, not a mechanism for replicating or caching HANA database data in a DR Region.

Answer

Use EBS Multi-Attach volumes to share disks between regions.

Answer

Use Amazon CloudFront to cache HANA data in the DR region.

Question 11

A company is planning to run SAP NetWeaver on AWS and needs to ensure that the architecture supports high availability for the application layer. Which TWO components are essential for an HA SAP NetWeaver application server setup? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Multiple EC2 instances in different Availability Zones. Option B is correct because high availability for the SAP NetWeaver application layer requires running multiple EC2 instances across different Availability Zones, so that the failure of one AZ does not take down the application servers and a surviving node can continue serving users. Option D is correct because an Application Load Balancer (ALB) is needed to distribute incoming HTTP/HTTPS traffic across those multiple EC2 instances, perform health checks, and route requests only to healthy application servers, which is essential for an HA SAP NetWeaver application server setup. Option A is not essential because ElastiCache is a caching/session-store service and SAP NetWeaver application HA does not depend on it for the core application-layer redundancy described here. Option C is wrong because a single large EC2 instance is a single point of failure and provides no application-layer high availability. Option E is wrong because Amazon RDS addresses the database layer, not the application layer that the question specifically asks about.

Answer

Amazon ElastiCache for session management

Answer

A single large EC2 instance for all application servers

Answer

Amazon RDS for database layer

Question 12

A company is running SAP S/4HANA on AWS. The application team reports that batch jobs are failing intermittently with database connection timeouts. The SAP system uses a single Availability Zone deployment. Which design change should the architect recommend to improve database availability?

Accepted Answer

Configure SAP HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones. SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) across two Availability Zones provides synchronous or asynchronous data replication at the database level, ensuring that if the primary HANA instance fails, the secondary can take over with minimal downtime. This directly addresses the intermittent database connection timeouts by eliminating the single point of failure in a single-AZ deployment, as the application can failover to the replica without manual intervention.

Answer

Use Amazon EBS Multi-Attach to attach the same volume to multiple EC2 instances

Answer

Implement an Amazon RDS for SAP HANA read replica

Answer

Scale up the SAP HANA instance to a larger instance type

Question 13

A company runs SAP HANA on AWS and needs to ensure that the database can survive a single Availability Zone failure without manual intervention. The SAP HANA system is currently deployed on a single EC2 instance. Which solution meets this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Configure SAP HANA System Replication with a secondary instance in a different Availability Zone and enable automatic takeover. SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) with automatic takeover provides synchronous or asynchronous data replication to a secondary instance in a different Availability Zone (AZ). When the primary fails, the secondary automatically becomes the new primary without manual intervention, ensuring database survival during a single AZ failure. This is the only option that meets the requirement for automatic failover across AZs.

Answer

Use an Auto Scaling group to launch a new SAP HANA instance if the current instance fails

Answer

Deploy the SAP HANA instance in a placement group within a single Availability Zone

Answer

Take daily EBS snapshots and copy them to another AWS Region

Question 14

A company is planning to run SAP S/4HANA on AWS. The architect needs to ensure that the EC2 instances are SAP certified for the specific SAP HANA version. Where should the architect verify the instance certification?

Accepted Answer

SAP Certified and Supported SAP HANA Hardware Directory. The SAP Certified and Supported SAP HANA Hardware Directory is the authoritative source maintained by SAP that lists all certified hardware configurations, including specific AWS EC2 instance types and their supported SAP HANA versions. This directory is the only place where SAP officially validates that an EC2 instance meets the exact hardware and firmware requirements for a given SAP HANA release, ensuring compliance with SAP's certification standards.

Answer

SAP Support Portal

Answer

AWS Management Console under EC2 instance types

Answer

AWS documentation for SAP on AWS

Question 15

An architect is designing a disaster recovery plan for an SAP system using SAP HANA. The primary site is in us-east-1 and the DR site is in us-west-2. The RPO is 15 minutes and RTO is 1 hour. Which TWO AWS services or features should the architect use to meet these requirements? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS). Option B, AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS), is correct because it provides continuous block-level replication of on-premises or cloud servers into a staging area in the DR Region (us-west-2) with sub-second RPO and automated recovery, allowing the SAP application and non-HANA tiers to be recovered within the 1-hour RTO. Option D, SAP HANA System Replication, is correct because it is the SAP-native mechanism for replicating the HANA in-memory database to a secondary site in synchronous or asynchronous mode, and with asynchronous replication it can achieve an RPO well under 15 minutes while enabling fast takeover at the DR site. Option A, AWS Transit Gateway with VPC peering, is not a DR replication or recovery service; it only provides network connectivity between VPCs and Regions and does not by itself meet RPO/RTO. Option C, Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication, replicates object data asynchronously and is not suitable for replicating a live SAP HANA database or application servers to meet a 15-minute RPO and 1-hour RTO. Option E, AWS CloudEndure Disaster Recovery, is the former name of the service now called AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery, so it is not a separate correct answer alongside option B.

Answer

AWS Transit Gateway with VPC peering

Answer

Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication

Answer

AWS CloudEndure Disaster Recovery