PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Test 35 — 15 Questions

Question 1

An SAP administrator notices that the SAP HANA database is running out of memory frequently. The system is deployed on an EC2 instance with 512 GB of RAM. The HANA memory usage is peaking at 480 GB. What should the administrator do to resolve this issue?

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

Accepted Answer

Migrate to an instance with more memory, such as x1e.32xlarge. The HANA database is peaking at 480 GB on a 512 GB instance, indicating that memory is nearly fully utilized. Enabling memory overcommit and setting the HANA memory limit to 90% (460.8 GB) would still be below the peak usage, potentially causing out-of-memory errors. The most straightforward and reliable solution is to migrate to a larger instance type, such as x1e.32xlarge, which offers 976 GB of RAM, providing sufficient headroom for current and future peak demands. This aligns with AWS best practices for SAP HANA workloads.

Answer

Configure a swap file on the instance's root EBS volume

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Enable HANA memory overcommit and set the memory limit to 90%

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Reduce the number of HANA table partitions

Question 2

A company is designing a highly available SAP HANA system on AWS. They need to replicate data synchronously to a secondary site in a different Availability Zone. Which AWS service should they use?

Accepted Answer

SAP HANA System Replication (HSR). SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) is the native SAP mechanism for synchronously replicating HANA data to a secondary system. It supports synchronous replication mode, which ensures zero data loss (RPO=0) by committing transactions only after they are confirmed on the secondary site, making it the correct choice for a highly available SAP HANA system across Availability Zones.

Answer

Amazon S3 cross-region replication

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AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)

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Amazon RDS Multi-AZ

Question 3

An SAP application on AWS needs to access an S3 bucket containing sensitive data. Which IAM policy element should be used to enforce encryption in transit?

Accepted Answer

"Condition": {"Bool": {"aws:SecureTransport": "true"}}. The `aws:SecureTransport` condition key in an IAM policy enforces that all requests to the S3 bucket must be made over HTTPS (TLS), ensuring encryption in transit. For an SAP application handling sensitive data, this prevents data exposure during transmission over the network. The `Bool` condition evaluates to `true` only when the request uses SSL/TLS.

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"Condition": {"StringEquals": {"s3:x-amz-server-side-encryption": "AES256"}}

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"Condition": {"Bool": {"aws:MultiFactorAuthPresent": true}}

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"Condition": {"IpAddress": {"aws:SourceIp": "10.0.0.0/8"}}

Question 4

An SAP administrator is troubleshooting a performance issue on an SAP HANA instance running on an EC2 instance. The instance type is r5.8xlarge with 256 GB of RAM. The administrator notices that the instance's CPU credit balance is depleting rapidly. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The instance is a burstable performance instance (e.g., T3) not an r5. The r5.8xlarge is a standard, non-burstable instance type and does not use a CPU credit balance. Therefore, if an administrator observes CPU credit balance depleting, the instance cannot actually be an r5.8xlarge; the most likely cause is that the instance is a burstable performance instance (such as T3 or T2), making Option D the correct answer. High network throughput (Option C) might increase CPU utilization but does not explain the presence of a depleting CPU credit balance.

Answer

The instance is using EBS-optimized with insufficient bandwidth

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The SAP application is using too much memory

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The instance has a high network throughput causing CPU overhead

Question 5

A company is deploying SAP on AWS and wants to ensure that the SAP system can automatically recover from an EC2 instance failure. Which AWS feature should be used?

Accepted Answer

EC2 Auto Recovery with CloudWatch alarms. EC2 Auto Recovery, configured via a CloudWatch alarm based on the StatusCheckFailed metric, automatically recovers an EC2 instance by restarting it on a new host if the underlying hardware fails or becomes impaired. This is the correct AWS feature for automatic recovery from an EC2 instance failure, as it directly addresses instance-level hardware issues without requiring manual intervention or reconfiguration.

Answer

Auto Scaling group with a scheduled scaling policy

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Elastic Load Balancer health checks

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Manual restart of the instance from the AWS Management Console

Question 6

An SAP system on AWS requires persistent storage for its database logs. Which storage option should be used to meet the performance requirements of SAP HANA?

Accepted Answer

Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes. Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes provide the highest performance, durability, and low latency required for SAP HANA database logs. They offer up to 256,000 IOPS per volume and sub-millisecond latency, meeting SAP's certification requirements for persistent storage of HANA data and log volumes.

Answer

Instance store volumes

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Amazon S3

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Amazon EFS

Question 7

An SAP landscape on AWS includes several instances in a VPC. The administrator needs to ensure that SAProuter can connect to the SAP system from the internet securely. Which networking component should be used?

Accepted Answer

AWS VPN connection to the customer's network. An AWS VPN connection establishes an encrypted tunnel over the internet between the customer's on-premises network and the VPC, allowing SAProuter to connect securely to the SAP system without exposing any instance to the public internet. This aligns with the requirement for secure, authenticated connectivity from the internet while maintaining network isolation.

Answer

AWS Direct Connect with a public VIF

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Internet Gateway with a public IP on the SAProuter instance

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AWS CloudFront with a security group

Question 8

A company is planning to run SAP HANA on AWS. Which TWO of the following are required to ensure the system is supported by SAP? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Use an operating system that is on the SAP HANA supported OS list. Option C is correct because SAP only supports SAP HANA on specific operating system versions and distributions listed in the SAP HANA supported OS matrix (for example, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server or Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions certified by SAP); running HANA on an unsupported OS voids SAP support. Option E is correct because SAP HANA on AWS must run on EC2 instance types that SAP has certified for HANA (such as the memory-optimized X1, X1e, X2, or High Memory instances), and using non-certified instance types means the deployment is not supported by SAP. Option A is not required: cluster placement groups are a performance/low-latency recommendation, not an SAP support prerequisite. Option B is not required: SAP supports HANA on multiple EBS volume types (including gp2/gp3 and io1/io2), so mandating io2 Block Express for all HANA data is not a support condition. Option D is not required: termination protection is an operational safeguard against accidental instance deletion and has no bearing on SAP certification or support.

Answer

Place all instances in a cluster placement group

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Use only EBS io2 Block Express volumes for all HANA data

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Enable termination protection on all instances

Question 9

A company is migrating its SAP ERP system to AWS. The system includes an SAP Central Services (ASCS) instance and an SAP application server. Which TWO of the following are required for high availability? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Enqueue replication server (ERS) must be set up for the ASCS cluster. Option B is correct because SAP high availability for the ASCS requires an Enqueue Replication Server (ERS) instance to replicate the lock table from the ASCS enqueue server, so that if the ASCS fails, the ERS can take over and preserve the enqueue service without losing lock data. Option D is correct because the ASCS must be configured as a failover cluster using AWS cluster management tools (such as Pacemaker/Corosync with the AWS overlay agent, or SIOS DataKeeper) to detect failure and move the ASCS and its virtual IP to another node. Option A is not required because /sapmnt is typically shared via NFS or Amazon EFS, and EBS Multi-Attach is not a supported or recommended solution for SAP shared filesystems. Option C is not required because an Elastic Load Balancer does not provide the cluster failover and enqueue replication needed for ASCS high availability. Option E is not required because while multiple application servers improve availability, the question specifically asks for the two requirements for ASCS high availability, and application servers are not part of the ASCS HA cluster.

Answer

Use an EBS Multi-Attach volume for shared /sapmnt

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Configure an Elastic Load Balancer for ASCS

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Deploy at least two application servers in different Availability Zones

Question 10

Refer to the exhibit. An SAP administrator created this IAM policy for an SAP application user that performs database backups to Amazon S3. The user reports that backup jobs fail with an access denied error. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The policy is missing s3:ListBucket permission on the bucket.. The error occurs because the IAM policy grants s3:PutObject and s3:DeleteObject on the bucket and its objects, but it does not include s3:ListBucket permission. When an SAP application performs a backup to S3, the AWS SDK or CLI often first lists the bucket to verify its existence or check for existing objects before writing. Without s3:ListBucket, the list operation fails, causing the access denied error even though the write permission is present.

Answer

The policy has a syntax error and is invalid.

Answer

The policy does not allow s3:PutObject for the bucket.

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The Deny statement blocks all DeleteObject requests.

Question 11

Which AWS service should be used to capture and analyze operating system-level metrics from an EC2 instance running SAP, such as memory utilization and disk I/O, and to set alarms based on thresholds?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch with the CloudWatch Agent. Amazon CloudWatch with the CloudWatch Agent is the correct choice because the CloudWatch Agent can collect custom operating system-level metrics (such as memory utilization and disk I/O) from EC2 instances, including those running SAP. The agent sends these metrics to CloudWatch, where you can set alarms based on thresholds. AWS Config, Trusted Advisor, and Inspector do not provide OS-level metric collection or alarm capabilities.

Answer

AWS Config

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AWS Trusted Advisor

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Amazon Inspector

Question 12

An SAP administrator needs to set up a fault-tolerant architecture for SAP NetWeaver on AWS. The architecture must survive an entire Availability Zone failure. Which configuration is the most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Use an Auto Scaling group to launch SAP application servers across multiple AZs behind an Application Load Balancer.. Deploying SAP application servers across multiple Availability Zones (AZs) behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB) provides fault tolerance at the AZ level. The ALB distributes traffic to healthy instances in different AZs, ensuring that if one AZ fails, the remaining AZs continue to serve requests without interruption. This architecture aligns with SAP's recommended high-availability pattern for the ABAP stateless application tier.

Answer

Deploy all SAP application servers in one Availability Zone and use Amazon EBS snapshots for backup.

Answer

Deploy SAP application servers across multiple AZs but without a load balancer.

Answer

Use a single large EC2 instance for all SAP components.

Question 13

A company has deployed SAP S/4HANA on AWS using a single EC2 instance for the HANA database and multiple EC2 instances for the application servers. The system is in production and the company wants to implement high availability for the HANA database to minimize downtime during patching and failures. The HANA database is critical and must have an RTO of less than 5 minutes and an RPO of zero. The current setup uses a single EBS volume for /hana/data and another for /hana/log. The company has two Availability Zones available. Which solution meets the requirements?

Accepted Answer

Configure SAP HANA System Replication with automatic failover to a secondary HANA instance in another AZ.. SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) with automatic failover meets the RTO < 5 minutes and RPO = 0 requirements by synchronously replicating data to a secondary HANA instance in another Availability Zone. Automatic failover ensures the secondary takes over without manual intervention, minimizing downtime during patching or failures. This is the only option that provides synchronous replication with zero data loss and fast failover across AZs.

Answer

Attach the EBS volumes to two EC2 instances using EBS Multi-Attach.

Answer

Use AWS Backup to schedule snapshots every 5 minutes and restore in another AZ if needed.

Answer

Deploy the HANA database on a larger EC2 instance with higher availability SLA.

Question 14

An SAP administrator is migrating an SAP Business Suite system from on-premises to AWS. The system uses an Oracle database that is 2 TB in size. The bandwidth between the on-premises data center and AWS is limited to 100 Mbps. The migration must be completed within a weekend (48 hours). The administrator decides to use AWS DMS for ongoing replication after an initial full load. However, the initial full load takes too long. What should the administrator do to accelerate the initial full load?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Snowball Edge to physically transfer the database backup to AWS, then restore and use DMS for ongoing replication.. The 2 TB database over a 100 Mbps link would take approximately 47 hours just for the transfer (2 TB * 8 / 100 Mbps / 3600 seconds ≈ 47.6 hours), leaving no time for restore and validation. AWS Snowball Edge provides a physical shipping alternative that bypasses network bandwidth constraints entirely, allowing the full load to be completed within the weekend. After restoring the backup from Snowball, AWS DMS can be used for ongoing replication of changes.

Answer

Disable encryption on the database backup to reduce transfer overhead.

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Increase the size of the DMS replication instance to the largest available.

Answer

Use Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration to speed up the upload.

Question 15

A company is migrating its SAP HANA database to AWS. The SAP HANA database requires high throughput and low latency for data persistence. Which AWS storage solution should be used for the HANA data volume to meet performance requirements?

Accepted Answer

Use Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1 or io2) EBS volumes for the data volume.. SAP HANA is an in-memory database that relies on persistent storage for data volume writes during savepoints and log writes. Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1 or io2) EBS volumes deliver consistent, low-latency performance with configurable IOPS, which is required to meet SAP HANA's strict throughput and latency SLAs. AWS specifically certifies io1/io2 EBS volumes for SAP HANA data volumes in production environments.

Answer

Use Amazon FSx for Lustre as primary persistent storage for HANA data.

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Use General Purpose SSD (gp2) EBS volumes for the data volume.

Answer

Use Throughput Optimized HDD (st1) EBS volumes for the data volume.