PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Test 36 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company is implementing an SAP S/4HANA system on AWS. The system must be highly available across multiple Availability Zones. Which of the following strategies should the company implement for the SAP Central Services (ASCS) instance to meet high availability requirements?

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

Accepted Answer

Deploy a Pacemaker cluster with two EC2 instances across Availability Zones using a shared file system.. SAP Central Services (ASCS) requires a highly available cluster that can manage the Enqueue and Message Server processes. A Pacemaker cluster across two Availability Zones, using a shared file system (e.g., Amazon EFS or a replicated file system), provides the necessary fencing, resource monitoring, and failover for ASCS. This architecture ensures that if the primary ASCS instance fails, the secondary instance in the other AZ can take over with minimal downtime, meeting the high availability requirement.

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Deploy a single EC2 instance with a large instance type to handle failover.

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Configure SAP HANA System Replication between two Availability Zones.

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Use Amazon RDS for SAP Central Services with Multi-AZ deployment.

Question 2

A company is running SAP NetWeaver on AWS. The SAP application server instances need to be distributed within a single Availability Zone for low-latency connectivity. Which AWS feature should be used to ensure low-latency connectivity between these instances?

Accepted Answer

Placement Group (cluster). A cluster placement group places instances into a low-latency, high-bandwidth network within a single Availability Zone. This is ideal for SAP application servers that require these characteristics. For multi-AZ high availability, a separate placement group per AZ or spread placement groups may be considered, but for the requirement stated in this question, the cluster placement group (Option B) is correct.

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Network ACL

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Internet Gateway

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VPC Peering

Question 3

A company is designing a disaster recovery (DR) strategy for its SAP HANA database on AWS. The primary site is in us-east-1. The DR site must be in us-west-2. The company requires a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 2 hours. Which AWS service should be used for replicating HANA data?

Accepted Answer

SAP HANA System Replication to an EC2 instance in us-west-2.. SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) is the native, SAP-supported mechanism for replicating HANA databases to a secondary site with low RPO (typically seconds to minutes) and RTO (minutes to hours). It continuously ships log entries from the primary to a standby EC2 instance in us-west-2, meeting the 15-minute RPO and 2-hour RTO requirements. AWS Database Migration Service, EBS Snapshots, and S3 Cross-Region Replication do not provide the log-level, consistent replication needed for SAP HANA's ACID compliance and failover semantics.

Answer

AWS Database Migration Service with ongoing replication.

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Amazon EBS Snapshots copied to us-west-2 every hour.

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Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication for HANA data files.

Question 4

A company is running SAP Business Suite on AWS. The SAP application servers are behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). Users are experiencing session timeouts because the ALB is distributing requests to different application servers. What should the company configure on the ALB to maintain session stickiness?

Accepted Answer

Enable sticky sessions using the ALB-generated cookie.. Enabling sticky sessions (session affinity) on an Application Load Balancer using the ALB-generated cookie (AWSALB) ensures that all requests from a user session are routed to the same target (SAP application server). This prevents session timeouts caused by requests being distributed to different servers, which would lose in-memory session state. The ALB-generated cookie is the simplest and most appropriate method for SAP Business Suite, as it does not require custom application code.

Answer

Use a Network Load Balancer instead of an Application Load Balancer.

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Enable cross-zone load balancing on the ALB.

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Enable path-based routing to route all requests from a user to the same server.

Question 5

A company is running SAP ERP on AWS. The SAP application servers are in private subnets, and the database is in a separate private subnet. The company needs to allow the application servers to communicate with the database. Which AWS networking component should be configured to allow this traffic?

Accepted Answer

Security Group rules allowing traffic between the security groups.. Security groups act as a virtual firewall for instances, and you can reference another security group as a source in inbound rules. This allows the application servers' security group to be specified as the source for the database security group's inbound rule, enabling traffic between the subnets without exposing the database to the entire subnet. This is the most secure and AWS-recommended method for controlling traffic between instances within the same VPC.

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VPC Peering connection between subnets.

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Internet Gateway

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Network ACL with inbound rules for the database subnet.

Question 6

A company is running SAP HANA on AWS. The HANA database is deployed on an r5.8xlarge instance. The company notices high CPU utilization on the instance during peak loads. The SAP team confirms that the HANA workload requires more CPU capacity. What is the most cost-effective way to increase CPU capacity without changing the instance family?

Accepted Answer

Resize the instance to a larger instance type in the r5 family.. Resizing the instance to a larger type within the r5 family (e.g., r5.12xlarge or r5.16xlarge) directly increases vCPU and memory capacity without changing the instance family, which is the most cost-effective approach for a single-node SAP HANA deployment. This avoids the complexity, licensing costs, and network latency of scale-out configurations while meeting the CPU demand.

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Add more EBS volumes with higher IOPS to offload CPU.

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Launch additional r5.8xlarge instances and configure HANA scale-out.

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Configure Auto Scaling to add instances during peak load.

Question 7

Which TWO of the following are valid options for implementing high availability for SAP NetWeaver on AWS?

Accepted Answer

Deploy two EC2 instances across Availability Zones with a shared file system (EFS) and a cluster manager.. SAP NetWeaver high availability on AWS is typically implemented by deploying two EC2 instances in separate Availability Zones, using Amazon EFS as the shared file system for SAP global and transport files, and a cluster manager such as Pacemaker/Corosync (Linux) or SIOS (Windows) to orchestrate failover of the ASCS/ERS or SCS instances. Option E is also correct because for Windows-based SAP NetWeaver, a Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC) provides the clustering layer, and Amazon FSx for Windows File Server supplies the required SMB-based shared storage for SAP Central Services and cluster quorum, which is the AWS-validated HA pattern. Option A is not correct because Amazon RDS Multi-AZ is a managed relational database HA feature and cannot host SAP Central Services (ASCS/SCS), which must run on EC2 instances. Option B is not correct because Amazon S3 is object storage and cannot serve as a POSIX/SMB shared file system for SAP, and manual failover does not provide the automatic high availability required. Option D is not correct because running SAP Central Services on a single large EC2 instance is a single point of failure and therefore does not implement high availability.

Answer

Use Amazon RDS Multi-AZ for SAP Central Services.

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Use Amazon S3 for shared storage and configure manual failover.

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Run SAP Central Services on a single large EC2 instance.

Question 8

Which TWO of the following are required when integrating SAP HANA with AWS Direct Connect for hybrid connectivity?

Accepted Answer

A Virtual Private Gateway attached to the VPC.. Option B is correct because a Virtual Private Gateway (VGW) must be attached to the target VPC to serve as the AWS-side anchor for the private virtual interface that carries Direct Connect traffic into the VPC. Option D is correct because AWS Direct Connect uses BGP for dynamic route exchange, so BGP peering must be established between the customer's on-premises router and the AWS router (over the private or transit virtual interface) for the SAP HANA subnets to be reachable. Option A is wrong because a public virtual interface is used to reach AWS public services (e.g., S3 endpoints) over public IP space, not to access resources inside a VPC, which requires a private virtual interface. Option C is wrong because a Direct Connect Gateway is only needed when connecting to VPCs in multiple regions or to multiple VPCs via a transit gateway, not for a basic single-VPC hybrid integration. Option E is wrong because a VPN tunnel is an alternative or backup IPsec-over-internet connection, not a requirement for Direct Connect, which is a dedicated private layer-2/layer-3 link.

Answer

A Public Virtual Interface to access the VPC.

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A Direct Connect Gateway for the connection.

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A VPN tunnel between on-premises and AWS.

Question 9

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. Amazon EBS io2 Block Express is the correct choice because it provides up to 256,000 IOPS per volume with sub-millisecond latency, meeting SAP HANA's strict performance requirements for data volumes. It also supports Elastic Volumes, allowing you to scale storage capacity and performance without downtime, which is critical for production SAP HANA systems.

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Amazon S3

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Amazon EBS st1

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Amazon EBS gp3

Question 10

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. Amazon EFS provides a fully managed, highly available, and durable NFS file system that can be mounted concurrently across multiple EC2 instances in different Availability Zones. By using EFS for /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans, and configuring a Pacemaker cluster across two AZs, you achieve automatic failover for the ASCS instance without the administrative overhead of managing a separate NFS server or replicating snapshots.

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

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

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

Question 11

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. The Network Load Balancer (NLB) uses a flow hash algorithm based on the 5-tuple (source IP, source port, destination IP, destination port, and protocol) to route traffic. This algorithm is designed to maintain session stickiness, but it can cause uneven distribution if a small number of clients generate a disproportionate amount of traffic, as each client's flows are consistently sent to the same target. Cross-zone load balancing distributes traffic across all targets in all enabled Availability Zones, but it does not alter the flow hash algorithm's per-flow routing, so one server can still receive more flows if its hash bucket is overloaded.

Answer

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

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

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The health check is failing on the other servers

Question 12

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. Option A is correct because SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) in synchronous mode replicates data from the primary HANA instance to a secondary instance in another Availability Zone with zero data loss (RPO=0), which is the standard mechanism for HANA database high availability on AWS. Option D is correct because a Pacemaker cluster (typically with Corosync and a fencing/STONITH mechanism) automates the detection of a primary node failure and orchestrates the takeover of the HANA secondary, which is required for a true highly available, multi-AZ SAP HANA deployment. Option B is not appropriate because EBS snapshots are point-in-time backups with no continuous replication, so restoring in another AZ would incur significant RPO/RTO and does not provide automatic HA. Option C is incorrect because S3 cross-region replication is for object storage and is not a supported replication mechanism for live SAP HANA database files. Option E is incorrect because manual DNS failover is not automated, introduces human error and long recovery times, and does not satisfy a highly available multi-AZ design.

Answer

Perform periodic EBS snapshots and restore in another AZ

Answer

Use Amazon S3 cross-region replication for the database files

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Use manual failover by changing DNS records

Question 13

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). Amazon CloudWatch custom metrics for SAP HANA (B) is correct because SAP HANA memory usage is not a native AWS metric; the SAP HANA CloudWatch integration (via the SAP HANA database's built-in CloudWatch plugin or AWS Data Provider for SAP) publishes HANA memory KPIs such as used memory as custom metrics into CloudWatch. Amazon CloudWatch Alarms (D) is correct because you create an alarm on that custom metric with a threshold of 90% (e.g., greater than 90 for the memory consumption percentage metric), which evaluates the metric and transitions to ALARM state when breached. Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) (A) is correct because the CloudWatch alarm's action is configured to publish to an SNS topic, which then delivers email/SMS/HTTP notifications to the database administrator. AWS Config (C) is not correct because it records and evaluates resource configuration compliance, not runtime memory utilization thresholds. Amazon Inspector (E) is not correct because it is a vulnerability management service that scans EC2 instances and container images for software vulnerabilities and network exposure, not a memory monitoring/alerting tool.

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

Amazon Inspector

Question 14

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. Amazon RDS for SQL Server with Multi-AZ deployment provides a managed SQL Server database with automatic failover to a standby in another Availability Zone, meeting the requirements for minimal downtime and reduced operational overhead. The 100 GB size and 10% annual growth are well within RDS limits.

Answer

Amazon EC2 with SQL Server installed

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Amazon Aurora SQL Server

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Amazon DynamoDB

Question 15

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. Enabling SAP HANA TLS/SSL encryption encrypts data in transit between application and database servers directly, with minimal performance impact as it is built into the SAP HANA client-server protocol. Option A is incorrect: AWS PrivateLink is used for private connectivity to services across VPCs or to AWS services, not for encrypting internal traffic within the same VPC, and introduces unnecessary complexity. Option C is incorrect: VPC peering connects separate VPCs but does not encrypt traffic by default; it also is not needed when both servers are in the same VPC. Option D is incorrect: a VPN connection adds network overhead and is designed for connectivity across networks or the internet, which is unnecessary and suboptimal for same-VPC communication.

Answer

Use AWS PrivateLink to connect the application to the database

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Use VPC peering between the application and database subnets

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Set up a VPN connection between the application and database servers