PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Test 39 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company runs its SAP NetWeaver ABAP application servers on Amazon EC2 instances in a private subnet. The SAP HANA database resides on a separate EC2 instance in the same VPC. The company needs to ensure that the SAP application servers can resolve the HANA database hostname and that the database is not accessible from the internet. Which combination of AWS services should be used to meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

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

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon Route 53 private hosted zone for internal DNS resolution and a security group that allows traffic only from the application server security group.. The SAP application servers need to resolve the HANA hostname privately, and the database must remain inaccessible from the internet. A Route 53 private hosted zone provides DNS resolution scoped to the VPC, while a security group referencing the application server security group enforces instance-level access control. This native integration avoids public exposure and custom DNS infrastructure, meeting both requirements with minimal management effort.

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Use an Application Load Balancer to distribute traffic to the HANA database and a network ACL to restrict access to the private subnet.

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Deploy a self-managed BIND DNS server on a dedicated EC2 instance and use AWS Network Firewall to filter traffic between subnets.

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Assign Elastic IP addresses to the EC2 instances and use a public Route 53 hosted zone with restrictive security groups.

Question 2

A company is designing a high availability architecture for SAP HANA on AWS. The HANA database must be able to automatically fail over to a standby node in the event of an EC2 instance failure. The company wants to minimize downtime and ensure data integrity. Which TWO components are required to achieve automatic failover for SAP HANA on AWS? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

SAP HANA system replication configured in synchronous mode. Automatic failover for SAP HANA on AWS requires SAP HANA system replication to keep the standby node synchronized, and a cluster manager like Pacemaker with STONITH to detect failures and orchestrate the failover while preventing split-brain. These components together ensure minimal downtime and data integrity. Other options like S3 replication, DMS, or Route 53 do not provide the necessary database-level failover capabilities.

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Amazon S3 bucket configured for cross-region replication

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Amazon Route 53 health checks with DNS failover

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AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with change data capture

Question 3

A company is deploying SAP Business Suite on AWS and needs to ensure that the SAP application servers can automatically scale based on workload. The application servers are stateless and run on Amazon EC2 instances. Which AWS service should be used to automatically adjust the number of application server instances?

Accepted Answer

AWS Auto Scaling. AWS Auto Scaling is the correct service to automatically adjust the number of EC2 instances for stateless SAP application servers. It integrates with Elastic Load Balancing to distribute traffic and can scale based on CloudWatch metrics. The other services are either not designed for SAP workloads or do not provide the required control over EC2 instances.

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Amazon ECS with AWS Fargate

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AWS Elastic Beanstalk

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AWS Lambda

Question 4

A company is deploying SAP NetWeaver Application Server ABAP on AWS. The SAP Basis team wants to use the SAP-provided automation to provision the EC2 instances, install the SAP software, and configure the operating system according to SAP best practices. The team wants to avoid manual installation steps and reduce deployment time. Which AWS service should the architect recommend?

Accepted Answer

AWS Launch Wizard for SAP. AWS Launch Wizard for SAP is the SAP-specific deployment service that automates the provisioning of AWS infrastructure and the installation of SAP software using SAP-certified automation. It handles sizing recommendations, network and security configuration, and the operating system preparation required by SAP. For a team that wants to avoid manual installation and shorten deployment time for SAP NetWeaver ABAP, Launch Wizard is the appropriate choice rather than building custom automation with general-purpose services.

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AWS CloudFormation with a custom template written from scratch

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AWS Systems Manager Automation runbooks

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AWS Elastic Beanstalk with a custom platform

Question 5

A company is deploying a new SAP application on AWS. They want to ensure the Amazon EC2 instances used for the SAP application servers are optimally configured for SAP. Which action should they take?

Accepted Answer

Select an instance type that is certified by SAP for the specific SAP application and workload.. SAP and AWS jointly certify specific EC2 instance types for SAP applications. Using a certified instance type ensures that the instance meets SAP's performance and compatibility requirements, and that it is supported by both vendors. This is the most direct way to ensure the instances are optimally configured for the SAP application, as opposed to using general-purpose types, monitoring, or cost-saving measures that do not address suitability.

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Enable detailed monitoring in Amazon CloudWatch for all instances.

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Use Spot Instances for all SAP application servers to reduce cost.

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Use a general-purpose instance type like M5 for all SAP application servers.

Question 6

A company is deploying SAP S/4HANA on AWS and must ensure that the SAP HANA database achieves the lowest possible latency for write-intensive operations. The database will run on an EC2 instance from the memory-optimized family. The company wants to use Amazon EBS volumes for the data and log areas. Which EBS volume type and configuration should be used for the HANA log volume to meet the latency requirement?

Accepted Answer

Provisioned IOPS SSD (io2 Block Express) with a size and IOPS ratio that supports sub-millisecond latency, attached to the instance.. The HANA log volume requires the lowest possible write latency, and io2 Block Express is the only EBS volume type engineered for sub-millisecond latency with high durability. Its ability to provision high IOPS and throughput per volume, combined with direct instance attachment, ensures the consistent performance needed for write-intensive log operations. Other volume types either lack the necessary latency characteristics or are optimized for different workloads.

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General Purpose SSD (gp3) with a baseline of 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s, relying on burst credits for peak writes.

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Cold HDD (sc1) with a large volume size to minimize cost while providing adequate latency for log writes.

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Throughput Optimized HDD (st1) with a large volume size to maximize burst throughput for the log volume.

Question 7

A company runs SAP HANA on a single EC2 instance in a production VPC. The database is backed up using AWS Backint Agent to an Amazon S3 bucket in the same Region. The compliance team requires that the backups be protected against accidental deletion and that they be retained for seven years at the lowest possible storage cost after the first 90 days. The backups are rarely accessed after the first month. Which combination of S3 features should the architect use?

Accepted Answer

Enable S3 Versioning, configure an S3 Lifecycle policy to transition objects to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 90 days, and enable S3 Object Lock in compliance mode.. The combination of S3 Versioning, S3 Object Lock in compliance mode, and a lifecycle transition to S3 Glacier Deep Archive addresses all stated requirements. Versioning preserves prior object versions, Object Lock in compliance mode makes the backups immutable for the retention period so they cannot be deleted even by privileged users, and Glacier Deep Archive offers the lowest storage cost for data that is rarely accessed and must be retained for years. This is the recommended pattern for protecting SAP HANA Backint backups on Amazon S3.

Answer

Enable S3 Versioning and configure a lifecycle policy to transition objects to S3 One Zone-IA after 90 days.

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Enable S3 Cross-Region Replication to a bucket in another Region and rely on the replica bucket for protection against deletion.

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Enable S3 Transfer Acceleration and configure a lifecycle policy to transition objects to S3 Standard-Infrequent Access after 90 days.

Question 8

A company is planning to migrate its SAP NetWeaver application servers to AWS. The company wants to ensure that the application servers can automatically recover from an underlying hardware failure with minimal downtime. The application servers are stateless and can be replaced if they fail. Which AWS feature should the SAP administrator use to meet these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Place the EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group with a minimum and maximum size of 1, and configure a health check based on EC2 status checks.. For stateless SAP NetWeaver application servers, an Auto Scaling group with a size of 1 and EC2 status check health checks provides automatic recovery from hardware failure. When the instance fails, the Auto Scaling group replaces it. This is a simple and cost-effective solution. Other options either do not address hardware failure, add unnecessary cost, or do not provide automatic replacement. The application servers must be designed to be stateless and to register with the SAP message server upon launch.

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Use EC2 dedicated hosts for the application servers and enable host recovery.

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Configure the EC2 instances with a termination protection attribute and enable stop protection.

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Enable detailed monitoring on the EC2 instances and create a CloudWatch alarm that reboots the instance when the CPU utilization exceeds 90% for 5 minutes.

Question 9

A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS with a single HANA database tenant on an r5.12xlarge EC2 instance (48 vCPUs, 384 GiB memory). The SAP application servers run on separate c5.4xlarge instances. The company now needs to add a second HANA tenant for a non-production copy of the same system. The existing instance has 384 GiB memory, and the production tenant consumes approximately 200 GiB. The non-production tenant will require at least 120 GiB. Which action should the company take to satisfy the requirement?

Accepted Answer

Resize the EC2 instance to an instance type with at least 512 GiB memory and configure SAP HANA multiple containers (MDC) to host both tenants.. SAP HANA multiple containers (MDC) allows multiple tenant databases within a single SAP HANA system. The existing r5.12xlarge has 384 GiB memory, and the production tenant uses 200 GiB. Adding a 120 GiB tenant exceeds available memory. Resizing to an instance with at least 512 GiB (e.g., r5.16xlarge) provides enough memory for both tenants, and MDC is supported on virtualized EC2 instances. This satisfies the requirement without unnecessary bare-metal hardware or separate systems.

Answer

Enable SAP HANA dynamic tiering on the existing instance to offload the non-production tenant's data to disk, allowing both tenants to run within 384 GiB.

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Keep the current instance and create a second HANA system on a new EC2 instance, then use SAP HANA system replication to sync the non-production tenant.

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Resize the EC2 instance to a bare-metal instance type with at least 768 GiB memory and enable SAP HANA multiple containers (MDC) on that instance.

Question 10

A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS with a single HANA database on an r5.12xlarge EC2 instance. The SAP application servers are on separate EC2 instances. The company needs to ensure that the HANA database and the application servers can communicate with minimal latency and that the network performance is predictable. Which AWS networking design should be implemented?

Accepted Answer

Place all instances in the same VPC and same subnet, and enable enhanced networking with Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) on all instances.. For SAP HANA on AWS, network latency between the database and application servers must be minimized. Keeping all instances in the same VPC and subnet reduces network hops, and enabling Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) on all instances ensures high bandwidth and low latency. This combination provides predictable performance and is a best practice for SAP deployments on AWS.

Answer

Use AWS Transit Gateway to connect multiple VPCs and enable jumbo frames on all instances.

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Use AWS Direct Connect to connect the HANA database and application servers, and enable ENA on all instances.

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Deploy the HANA database in a separate VPC and use VPC peering with the application VPC, and enable ENA on the database instance only.

Question 11

A company is deploying a highly available SAP NetWeaver ABAP system on AWS. The system consists of a central services instance (ASCS), an enqueue replication server (ERS), and multiple application servers. The company wants to ensure that the ASCS and ERS instances are highly available across two Availability Zones. Which TWO configurations should be implemented to achieve this? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Configure the ASCS and ERS instances in a cluster with an overlay IP address, and use Amazon Route 53 with a failover routing policy to direct traffic to the active instance.. High availability for SAP NetWeaver ASCS and ERS on AWS requires a cluster solution to manage the overlay IP address and automate failover across Availability Zones. SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension or Windows Server Failover Clustering are supported for this purpose. Additionally, Amazon Route 53 with failover routing can be used to direct clients to the active instance by updating DNS based on health checks. These two configurations together ensure that the central services remain available if an Availability Zone fails. Auto Scaling groups and EFS do not provide the necessary cluster management and failover capabilities.

Answer

Place the ASCS and ERS instances in an Auto Scaling group with a minimum and maximum size of 1, and use a Network Load Balancer to distribute traffic.

Answer

Deploy the ASCS and ERS instances in separate Auto Scaling groups, each with a minimum and maximum size of 1, and use a Network Load Balancer to distribute traffic.

Answer

Use Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) to share the /usr/sap filesystem between the ASCS and ERS instances, and rely on EFS for automatic failover.

Question 12

A company runs SAP Business Suite on AWS with an Oracle database on an EC2 instance. The database is experiencing performance issues due to high latency on the EBS volumes. The Oracle database uses a single 1-TB gp2 EBS volume for data and a separate 500-GB gp2 volume for redo logs. The company wants to improve I/O performance without changing the instance type. Which action should the SAP administrator take?

Accepted Answer

Replace the gp2 volumes with Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1 or io2) volumes and provision the required IOPS.. The high latency on EBS volumes for an Oracle database is best addressed by using Provisioned IOPS SSD volumes (io1 or io2), which provide consistent low latency and high IOPS. gp2 volumes have burst performance and may not meet the demands of a production Oracle database. Converting to gp3 or using RAID 0 with gp2 may improve performance but may not provide the required consistency. Changing the instance type is not allowed. Therefore, replacing the volumes with io1/io2 and provisioning appropriate IOPS is the correct action.

Answer

Enable EBS optimization on the EC2 instance and increase the EBS bandwidth by changing the instance type to a larger size.

Answer

Convert the gp2 volumes to gp3 volumes and provision additional IOPS and throughput.

Answer

Create a RAID 0 array using multiple gp2 volumes and move the Oracle data files to the array.

Question 13

A company runs SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP on AWS with an Oracle database on a single EC2 instance. The database is 2 TB and grows by 10% annually. The company requires a recovery point objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a recovery time objective (RTO) of 2 hours. The current backup strategy uses nightly RMAN backups to Amazon S3. Which change should the company implement to meet the RPO requirement?

Accepted Answer

Enable Oracle Data Guard in maximum performance mode with a standby database on a second EC2 instance in the same AWS Region, and configure asynchronous redo transport.. To achieve a 15-minute RPO, the company needs near-real-time replication of database changes. Oracle Data Guard with asynchronous redo transport in maximum performance mode provides a standby database that is typically only seconds behind, meeting the RPO. It also supports fast failover to meet the 2-hour RTO. This is a supported and common configuration for SAP on Oracle on AWS, and it is more practical than frequent RMAN backups or cross-Region synchronous replication.

Answer

Configure Oracle Active Data Guard with a standby database in a different AWS Region and enable synchronous redo transport.

Answer

Increase the frequency of RMAN backups to Amazon S3 to every 15 minutes and enable Oracle block change tracking.

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Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to continuously replicate the Oracle database to an Amazon RDS for Oracle instance, and use that as a standby.

Question 14

An SAP Basis administrator is designing a high-availability solution for SAP HANA on AWS. The requirement is to achieve an RTO of less than 5 minutes and an RPO of less than 1 minute. The administrator plans to use SAP HANA System Replication. Which additional AWS configuration is necessary to meet these objectives?

Accepted Answer

Configure HANA System Replication in synchronous mode with a multi-AZ deployment and use an overlay IP for automatic failover.. To achieve low RTO and RPO, SAP HANA System Replication should be configured in synchronous mode across multiple Availability Zones. This ensures data is replicated with zero data loss and allows automatic failover. An overlay IP (managed by a cluster solution like Pacemaker) enables the application to connect to the new primary quickly, meeting the stringent recovery objectives.

Answer

Deploy HANA on a single EC2 instance with multiple EBS volumes and use RAID 0 for improved performance and redundancy.

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Use Amazon EBS snapshots to restore the HANA database to a new instance in another AZ, and update the SAP application server configuration manually.

Answer

Configure HANA System Replication in asynchronous mode with a single-AZ deployment and use Amazon Route 53 health checks for failover.

Question 15

An SAP Basis administrator needs to ensure that an SAP NetWeaver application server on AWS can be quickly recovered in a different Availability Zone in the event of an AZ failure. The application server runs on an EC2 instance with EBS volumes. The RTO is 30 minutes and the RPO is 5 minutes. Which strategy should be used?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (DRS) to continuously replicate the EC2 instance to a staging area in another AZ, and perform a failover when needed.. AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (DRS) continuously replicates the EC2 instance to a staging area, providing a low RPO and enabling rapid failover within the RTO. It is designed for disaster recovery of individual servers, making it ideal for this scenario.

Answer

Create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) of the EC2 instance daily and copy it to another AZ. In a disaster, launch a new instance from the AMI.

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Configure the EC2 instance to be part of an Auto Scaling group that spans multiple AZs, with a launch template that includes the application server configuration.

Answer

Use EBS snapshots every 5 minutes and store them in Amazon S3. In a disaster, restore the volumes and attach them to a new EC2 instance.