PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Test 40 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company runs an SAP S/4HANA system on AWS. The SAP HANA database is deployed on an Amazon EC2 instance with multiple EBS volumes. The company needs to ensure that the HANA database can be recovered to any point in time within the last 14 days. Which AWS service or feature should be used to meet this requirement?

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

Accepted Answer

SAP HANA database backup to Amazon S3 with backint and continuous log backups. Point-in-time recovery for SAP HANA requires continuous log backups in addition to regular full backups. The SAP HANA backint API allows you to back up directly to Amazon S3, and by enabling automatic log backups, you can recover to any point in time within the retention period. EBS snapshots and AWS Backup do not provide continuous log capture, and Amazon RDS does not support SAP HANA. Thus, the backint-based backup to S3 is the correct solution.

Answer

AWS Backup with a backup plan that includes continuous backups

Answer

Amazon RDS for SAP HANA with automated backups and point-in-time recovery

Answer

Amazon EBS snapshots with a lifecycle policy to retain 14 days

Question 2

A company is planning to migrate an SAP Business Suite system running on Oracle to AWS. The system uses an Oracle database and SAP application servers on physical servers on-premises. The company wants to use a homogeneous migration approach with minimal changes to the SAP application. Which AWS service should be used to migrate the SAP application servers and Oracle database to EC2 instances?

Accepted Answer

AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) to replicate and migrate both the SAP application servers and the Oracle database to EC2 instances.. For a homogeneous migration of SAP application servers and Oracle database from on-premises to AWS with minimal changes, AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) is the appropriate service. MGN replicates entire servers (physical or virtual) to AWS and launches them as EC2 instances, preserving the operating system, applications, and data. This aligns with a lift-and-shift strategy, which is often the first step in SAP migrations to AWS. Other services like DMS, DataSync, or Snowball are not designed for full server migrations with application consistency.

Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for the Oracle database and AWS Server Migration Service (SMS) for the application servers.

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AWS Snowball Edge to transfer the SAP application and Oracle database to AWS, and then restore them on EC2 instances.

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AWS DataSync to copy the SAP application and Oracle database files to Amazon EC2 instances, and then reconfigure the systems.

Question 3

A company is deploying a new SAP S/4HANA system on AWS. The SAP HANA database will run on a single EC2 instance with multiple EBS volumes. The company requires the lowest possible latency for HANA data and log volumes, and must ensure that the volumes are optimized for the HANA workload. Which storage configuration should be used for the HANA data and log volumes?

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes with provisioned IOPS and attach them to the instance.. SAP HANA requires low-latency, high-IOPS storage for data and log volumes. Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes are specifically designed for such demanding workloads, offering sub-millisecond latency and high durability. They are recommended by AWS for SAP HANA. Other EBS volume types like gp3, st1, or sc1 do not provide the necessary performance characteristics. Using S3 or Storage Gateway is not appropriate for block-level database storage.

Answer

Use Amazon S3 mounted as a file system via AWS Storage Gateway for both data and log volumes.

Answer

Use Amazon EBS st1 volumes with burst capability for the data volume and sc1 for the log volume.

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Use Amazon EBS gp3 volumes with default settings and enable EBS Multi-Attach for all volumes.

Question 4

A company runs SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) on AWS with an Oracle database. The SAP application servers are on c5.9xlarge instances and the database is on an r5.12xlarge instance. The company wants to implement a disaster recovery (DR) solution with an RPO of 1 hour and an RTO of 4 hours. The primary site is in us-east-1 and the DR site will be in us-west-2. Which strategy should be used for the Oracle database to meet these requirements at the lowest cost?

Accepted Answer

Configure Oracle Data Guard with a standby database in us-west-2 using asynchronous redo transport in maximum performance mode.. For a cost-effective DR solution with a 1-hour RPO and 4-hour RTO across Regions, Oracle Data Guard with asynchronous redo transport in maximum performance mode is ideal. It provides near-real-time replication with minimal impact on the primary database, ensuring the standby is up-to-date within minutes. Failover can be performed quickly, meeting the 4-hour RTO. This approach is more reliable and faster than backup/restore or storage replication methods, and it avoids the performance penalties of synchronous replication.

Answer

Configure Oracle Data Guard with a standby database in us-west-2 using synchronous redo transport in maximum availability mode.

Answer

Use Oracle RMAN to take hourly incremental backups to Amazon S3 in us-west-2, and restore them to an EC2 instance during a disaster.

Answer

Use AWS Storage Gateway to replicate the Oracle database volumes to us-west-2, and attach them to a pre-provisioned EC2 instance during a disaster.

Question 5

A company is deploying a new SAP S/4HANA system on AWS using a scale-out architecture with multiple SAP HANA tenant databases. The SAP Basis team needs to ensure that the SAP HANA system ID (SID) and tenant databases are properly isolated and can be managed independently. Which AWS resource should be used to provide dedicated, high-performance block storage for each SAP HANA tenant while allowing independent snapshot-based backups?

Accepted Answer

Amazon EBS volumes attached to the EC2 instance, with one set per tenant. For SAP HANA on AWS, Amazon EBS volumes are the recommended storage for data and log volumes because they offer persistent, high-performance block storage with configurable IOPS and throughput. In a scale-out or multi-tenant scenario, dedicating separate EBS volume sets per tenant ensures isolation and enables independent snapshot backups. This design meets SAP's performance and availability requirements, unlike shared file systems or object storage. Instance store, while fast, lacks persistence and is unsuitable for production databases.

Answer

Instance store volumes on the EC2 instance

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Amazon S3 bucket mounted as a file system using s3fs

Answer

Amazon EFS file system mounted on each EC2 instance

Question 6

A company runs an SAP NetWeaver application on AWS with an Oracle database on Amazon EC2. The database is experiencing I/O bottlenecks during peak load. The company wants to improve database performance without changing the instance type. Which AWS service or feature should be used to provide a high-performance, shared block storage solution for the Oracle database?

Accepted Answer

Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) io2 Block Express volumes with provisioned IOPS. To improve Oracle database performance on EC2 without changing the instance type, you should use high-performance block storage. Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes provide the required IOPS and low latency for database workloads. EFS, FSx for Windows File Server, and S3 are not suitable for Oracle database storage because they are file or object storage services and do not provide the block-level access needed. Thus, io2 Block Express is the correct choice.

Answer

Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) with General Purpose performance mode

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Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) with Transfer Acceleration

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Amazon FSx for Windows File Server with SSD storage

Question 7

A company is deploying SAP HANA on AWS and must select an EBS volume configuration for the /hana/data and /hana/log file systems on an r5.12xlarge instance. The workload requires the highest possible IOPS for the log volume with a predictable latency below 1 millisecond. Which volume type should be used for /hana/log?

Accepted Answer

io2 Block Express volumes with the maximum provisioned IOPS and an appropriate size to reach the required IOPS-to-GiB ratio.. The HANA log file system is extremely latency-sensitive because every committed transaction must be persisted to the redo log before the commit is acknowledged. io2 Block Express volumes provide the high provisioned IOPS and consistently low latency required, and they allow the IOPS-to-GiB ratio to be tuned to the workload. General-purpose SSD and magnetic volume types cannot guarantee the sub-millisecond latency the scenario demands.

Answer

sc1 cold HDD volumes with a large capacity to absorb the log write bursts during peak transaction periods.

Answer

gp3 volumes with the maximum provisioned IOPS and throughput settings above the baseline, sized to the minimum supported by SAP.

Answer

st1 throughput-optimized HDD volumes sized large enough to achieve the required throughput for the log writes.

Question 8

A company runs SAP NetWeaver Application Server ABAP on AWS. The SAP application servers and the SAP HANA database are in the same VPC and Availability Zone. The company wants to minimize network latency between the application servers and the database. Which AWS feature or configuration should be used to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Enable enhanced networking with the Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) on the EC2 instances and place them in a cluster placement group.. To minimize network latency between SAP application servers and SAP HANA in the same Availability Zone, the instances should use ENA for enhanced networking and be placed in a cluster placement group. This configuration reduces network hops and increases bandwidth, which is critical for SAP's synchronous communication patterns. Other options either target different use cases or increase latency.

Answer

Attach an Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA) to the SAP application servers and the database instance.

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Place the instances in a spread placement group across multiple Availability Zones.

Answer

Use AWS Global Accelerator to route traffic between the application servers and the database.

Question 9

A company runs an SAP S/4HANA production system on AWS with the HANA database on an x1e.32xlarge EC2 instance and the application servers on c5.9xlarge instances. The company needs to ensure that the application servers can communicate with the HANA database with the lowest possible latency and highest throughput. The VPC has a single subnet in one Availability Zone. Which networking configuration should be implemented?

Accepted Answer

Place all instances in the same subnet and enable Enhanced Networking with the Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) on all instances.. For SAP workloads on AWS, network latency between application servers and the HANA database must be minimized. Keeping all instances in the same subnet within a single Availability Zone reduces network hops, and enabling ENA provides high throughput and low latency. This configuration is a best practice for SAP on AWS.

Answer

Place the HANA database in a private subnet and the application servers in a public subnet, and use an Internet Gateway for communication.

Answer

Place the HANA database and application servers in separate VPCs and use VPC peering to connect them.

Answer

Use AWS Direct Connect to connect the application servers to the HANA database.

Question 10

A company is planning to migrate its SAP Business Suite on Oracle database to AWS. The database is currently running on physical servers with high memory and I/O requirements. The company wants to minimize downtime during the migration and ensure that the target environment meets SAP certification requirements. Which AWS service should be used to perform the migration with minimal downtime?

Accepted Answer

SAP-certified EC2 instances with Oracle Database on EC2, using Oracle Data Guard for replication. To migrate SAP Business Suite on Oracle to AWS with minimal downtime, the recommended approach is to use SAP-certified EC2 instances and set up Oracle Data Guard for replication from on-premises to AWS. This allows for a controlled switchover with minimal downtime and ensures the target environment meets SAP certification. Other options like RDS for Oracle, AWS MGN, or Snowball Edge either do not meet certification requirements, cause excessive downtime, or are not designed for database replication.

Answer

AWS Application Migration Service (AWS MGN) to replicate the entire server to EC2

Answer

AWS Snowball Edge to transfer database backups to Amazon S3 and then restore to EC2

Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) with Oracle as source and Amazon RDS for Oracle as target

Question 11

A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS with an SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance. The database is using Amazon EBS io2 volumes for data and log. The company wants to implement a disaster recovery (DR) solution that provides a recovery point objective (RPO) of less than 5 minutes and a recovery time objective (RTO) of less than 30 minutes. The DR site must be in a different AWS Region. Which solution should be implemented to meet these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Configure SAP HANA system replication (HSR) to a secondary HANA instance in the DR Region, with asynchronous replication mode, and use AWS Global Accelerator for network acceleration.. The correct answer is to configure SAP HANA system replication (HSR) to a secondary instance in the DR Region with asynchronous replication. HSR is the native SAP solution for HANA DR and can meet the RPO and RTO requirements. AWS Global Accelerator improves network performance between Regions. Other options either do not meet the RPO/RTO or are not application-consistent for HANA.

Answer

Use AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (DRS) to replicate the EC2 instance and EBS volumes to the DR Region, and perform a failover when needed.

Answer

Use Amazon S3 cross-region replication to copy SAP HANA backups to the DR Region, and restore the database from backups in the event of a disaster.

Answer

Use Amazon EBS snapshots with cross-region copy to replicate the HANA data and log volumes to the DR Region, and create new EBS volumes from snapshots during a disaster.

Question 12

A company is planning to deploy a new SAP S/4HANA system on AWS. The company wants to minimize the risk of data loss in case of a failure and needs a recovery point objective (RPO) of less than 1 minute. The system will use an SAP HANA database. Which AWS service should be used to achieve this RPO for the HANA database?

Accepted Answer

SAP HANA System Replication with synchronous mode to a secondary instance in another Availability Zone.. SAP HANA System Replication in synchronous mode provides continuous replication with an RPO of zero, ensuring that no data is lost in case of a failure. This meets the requirement of an RPO of less than 1 minute. Other options either do not provide continuous replication, are not applicable to HANA, or do not exist as described.

Answer

Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication for the HANA data and log files stored in S3.

Answer

AWS Backup with a backup plan that runs every 5 minutes.

Answer

Amazon RDS for SAP HANA with Multi-AZ deployment.

Question 13

A company is deploying SAP HANA on AWS using a scale-out architecture with multiple EC2 instances. The company needs to ensure that the HANA database can automatically recover from an Availability Zone failure with minimal data loss and downtime. Which combination of AWS services and configurations should be used?

Accepted Answer

Use SAP HANA system replication with a secondary site in another Availability Zone, and configure an overlay IP address with a cluster manager like Pacemaker.. SAP HANA system replication with a secondary site in another Availability Zone, combined with a cluster manager like Pacemaker for overlay IP management, is the standard high availability solution on AWS. It provides automatic failover and minimal data loss, meeting the requirements for scale-out deployments.

Answer

Use Amazon S3 for HANA data storage and AWS Lambda for automatic failover.

Answer

Deploy HANA scale-out across multiple Availability Zones using Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling and an Application Load Balancer.

Answer

Deploy HANA on a single EC2 instance with a large instance size and use EBS snapshots for recovery.

Question 14

A company is running SAP S/4HANA on AWS and wants to optimize costs. The production system runs 24/7, but the development and test systems are only needed during business hours (8 AM to 6 PM, Monday to Friday). The company wants to automate the start and stop of these non-production systems to reduce costs. Which solution should be used?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Instance Scheduler to automatically start and stop the EC2 instances based on a schedule.. AWS Instance Scheduler is a pre-built, serverless solution that automates the start and stop of EC2 instances based on schedules. It is designed for exactly this use case: reducing costs by running instances only during business hours. It uses tags to identify instances and supports complex schedules. Other options like cron jobs, Auto Scaling, or custom Lambda functions are either not fully automated, not suitable for stateful SAP systems, or require more effort to implement and maintain.

Answer

Use Amazon CloudWatch Events to trigger an AWS Lambda function that stops and starts the instances based on a schedule.

Answer

Create a cron job on each EC2 instance to shut down the operating system at the end of the day and start it in the morning.

Answer

Use AWS Auto Scaling to scale the instances down to zero during off-hours and scale up during business hours.

Question 15

An SAP HANA database on AWS is running on an EC2 instance with multiple EBS volumes. The company needs to ensure that the database can recover from an Availability Zone failure with minimal data loss and downtime. The current setup uses a single HANA instance with EBS volumes in one Availability Zone. Which design change should be implemented to meet these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Configure SAP HANA system replication to a secondary instance in a different Availability Zone with synchronous mode and automatic failover using an overlay IP address.. For minimal data loss and downtime during an AZ failure, SAP HANA system replication in synchronous mode to a secondary instance in another AZ is required. This provides zero data loss and enables automatic failover with an overlay IP. Other options either do not provide continuous replication or require manual restoration, leading to higher RPO and RTO.

Answer

Create an Amazon S3 bucket in the same region and configure SAP HANA backup to write redo logs directly to S3.

Answer

Use Amazon EBS snapshots replicated to another Availability Zone and restore the database from the snapshot in case of failure.

Answer

Enable Multi-AZ deployment for the EC2 instance by using an Auto Scaling group with a launch template that spans multiple Availability Zones.