PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Test 5 — 15 Questions

Question 1

An SAP system on AWS is experiencing high write latency on the database layer. The DB is running on an r5.8xlarge instance with EBS gp2 volumes. The SAP team notices that the EBS volume write queue depth is frequently above 16. What is the MOST likely cause and what change should be made?

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

Accepted Answer

The volume is too small for the workload. Increase the volume size to gain baseline IOPS.. Gp2 volume baseline IOPS scales linearly with size (3 IOPS per GiB). An r5.8xlarge instance supports EBS optimization, so the bottleneck is not the instance. With a write queue depth frequently above 16, the gp2 volume is likely too small to provide sufficient baseline IOPS, causing the queue to back up. Increasing the volume size raises the baseline IOPS, reducing queue depth and write latency.

Answer

The instance type does not support EBS optimization. Switch to a network-optimized instance.

Answer

The EBS volume is not optimized for SAP. Use io1 with high provisioned IOPS.

Answer

The gp2 volume does not provide enough burst IOPS. Migrate to gp3.

Question 2

A customer wants to migrate their SAP HANA database to AWS and needs to ensure that the EBS volumes for /hana/data and /hana/log are configured for maximum throughput and low latency. Which EBS volume type should be used for /hana/data?

Accepted Answer

io2. For SAP HANA workloads on AWS, the /hana/data volume requires the highest level of IOPS and low latency to support real-time data processing. io2 Block Express volumes provide up to 256,000 IOPS and sub-millisecond latency, making them the correct choice for /hana/data. io2 volumes also offer 99.999% durability, which is critical for SAP HANA database consistency.

Answer

st1

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gp3

Answer

sc1

Question 3

An SAP system on AWS is experiencing high write latency on the database layer. The DB is running on an r5.8xlarge instance with EBS gp2 volumes. The SAP team notices that the EBS volume write queue depth is frequently above 16. What is the MOST likely cause and what change should be made?

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

Accepted Answer

Auto Scaling group. An Auto Scaling group can automatically launch new EC2 instances based on scaling policies (e.g., when CPU utilization exceeds a threshold) and, when configured with a lifecycle hook or a launch template that includes a user-data script, can register the new instance with the existing SAP system's load balancer (such as an Application Load Balancer or Classic Load Balancer). This ensures the new application server is automatically added to the load balancer target group, distributing incoming traffic without manual intervention.

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AWS Lambda

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Amazon SQS

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AWS CloudFormation

Question 4

A company is planning to run SAP S/4HANA on AWS. They need to ensure that the SAP system can be restored within 4 hours in the event of a disaster. Which AWS service should be used to achieve this recovery time objective (RTO)?

Accepted Answer

AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery. AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS) is the correct service because it provides continuous replication of SAP S/4HANA workloads with sub-second RPO and supports automated recovery orchestration, enabling restoration within the 4-hour RTO. It is the direct successor to CloudEndure Disaster Recovery and is purpose-built for enterprise applications like SAP, offering non-disruptive testing and fast failover to a secondary AWS Region or Availability Zone.

Answer

EBS snapshots copied to another region

Answer

AWS CloudEndure Disaster Recovery

Answer

Amazon S3 cross-region replication

Question 5

An SAP customer is using AWS KMS to encrypt EBS volumes for an SAP HANA database. The database administrator reports that the database is slow after enabling encryption. What is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The KMS API request rate limit is being exceeded, causing throttling.. When EBS volumes are encrypted, every I/O operation to the volume must call AWS KMS to decrypt the data key. If the database workload generates a high rate of these requests, it can exceed the KMS API request rate limit (default 5,500 requests per second per Region for symmetric keys), causing throttling and increased latency. This is the most likely cause of the observed slowdown after enabling encryption.

Answer

The KMS key is not rotated frequently enough.

Answer

The EBS volume is not using the correct instance type for encrypted volumes.

Answer

The KMS key is using a symmetric algorithm that degrades CPU performance.

Question 6

Which TWO statements are correct regarding SAP HANA backup strategies on AWS? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

S3 can be used as a backup destination for SAP HANA using AWS Backup.. Option B is correct because AWS Backup supports SAP HANA as a protected resource and can store HANA backups in Amazon S3, giving a durable, off-instance backup destination that integrates with backup plans and lifecycle policies. Option D is correct because EBS snapshots capture point-in-time block-level copies of the HANA data and log volumes, enabling rapid restore of the database volumes (for example, by creating new volumes from snapshots) and thus fast recovery. Option A is not correct because EBS snapshots are not the most cost-effective choice for long-term retention; S3 storage classes or archive tiers are cheaper for long-term archival. Option C is not correct because S3 Standard-IA is a single-region storage class and is not the optimal or intended mechanism for cross-region replication; S3 Cross-Region Replication or S3 Glacier tiers would be more appropriate. Option E is not correct because backing up HANA to EBS volumes is not the recommended long-term archival method; HANA backups should be written to durable object storage such as S3 or to a backup tool like AWS Backup, not kept on EBS volumes.

Answer

EBS snapshots are the most cost-effective option for long-term backup retention.

Answer

S3 Standard-IA storage class is optimal for cross-region replication.

Answer

SAP HANA backup to EBS volumes is the recommended method for long-term archival.

Question 7

A company is migrating its SAP HANA database to AWS and needs to choose the most appropriate EC2 instance type. The workload requires high memory bandwidth and is CPU-intensive. Which instance family would best meet these requirements?

Accepted Answer

X1e instance family. The X1e instance family is purpose-built for high-memory, CPU-intensive SAP HANA workloads, offering up to 3.9 TB of memory and high memory bandwidth per vCPU. This aligns with SAP HANA's requirement for large in-memory databases and compute-intensive processing, making D the correct choice.

Answer

M5 instance family

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I3 instance family

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C5 instance family

Question 8

An SAP Basis administrator notices that the SAP application server on an EC2 instance is experiencing intermittent high latency when writing to the SAP HANA database. The HANA database is on a separate EC2 instance in the same VPC and Availability Zone. Which configuration change is most likely to resolve the issue?

Accepted Answer

Enable Jumbo Frames on the network interfaces. The intermittent high latency when writing to SAP HANA is likely caused by network packet fragmentation. Enabling Jumbo Frames (MTU 9001) on the network interfaces of both the SAP application server and the HANA database EC2 instances reduces the number of packets required for large data transfers, lowers CPU overhead for packet processing, and improves throughput. This is a standard recommendation for SAP on AWS to optimize network performance between application and database layers.

Answer

Launch the instances in a cluster placement group

Answer

Enable EBS optimization on both instances

Answer

Change the Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) to SR-IOV

Question 9

A company is designing a highly available SAP NetWeaver system on AWS. They plan to use a two-node ASCS/ERS cluster with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES). Which AWS service is required to manage the virtual IP address for the cluster?

Accepted Answer

Amazon Route 53. Amazon Route 53 is required to manage the virtual IP address for the two-node ASCS/ERS cluster by using DNS failover. In a SLES-based SAP NetWeaver cluster on AWS, the cluster software (e.g., Pacemaker) updates a Route 53 DNS record with the private IP address of the active node, enabling clients to connect via a hostname that resolves to the current primary node. This DNS-based approach replaces traditional virtual IP (VIP) floating, which is not natively supported in AWS VPC due to the lack of gratuitous ARP or multicast.

Answer

AWS VPC Peering

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Amazon EBS

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Elastic Load Balancing

Question 10

An SAP administrator is troubleshooting a performance issue on an SAP HANA database running on an r5.24xlarge instance. The database is I/O bound during high load periods. The administrator has already verified that the EBS volumes are not saturated. What should the administrator check next?

Accepted Answer

Check the Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) settings and consider tuning the ring buffer size. On an r5.24xlarge instance, EBS optimization is always enabled by default, so verifying it again is unnecessary. The issue is I/O bound during high load, but EBS volumes are not saturated, indicating the bottleneck is likely at the network layer. The Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) ring buffer size can become overwhelmed under high network traffic, causing packet drops and increased latency, which manifests as I/O wait. Tuning the ring buffer size (e.g., using `ethtool -G eth0 rx 4096 tx 4096`) can reduce drops and improve throughput for SAP HANA's network-intensive operations.

Answer

Verify that EBS optimization is enabled

Answer

Increase the SWAP space on the instance

Answer

Upgrade to a compute-optimized instance like c5.24xlarge

Question 11

A company is planning to run SAP Business Suite on AWS. They want to minimize downtime during a failover scenario. Which AWS feature should they use to achieve automatic failover of the SAP Central Services (ASCS) instance?

Accepted Answer

Elastic Load Balancer. For automatic failover of SAP Central Services (ASCS) within a region, a Network Load Balancer (NLB) with health checks is the standard solution. The NLB provides a static IP address that can be used as the virtual IP (VIP) for ASCS. Health checks monitor the primary ASCS instance, and if it fails, the NLB automatically routes traffic to the standby instance. This provides fast, IP-level failover without the DNS propagation delays associated with Route 53. While Route 53 can be used for disaster recovery across regions, it is not the primary mechanism for intra-region ASCS failover.

Answer

AWS Auto Scaling

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Amazon CloudWatch with alarms

Answer

Amazon Route 53 with health checks and failover routing

Question 12

An SAP administrator needs to migrate an on-premises SAP HANA system to AWS. The total size of the HANA data and log volumes is 5 TB. The administrator wants to minimize downtime and use the fastest possible initial data transfer method. Which approach should they use?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Snowball Edge to physically ship the data. AWS Snowball Edge provides a physical data transfer device that can be shipped to the on-premises site, loaded with the 5 TB of SAP HANA data and log volumes, and then shipped back to AWS for ingestion into an S3 bucket. This approach offers the fastest initial transfer for large datasets (multi-TB) over a WAN, as it bypasses network bandwidth limitations entirely, minimizing downtime compared to internet-based or dedicated network transfers.

Answer

Use Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration to upload the data over the internet

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Use AWS Direct Connect to transfer the data over a dedicated network connection

Answer

Use VPC Peering to connect on-premises to AWS and copy data

Question 13

A company is deploying a mission-critical SAP S/4HANA system on AWS. They need to ensure the highest level of availability and minimize data loss. Which TWO strategies should they implement? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Set up HANA System Replication in synchronous mode across two Availability Zones. Option D is correct because SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) in synchronous mode guarantees zero data loss (RPO=0) by committing transactions only after they are replicated to the secondary node, and placing the secondary in a different Availability Zone provides high availability against AZ failure. Option E is correct because clustering the ASCS and PAS instances with Pacemaker across AZs enables automatic failover of the SAP central services and application servers, eliminating single points of failure and meeting the highest availability requirement for a mission-critical S/4HANA deployment. Option A is not appropriate because EC2 Spot Instances can be reclaimed by AWS with little notice, which is unacceptable for a mission-critical primary application server. Option B is insufficient because 5-minute EBS snapshots leave a data-loss window of up to 5 minutes and do not provide automatic failover. Option C is incorrect because SAP HANA does not run on Amazon RDS Multi-AZ; HANA requires EC2-based deployments with HSR or similar HA mechanisms.

Answer

Use EC2 Spot Instances for the primary application server

Answer

Configure automated EBS snapshots every 5 minutes

Answer

Use Amazon RDS Multi-AZ for the HANA database

Question 14

A company is planning to migrate its SAP landscape to AWS. They want to use AWS services to reduce operational overhead. Which TWO services can help automate the deployment and configuration of SAP systems? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

AWS Launch Wizard for SAP. AWS Launch Wizard for SAP (A) is correct because it provides a guided, automated deployment experience that sizes, configures, and provisions SAP systems and SAP HANA on AWS according to AWS and SAP best practices, directly reducing operational overhead. AWS CloudFormation (D) is correct because it lets you model the entire SAP infrastructure as code in templates and automate repeatable, consistent stack deployments and updates. Amazon CloudWatch (B) is a monitoring and observability service, not a deployment or configuration automation tool. AWS Systems Manager (C) focuses on operational management of existing instances (patching, run commands, inventory) rather than automating the initial deployment and configuration of SAP systems. Amazon WorkSpaces (E) is a managed virtual desktop service (VDI) and has no role in deploying or configuring SAP landscapes.

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch

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AWS Systems Manager

Answer

Amazon WorkSpaces

Question 15

An SAP administrator needs to configure high availability for SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP. They plan to use AWS services. Which combination of services is required?

Accepted Answer

Amazon EFS and Pacemaker on EC2. SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP high availability on AWS requires shared storage for the /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans directories, which Amazon EFS provides via NFSv4, and a cluster manager like Pacemaker on EC2 to orchestrate failover between the primary and secondary application servers. This combination ensures that the SAP central services (ASCS and ERS) can fail over seamlessly in the event of an instance or availability zone failure.

Answer

AWS Global Accelerator and Auto Scaling

Answer

Elastic Load Balancing and Amazon Route 53

Answer

Amazon EBS Multi-Attach volumes