PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Test 8 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A customer is running SAP NetWeaver on AWS and wants to use Amazon EFS for shared file storage for the SAP transport directory. Which access option should be used to secure the file system?

Accepted Answer

Security group. Amazon EFS uses security groups as a stateful firewall to control NFS traffic (port 2049) at the network level. For SAP transport directories, security groups allow you to restrict access to specific EC2 instances or other AWS resources that need to mount the EFS file system, providing granular network-layer security without managing individual IP addresses.

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Network ACLs

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IAM role

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S3 bucket policy

Question 2

An SAP system uses an Amazon RDS for SAP ASE database. The database is experiencing high connection timeouts. The SAP team notices that the RDS instance's maximum connections parameter is set to 500. What should be done to resolve the issue?

Accepted Answer

Modify the RDS parameter group to increase max_connections.. The high connection timeouts are caused by the max_connections parameter being set to 500, which is the default for many RDS for SAP ASE instances. Increasing this value in the RDS parameter group allows more concurrent connections to the database, directly resolving the timeout issue without changing the instance size or storage. This is the simplest and most effective fix because the database engine itself is capable of handling more connections if the parameter is adjusted.

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Upgrade the RDS instance to a larger size with more vCPUs.

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Create a read replica to offload connections.

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Increase the allocated storage for the RDS instance.

Question 3

A company is running SAP on AWS and wants to use a custom AMI for SAP application servers. They need to ensure that the AMI is encrypted using AWS KMS. Which step is required to launch encrypted instances from this AMI?

Accepted Answer

Copy the AMI and specify a KMS key for encryption.. Option D is correct because to launch encrypted instances from an unencrypted custom AMI, you must first copy the AMI and specify a KMS key for encryption during the copy process. This creates an encrypted AMI that can then be used to launch encrypted instances. AWS does not allow you to directly encrypt an existing AMI in place; the copy operation is the required mechanism.

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Use an AWS Marketplace AMI that is already encrypted.

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Use the AWS Management Console to modify the AMI to enable encryption.

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Specify the KMS key ID in the run-instances command.

Question 4

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.. AWS Backup natively supports SAP HANA as a managed backup service, allowing backups to be stored directly in Amazon S3. This provides a durable, scalable, and cost-effective backup destination without the need to manage backup infrastructure or scripts. Option B is correct because AWS Backup integrates with SAP HANA to automate full, incremental, and differential backups to S3.

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

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

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

Question 5

Which THREE factors should be considered when choosing an EC2 instance type for SAP HANA? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

The instance must have enough memory to fit the HANA database.. Option A is correct because SAP HANA is an in-memory database that loads the entire dataset into RAM for processing. The EC2 instance must have sufficient memory to accommodate the HANA database size, including overhead for system tables and temporary data, as specified in the SAP HANA memory sizing guidelines.

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The instance should have GPU accelerators for faster query processing.

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The instance must have local instance store volumes for data persistence.

Question 6

Which TWO AWS services can be used to monitor SAP system performance and send alerts? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS). Amazon CloudWatch is the primary AWS monitoring service that can collect metrics from SAP systems (e.g., via SAP Cloud Connector or custom scripts) and trigger alarms based on thresholds. Amazon SNS is the notification service that CloudWatch alarms use to send alerts via email, SMS, or HTTP endpoints. Together, they form the standard monitoring and alerting pipeline for SAP workloads on AWS.

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Amazon Inspector

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AWS Config

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AWS Trusted Advisor

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.

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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

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Enable EBS optimization on both instances

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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.

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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. The correct answer is D because 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

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Increase the SWAP space on the instance

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

Question 11

A company is implementing SAP S/4HANA on AWS and wants to ensure that the system is backed up properly. They need to back up the HANA database and the application layer. Which approach is recommended for backing up the HANA database?

Accepted Answer

Use the AWS Backint agent to back up HANA to Amazon S3. Option B is correct because Backint is the SAP-certified interface for backing up HANA to Amazon S3 via AWS Backint agent. Option A is wrong because EBS snapshots are crash-consistent but not application-consistent for HANA without additional steps. Option C is wrong because AWS Backup can orchestrate snapshots but not Backint. Option D is wrong because S3 lifecycle policies are for storage management, not backups.

Answer

Use EBS snapshots for the HANA data volumes

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Configure an S3 lifecycle policy to archive the HANA log files

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Use AWS Backup with a backup plan that includes the HANA instance

Question 12

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

Amazon Route 53 with health checks and failover routing. Amazon Route 53 with health checks and failover routing is the correct choice because SAP Central Services (ASCS) requires a DNS-level failover mechanism to redirect clients to the standby instance without relying on IP-level changes. Route 53 monitors the health of the primary ASCS instance via health checks and automatically updates DNS records to point to the secondary instance when a failure is detected, enabling automatic failover with minimal downtime.

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AWS Auto Scaling

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Amazon CloudWatch with alarms

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Elastic Load Balancer

Question 13

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.

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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

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

Question 14

A company is running SAP ERP on AWS and is experiencing high costs due to underutilized EC2 instances. The SAP system is non-production and can tolerate interruptions. Which approach would most cost-effectively reduce costs without compromising the ability to resume operations quickly?

Accepted Answer

Use EC2 Spot Instances for the application servers and configure them to be terminated gracefully. Option C is correct because EC2 Spot Instances offer significant cost savings (up to 90% compared to On-Demand) for fault-tolerant, non-production SAP workloads. By configuring graceful termination (e.g., using lifecycle hooks or AWS Systems Manager to drain SAP application server connections before the instance is interrupted), the system can resume quickly when capacity becomes available again, meeting the requirement for cost reduction without compromising rapid recovery.

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Purchase Reserved Instances for the current usage to get a discount

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Increase the instance size to improve performance and reduce runtime

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Use Dedicated Hosts to reduce licensing costs

Question 15

An SAP administrator is setting up a new SAP HANA system on AWS and needs to ensure that the system can recover from an Availability Zone failure. Which strategy should they implement for high availability?

Accepted Answer

Set up HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones. HANA System Replication (HSR) is the native SAP mechanism for achieving high availability across Availability Zones (AZs). By replicating data synchronously or synchronously in-memory to a standby instance in a different AZ, it ensures automatic failover with minimal data loss in the event of an AZ failure. This directly meets the requirement for recovery from an AZ failure without relying on storage-level or database-agnostic approaches.

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Attach multiple Elastic Network Interfaces (ENIs) to the HANA instance

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Configure the HANA database with Amazon RDS Multi-AZ

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Take EBS snapshots every hour and restore in another AZ