PAS-C01 Technology Practice Question
A company is deploying a new SAP S/4HANA system on AWS. The system will be used by 500 concurrent users. The SAP application server and the HANA database will run on separate EC2 instances. The company needs to ensure that the database instance has enough memory for the HANA database, which requires 512 GB of RAM. The application server requires 32 vCPUs and 128 GB of RAM. The company wants to minimize costs while meeting these requirements. Which combination of EC2 instance types should the company choose?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use an r5.24xlarge for the database and an r5.8xlarge for the application server.
The HANA database requires 512 GB of RAM. The r5.24xlarge provides 768 GB of RAM and 96 vCPUs, which is sufficient and cost-effective for the database. The r5.8xlarge provides 32 vCPUs and 256 GB of RAM, meeting the application server's requirements of 32 vCPUs and 128 GB. Option A uses an r5.12xlarge (384 GB RAM) for the database, which is insufficient for 512 GB. Option B uses an x1e.8xlarge (244 GB RAM) for the database, also insufficient. Option C uses an x1e.32xlarge (976 GB RAM) for the database, which is overkill and more expensive, and the m5.8xlarge (32 vCPUs, 128 GB RAM) for the application is adequate but the database choice increases cost unnecessarily. Therefore, D minimizes cost while meeting requirements.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use an r5.12xlarge for the database and an m5.4xlarge for the application server.
Why it's wrong here
r5.12xlarge has 384 GB, insufficient.
- ✗
Use an x1e.8xlarge for the database and an r5.8xlarge for the application server.
Why it's wrong here
x1e.8xlarge has only 244 GB, insufficient.
- ✗
Use an x1e.32xlarge for the database and an m5.8xlarge for the application server.
Why it's wrong here
x1e.32xlarge is expensive and overkill for 512 GB.
- ✓
Use an r5.24xlarge for the database and an r5.8xlarge for the application server.
Why this is correct
r5.24xlarge has 768 GB, sufficient; r5.8xlarge has 32 vCPU and 256 GB, sufficient.
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