PAS-C01 Technology Practice Question
A company is deploying SAP S/4HANA on AWS and needs to choose a storage solution for the HANA data volume that provides high IOPS and low latency. Which TWO storage options are suitable? (Choose TWO.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently choose gp2 volumes because they are SSD-based and cheaper, failing to recognize that gp2's burst model cannot sustain the consistent high IOPS and low latency that SAP HANA demands, and that only io2 Block Express or instance store are SAP-certified for HANA data volumes.
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
✓
Amazon EC2 instance store (NVMe SSD)
Amazon EC2 instance store (NVMe SSD) provides very high IOPS and ultra-low latency because it is physically attached to the host server, making it ideal for SAP HANA data volumes that require consistent, sub-millisecond performance. Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes deliver up to 256,000 IOPS per volume with single-digit millisecond latency and 99.999% durability, meeting SAP HANA's demanding storage performance 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.
- ✗
Amazon EBS gp2 volumes
Why it's wrong here
gp2 volumes are burstable and do not provide consistent high IOPS required for HANA.
- ✓
Amazon EC2 instance store (NVMe SSD)
Why this is correct
Instance store provides very low latency and high IOPS, but data is ephemeral; often used for /hana/log.
- ✓
Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes
Why this is correct
io2 Block Express volumes offer very high IOPS and low latency, suitable for HANA.
- ✗
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)
Why it's wrong here
EFS is a file system with higher latency, not suitable for HANA data volumes.
- ✗
Amazon S3
Why it's wrong here
S3 is object storage, not block-level, cannot be used as a database volume.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
Related to this question
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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