PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
A company is deploying SAP S/4HANA on AWS and needs to ensure that the database and application servers are in the same placement group to minimize latency. However, the instance types required for the HANA database are not available in the same placement group due to insufficient capacity. What should the company do to maintain low latency?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates assume only a cluster placement group can provide low latency, overlooking that a spread placement group in the same Availability Zone still offers significantly lower latency than no placement group, while avoiding the capacity limitations of a cluster placement group.
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 a spread placement group instead of a cluster placement group.
A spread placement group is the correct choice because it spreads instances across distinct underlying hardware, reducing the risk of correlated failures while still keeping them in the same Availability Zone to minimize latency. Unlike a cluster placement group, which requires all instances to be on the same rack and can suffer from capacity constraints, a spread placement group does not enforce a single rack placement, so it can accommodate different instance types even when the cluster placement group lacks capacity. This ensures low latency for SAP S/4HANA communication between database and application servers without violating placement group constraints.
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 a spread placement group instead of a cluster placement group.
Why this is correct
Spread placement groups distribute instances across distinct hardware, reducing capacity issues while still minimizing latency.
- ✗
Place all instances in the same Availability Zone without a placement group.
Why it's wrong here
Without a placement group, instances may be on separate hardware, increasing latency.
- ✗
Use a different instance type for the database that is available in the placement group.
Why it's wrong here
Changing instance type may affect performance.
- ✗
Place the database in a different AWS Region and use AWS Direct Connect.
Why it's wrong here
Cross-region latency is higher.
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