PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
A company is designing an SAP HANA disaster recovery (DR) solution on AWS. The primary site is in us-east-1, and the DR site is in us-west-2. The RPO is 15 minutes, and the RTO is 2 hours. Which AWS service should be used for replicating the SAP HANA database to the DR site?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse backup replication (S3 CRR or EBS snapshots) with live database replication, failing to recognize that SAP HANA System Replication is the only AWS-supported method that provides the required RPO by replicating transactional logs in near real-time.
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
✓
SAP HANA System Replication with log shipping using Amazon S3 or direct VPN connection.
SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) is the native, SAP-supported mechanism for real-time database replication, capable of achieving sub-minute RPOs by continuously shipping log entries to a secondary system. When combined with a direct VPN connection or Amazon S3 as a log shipping target, it meets the 15-minute RPO and 2-hour RTO requirements for disaster recovery across AWS regions. This is the only option that provides synchronous or near-synchronous replication of the HANA database itself, not just backups or snapshots.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
SAP HANA System Replication with log shipping using Amazon S3 or direct VPN connection.
Why this is correct
SAP HANA System Replication provides synchronous or asynchronous replication with low RPO.
- ✗
Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication for database backup files.
Why it's wrong here
Replication of backups adds latency and cannot meet RPO.
- ✗
Amazon EBS snapshots replicated to us-west-2 via Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager.
Why it's wrong here
EBS snapshots are point-in-time and cannot achieve 15-minute RPO.
- ✗
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication.
Why it's wrong here
DMS is not optimized for SAP HANA continuous replication with low RPO.
Visual reference
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
About these practice questions
This PAS-C01 question is part of Courseiva's 1,616-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PAS-C01 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the PAS-C01 exam.