PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
A company is designing storage for an SAP HANA database on AWS. The database requires high throughput and low latency for data files. Which storage solution should be used for SAP HANA data volumes?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse the high performance of EC2 Instance Store with persistence, forgetting that SAP HANA requires durable storage for data volumes, or they overestimate the suitability of Amazon EFS or S3 for database workloads due to their scalability features, ignoring the strict latency and IOPS requirements of SAP HANA.
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 EBS gp3 or io2 volumes
Amazon EBS gp3 or io2 volumes are the correct choice for SAP HANA data volumes because they provide the high throughput, low latency, and consistent IOPS required for SAP HANA's in-memory database operations. gp3 offers baseline performance with the ability to scale independently, while io2 provides provisioned IOPS for critical workloads, both meeting SAP's certification requirements for HANA on AWS.
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 gp3 or io2 volumes
Why this is correct
EBS gp3 and io2 provide the needed performance and persistence for HANA data.
- ✗
Amazon S3
Why it's wrong here
S3 is object storage and does not meet the latency requirements for HANA data files.
- ✗
EC2 Instance Store
Why it's wrong here
Instance Store is ephemeral and data is lost on instance stop/termination.
- ✗
Amazon EFS
Why it's wrong here
EFS is a file system with higher latency than EBS block storage.
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 |
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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.