PAS-C01 Technology Practice Question
A company is implementing SAP HANA on AWS and needs to ensure that the storage configuration meets the required IOPS and throughput. The SAP HANA system uses a scale-out architecture with multiple worker nodes. Which type of Amazon EBS volume is recommended for the /hana/data and /hana/log volumes in a production environment?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates choose General Purpose SSD (gp2/gp3) thinking it is sufficient for production, but AWS and SAP documentation explicitly mandate Provisioned IOPS SSD for SAP HANA production workloads to guarantee consistent performance and meet SAP's certification requirements.
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
✓
Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1 or io2)
For SAP HANA production workloads on AWS, the /hana/data and /hana/log volumes require consistent, high IOPS and low latency. Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1 or io2) volumes are recommended because they allow you to specify a guaranteed IOPS rate independent of volume size, meeting SAP's strict performance requirements for scale-out architectures. General Purpose SSD volumes (gp2/gp3) cannot provide the sustained, predictable IOPS needed for critical SAP HANA operations, especially under burst conditions.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Throughput Optimized HDD (st1)
Why it's wrong here
Not suitable for HANA data/log due to high latency.
- ✗
General Purpose SSD (gp2 or gp3)
Why it's wrong here
Burstable, not recommended for production HANA data/log.
- ✓
Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1 or io2)
Why this is correct
Provides consistent low-latency performance required for HANA.
- ✗
Cold HDD (sc1)
Why it's wrong here
Lowest cost, but not for performance-critical HANA volumes.
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
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