PAS-C01 Dedicated Host Practice Question
A company is migrating a critical application to AWS using a lift-and-shift strategy. The application has a legacy licensing model tied to specific hardware IDs. The company has already migrated the application to an Amazon EC2 instance but the license validation fails because the hardware ID changed. What is the MOST cost-effective and least disruptive solution?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is that candidates may think AWS License Manager (Option D) can bind licenses to hardware IDs, but License Manager manages licenses based on instance types, vCPUs, or dedicated hosts—it does not create hardware tokens to emulate an original hardware ID. Dedicated Hosts (Option B) are the correct approach for preserving hardware-specific licensing.
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
✓
Provision a Dedicated Host and associate the instance with it to control hardware IDs.
Provisioned Dedicated Hosts provide a consistent hardware ID for the EC2 instance, as the instance runs on a specific physical server. This allows the legacy license to validate against the same hardware ID after migration, without modifying the application or reverting the migration. It is the most cost-effective and least disruptive solution, as it avoids re-architecture or application changes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Revert the migration and keep the application on-premises with a VPN connection to AWS for other services.
Why it's wrong here
Reverting the migration is disruptive and costly, and does not solve the need to run the application in AWS. A VPN does not address the licensing issue.
- ✓
Provision a Dedicated Host and associate the instance with it to control hardware IDs.
Why this is correct
A Dedicated Host ensures the EC2 instance runs on a consistent physical server, preserving the hardware ID. This is the most cost-effective and least disruptive option.
- ✗
Modify the application's license file to accept the new hardware ID.
Why it's wrong here
Modifying the license file may violate licensing agreements, is unreliable, and may not be supported by the vendor. It also introduces security risks.
- ✗
Use AWS License Manager to create a hardware-based license token that matches the original hardware ID.
Why it's wrong here
AWS License Manager cannot create a hardware-based token that matches the original hardware ID. It manages licenses based on instance attributes but does not emulate hardware IDs, so it will not resolve the validation failure.
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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.