This PAS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of design of sap workloads on aws. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company is migrating an SAP ERP system to AWS and wants to use SAP HANA as the database. The current on-premises database is 4 TB. Which EC2 instance type is optimized for SAP HANA workloads and provides sufficient memory?
x1e.32xlarge
x1e.32xlarge offers 4 TB of memory, SAP HANA certified.
r5.24xlarge
Why wrong: r5 offers up to 768 GB memory, not 4 TB.
m5.24xlarge
Why wrong: m5 is general-purpose, insufficient memory.
c5.18xlarge
Why wrong: c5 is compute-optimized, not suitable for HANA.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
x1e.32xlarge
The x1e.32xlarge instance is specifically optimized for SAP HANA workloads, offering 3,904 GiB of memory, which is sufficient for a 4 TB SAP HANA database when considering the 1:5 memory-to-data ratio required by SAP (4 TB data requires approximately 800 GB memory, but the x1e.32xlarge provides ample headroom for growth and workload peaks). It also supports SAP HANA certified instance types and provides high network and EBS throughput essential for HANA's performance demands.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
x1e.32xlarge
Why this is correct
x1e.32xlarge offers 4 TB of memory, SAP HANA certified.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
r5.24xlarge
Why it's wrong here
r5 offers up to 768 GB memory, not 4 TB.
m5.24xlarge
Why it's wrong here
m5 is general-purpose, insufficient memory.
c5.18xlarge
Why it's wrong here
c5 is compute-optimized, not suitable for HANA.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often choose the r5.24xlarge because it is memory-optimized and has a high memory-to-vCPU ratio, but they overlook that it is not SAP HANA certified for production workloads and its 768 GiB memory is insufficient for a 4 TB database, as SAP requires a minimum memory-to-data ratio of 1:5 (and often 1:2 for production).
Detailed technical explanation
SAP HANA is an in-memory database, meaning the entire dataset must reside in RAM for optimal performance; the x1e.32xlarge uses Intel Xeon E7-8880 v4 processors with up to 3,904 GiB of memory, supporting the SAP HANA 1:5 memory-to-data ratio (e.g., 4 TB data needs ~800 GB memory, but SAP recommends 1:2 for production). Under the hood, the x1e instances feature a large L3 cache and high memory bandwidth, which reduces latency for HANA's columnar storage and compression algorithms. In real-world scenarios, a 4 TB SAP HANA database on x1e.32xlarge can handle high transaction volumes and complex analytics without memory pressure, while also allowing for future data growth without immediate instance resizing.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.
What to study next
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FAQ
Design of SAP Workloads on AWS — This question tests Design of SAP Workloads on AWS — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: x1e.32xlarge — The x1e.32xlarge instance is specifically optimized for SAP HANA workloads, offering 3,904 GiB of memory, which is sufficient for a 4 TB SAP HANA database when considering the 1:5 memory-to-data ratio required by SAP (4 TB data requires approximately 800 GB memory, but the x1e.32xlarge provides ample headroom for growth and workload peaks). It also supports SAP HANA certified instance types and provides high network and EBS throughput essential for HANA's performance demands.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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.
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