PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
A company is migrating an SAP HANA database to AWS. The system requires a high-performance storage solution with low latency for database files, and the storage must be scalable without downtime. Which AWS storage solution should the company use for the SAP HANA data volume?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often choose gp3 for its lower cost and good baseline performance, overlooking that SAP HANA's certification requires io2 Block Express (or io1) for production data volumes due to the need for guaranteed high IOPS and sub-millisecond latency under sustained load.
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 io2 Block Express
Amazon EBS io2 Block Express is the correct choice because it provides up to 256,000 IOPS per volume with sub-millisecond latency, meeting SAP HANA's strict performance requirements for data volumes. It also supports Elastic Volumes, allowing you to scale storage capacity and performance without downtime, which is critical for production SAP HANA systems.
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 S3
Why it's wrong here
Amazon S3 is object storage; latency is too high for SAP HANA database files.
- ✗
Amazon EBS st1
Why it's wrong here
st1 is throughput-optimized and not designed for low-latency database workloads.
- ✓
Amazon EBS io2 Block Express
Why this is correct
io2 Block Express provides up to 256000 IOPS and can be modified without downtime.
- ✗
Amazon EBS gp3
Why it's wrong here
gp3 volumes have lower maximum IOPS compared to io2.
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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