PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
A company is migrating an SAP S/4HANA system to AWS and needs to choose the storage for the HANA database. The database requires high IOPS and low latency. Which AWS storage solution is most suitable?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse high-throughput HDD volumes (st1) with high-IOPS requirements, or mistakenly think that any EBS volume type can support SAP HANA, but only io2 Block Express meets SAP's certification and the specific low-latency, high-IOPS demands.
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 volumes
Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes are designed for mission-critical SAP HANA workloads, offering up to 256,000 IOPS per volume and sub-millisecond latency. They provide 99.999% durability and are the only EBS volume type certified by SAP for production HANA databases on AWS, meeting the high IOPS and low latency requirements.
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 EFS
Why it's wrong here
EFS is file storage, not block storage.
- ✓
Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes
Why this is correct
Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes deliver up to 256,000 IOPS per volume with single-digit millisecond latency, satisfying the SAP HANA database’s requirement for high IOPS and low latency. This is achieved through a dedicated Nitro system controller that bypasses the hypervisor for storage I/O, reducing jitter and ensuring consistent performance for latency-sensitive SAP workloads.
- ✗
Amazon S3
Why it's wrong here
S3 is object storage, not suitable for database storage.
- ✗
Amazon EBS st1 volumes
Why it's wrong here
st1 is throughput-optimized, not designed for high IOPS.
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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