PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
A company is planning to migrate its SAP ERP system to AWS. The database is SAP HANA with a size of 3 TB. The company wants to minimize downtime during the migration. Which migration strategy should the company use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume AWS DMS or backup/restore services are suitable for SAP HANA migrations, but DMS does not support HANA as a target, and backup/restore methods cause significant downtime, whereas HANA System Replication is the only AWS-recommended approach for near-zero downtime migrations.
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
✓
Use HANA System Replication to replicate the database to an EC2 instance running HANA in the target AWS environment, then perform a takeover.
HANA System Replication (HSR) is the optimal strategy for minimizing downtime because it continuously replicates data from the on-premises HANA database to an EC2 instance running HANA in AWS. When the migration window opens, a simple takeover (failover) occurs, typically completing in minutes, which meets the requirement for minimal downtime. This approach avoids the lengthy export/import or backup/restore processes that would take hours for a 3 TB database.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use HANA System Replication to replicate the database to an EC2 instance running HANA in the target AWS environment, then perform a takeover.
Why this is correct
HSR provides continuous replication with minimal downtime during the final switchover.
- ✗
Export the HANA database to flat files using SAP HANA Studio, upload the files to Amazon S3, and import them into an EC2 HANA instance.
Why it's wrong here
Export/import is time-consuming and requires significant downtime.
- ✗
Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication to migrate the database to Amazon RDS for SAP HANA.
Why it's wrong here
DMS does not support SAP HANA as a source or target.
- ✗
Use AWS Backup to take a full backup of the on-premises HANA database and restore it to an EC2 instance in AWS.
Why it's wrong here
Backup and restore involves longer downtime due to backup and restore times.
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