PAS-C01 Technology Practice Question
A company is running a production SAP HANA database on an AWS EC2 instance with a single EBS gp3 volume. The database frequently experiences high write latency during peak hours. Which design change would MOST effectively reduce write latency?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume increasing gp3 volume size or moving to a larger instance will solve latency issues, but the core problem is the volume type's inherent latency and IOPS ceiling, not capacity or compute.
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
✓
Replace the single gp3 volume with multiple io2 Block Express volumes configured in a RAID 0 stripe.
Replacing a single gp3 volume with multiple io2 Block Express volumes in a RAID 0 stripe increases the available IOPS and reduces write latency by distributing write operations across multiple volumes in parallel. io2 Block Express volumes offer up to 256,000 IOPS per volume and sub-millisecond latency, which directly addresses the high write latency during peak hours. RAID 0 striping further aggregates the IOPS and throughput of multiple volumes, providing the performance needed for SAP HANA's demanding write workloads.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Replace the single gp3 volume with multiple io2 Block Express volumes configured in a RAID 0 stripe.
Why this is correct
io2 Block Express volumes provide very high IOPS and low latency; RAID 0 stripes I/O across volumes to maximize performance.
- ✗
Increase the size of the existing gp3 volume to maximize its baseline throughput.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing volume size can improve throughput but not necessarily reduce write latency significantly compared to using provisioned IOPS volumes.
- ✗
Migrate the database to a larger EC2 instance type with higher network bandwidth.
Why it's wrong here
Larger instance types provide more CPU/memory, but do not directly address EBS write latency.
- ✗
Move the SAP HANA database to Amazon RDS for SAP HANA.
Why it's wrong here
Amazon RDS does not support SAP HANA; SAP HANA requires direct EC2 deployment.
Quick reference
RAID Level Comparison
| RAID Level | Min Disks | Fault Tolerance | Read | Write | Usable Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RAID 0 | 2 | None | Excellent | Excellent | 100% |
| RAID 1 | 2 | 1 disk | Good | Moderate | 50% |
| RAID 5 | 3 | 1 disk | Good | Moderate | 67–94% |
| RAID 6 | 4 | 2 disks | Good | Lower | 50–88% |
| RAID 10 | 4 | 1 disk per mirror | Excellent | Good | 50% |
RAID is not a backup strategy — it protects against disk failure but not against accidental deletion, ransomware, or site-level events.
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JA
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.