PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
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 running SAP ERP on AWS and is experiencing high costs due to underutilized EC2 instances. The SAP system is non-production and can tolerate interruptions. Which approach would most cost-effectively reduce costs without compromising the ability to resume operations quickly?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use EC2 Spot Instances for the application servers and configure them to be terminated gracefully
Option C is correct because EC2 Spot Instances offer significant cost savings (up to 90% compared to On-Demand) for fault-tolerant, non-production SAP workloads. By configuring graceful termination (e.g., using lifecycle hooks or AWS Systems Manager to drain SAP application server connections before the instance is interrupted), the system can resume quickly when capacity becomes available again, meeting the requirement for cost reduction without compromising rapid recovery.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Purchase Reserved Instances for the current usage to get a discount
Why it's wrong here
Reserved Instances require a 1- or 3-year commitment and may not be cost-effective if usage changes.
✗
Increase the instance size to improve performance and reduce runtime
Why it's wrong here
Larger instances cost more, not less.
✓
Use EC2 Spot Instances for the application servers and configure them to be terminated gracefully
Why this is correct
Spot Instances offer significant cost savings and can be interrupted, which is acceptable for non-production systems.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use Dedicated Hosts to reduce licensing costs
Why it's wrong here
Dedicated Hosts are generally more expensive and not needed for non-production.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often assume Reserved Instances are always the best cost-saving option, but the question explicitly states the workload is non-production and can tolerate interruptions, making Spot Instances the most cost-effective choice despite their potential for interruption.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Spot Instances use spare EC2 capacity and can be reclaimed with a 2-minute warning via the EC2 Spot Instance Interruption Notice. For SAP application servers, you can implement a custom script that catches the interruption notice (e.g., via the instance metadata endpoint at http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/spot/instance-action) and gracefully deregisters the instance from the SAP load balancer or enqueue replication, ensuring no data loss and fast reattachment when a new Spot Instance launches. In practice, combining Spot Instances with a mixed-instances policy in an Auto Scaling group allows the system to automatically replace interrupted instances, maintaining availability while minimizing costs.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Design of SAP Workloads on AWS — This question tests Design of SAP Workloads on AWS — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use EC2 Spot Instances for the application servers and configure them to be terminated gracefully — Option C is correct because EC2 Spot Instances offer significant cost savings (up to 90% compared to On-Demand) for fault-tolerant, non-production SAP workloads. By configuring graceful termination (e.g., using lifecycle hooks or AWS Systems Manager to drain SAP application server connections before the instance is interrupted), the system can resume quickly when capacity becomes available again, meeting the requirement for cost reduction without compromising rapid recovery.
What should I do if I get this PAS-C01 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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