PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
A company is running SAP ERP on AWS. The SAP application servers are in private subnets, and the database is in a separate private subnet. The company needs to allow the application servers to communicate with the database. Which AWS networking component should be configured to allow this traffic?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse Network ACLs (subnet-level, stateless) with Security Groups (instance-level, stateful) and incorrectly choose a Network ACL because they think it is required for inter-subnet traffic, not realizing that security groups can reference each other across subnets within the same VPC.
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
✓
Security Group rules allowing traffic between the security groups.
Security groups act as a virtual firewall for instances, and you can reference another security group as a source in inbound rules. This allows the application servers' security group to be specified as the source for the database security group's inbound rule, enabling traffic between the subnets without exposing the database to the entire subnet. This is the most secure and AWS-recommended method for controlling traffic between instances within the same VPC.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
VPC Peering connection between subnets.
Why it's wrong here
VPC Peering is for different VPCs.
- ✗
Internet Gateway
Why it's wrong here
Internet Gateway provides internet access, not internal communication.
- ✗
Network ACL with inbound rules for the database subnet.
Why it's wrong here
Network ACL is stateless and less secure.
- ✓
Security Group rules allowing traffic between the security groups.
Why this is correct
Security Groups allow stateful traffic between instances.
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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.