PAS-C01 Technology Practice Question
A company is running SAP HANA on an EC2 instance. The storage is configured with multiple EBS volumes striped using LVM. The SAP administrator notices that disk I/O latency spikes during peak hours. Which change would MOST effectively reduce latency without incurring additional cost?
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 an EBS-optimized EC2 instance type
Using an EBS-optimized EC2 instance provides dedicated network bandwidth for EBS I/O, which reduces contention and latency without additional cost if the instance type already supports it. Option A is incorrect because increasing the size of EBS volumes does not directly reduce latency. Option B is incorrect because provisioning additional IOPS incurs extra cost, contradicting the requirement. Option C is incorrect because switching to RAID 0 striping improves throughput but does not lower latency.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the size of the EBS volumes
Why it's wrong here
Increasing volume size can improve throughput but does not directly reduce latency.
- ✗
Provision additional IOPS on the EBS volumes
Why it's wrong here
Provisioned IOPS increases cost and may not address latency spikes from network contention.
- ✗
Switch from LVM to RAID 0 striping
Why it's wrong here
RAID 0 can improve throughput but may not reduce latency.
- ✓
Use an EBS-optimized EC2 instance type
Why this is correct
EBS-optimized instances provide dedicated bandwidth to EBS, reducing latency.
Visual reference
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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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.