PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
A company is running SAP HANA on AWS. They want to ensure that the database is backed up automatically and the backups are stored securely and durably. Which AWS service should be used to store the backup files?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse Amazon EBS Snapshots (Option A) as the default backup mechanism for SAP HANA on AWS, but EBS Snapshots are not suitable for SAP HANA database-level backups because they capture the entire volume state and do not integrate with SAP HANA's backup catalog or support point-in-time recovery of the database itself.
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
✓
Amazon S3
Amazon S3 is the correct service for storing SAP HANA backup files because it provides a highly durable (99.999999999% durability), scalable, and secure object storage platform. SAP HANA supports backing up directly to S3 using the Backint agent or via third-party backup tools, and S3 offers features like server-side encryption (SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS) and lifecycle policies for cost-effective long-term retention.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon EBS Snapshots
Why it's wrong here
Snapshots are not direct backup files accessible via S3 API.
- ✗
Amazon RDS
Why it's wrong here
RDS is a managed database service, not for storing backup files.
- ✗
Amazon Elastic File System
Why it's wrong here
EFS is a file system, not designed for backup archives.
- ✓
Amazon S3
Why this is correct
S3 is ideal for storing backup files with high durability.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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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.