PAS-C01 SAP HANA System Replication Practice Question
A company is running SAP HANA on AWS with a single Availability Zone (AZ). They want to improve high availability (HA) by deploying across multiple AZs. Which THREE components must be configured to support a multi-AZ SAP HANA HA setup? (Select THREE.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse the need for a load balancer with DNS failover, thinking Route 53 health checks alone are sufficient. However, for the application tier, a load balancer is essential to distribute traffic across AZs and handle failures automatically.
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
✓
Elastic Load Balancer (ALB or NLB) for the SAP application tier
To achieve multi-AZ high availability for SAP HANA on AWS, three core components are required. First, SAP HANA System Replication must be configured to replicate data synchronously or asynchronously across AZs, ensuring database failover capability. Second, a shared file system (e.g., Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP or Amazon EFS) is needed for directories like /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans so that all application servers can access consistent files after failover. Third, an Elastic Load Balancer (ALB or NLB) distributes traffic to SAP application servers across AZs, enabling automatic failover at the application tier. Option A (Route 53 health checks) is a DNS-level component that can support failover but is not a direct requirement for the multi-AZ HA architecture itself; it is often used in conjunction but not considered a core component. Option C (CloudFront) is a CDN service and has no role in SAP HA.
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 Route 53 health checks for automatic failover
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. While Amazon Route 53 health checks can be used for DNS failover, they are not a core component required to support multi-AZ SAP HANA HA. The primary components are SAP HANA System Replication, shared file system, and a load balancer.
- ✓
Elastic Load Balancer (ALB or NLB) for the SAP application tier
Why this is correct
Correct. An Elastic Load Balancer (ALB or NLB) is essential to distribute traffic to SAP application servers across multiple AZs, ensuring that if one AZ fails, traffic is routed to healthy servers in another AZ.
- ✗
Amazon CloudFront distribution in front of the application servers
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network (CDN) and is not relevant to SAP HANA HA architecture. It does not provide load balancing or failover for SAP applications.
- ✓
SAP HANA System Replication across AZs
Why this is correct
Correct. SAP HANA System Replication must be configured across AZs to replicate the database synchronously or asynchronously, enabling automatic failover of the HANA database.
- ✓
Shared file system such as Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP for /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans
Why this is correct
Correct. A shared file system such as Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP or Amazon EFS is required to host /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans directories, ensuring that all application servers can access the same files after failover.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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