PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
A company runs a large SAP ERP system on AWS. The SAP application servers are deployed across multiple Availability Zones using an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer. The SAP HANA database is a single-node instance on a large EC2 instance with EBS io1 volumes. The database experiences high write latency during peak hours. The administrator investigates and finds that the EBS volume write throughput is consistently at the maximum limit of 250 MB/s. The volume is 4 TB with 10,000 provisioned IOPS. The application servers are idle during the peak hour due to database slowness. The company needs a solution to reduce write latency without changing the application. Which solution should the administrator implement?
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
✓
Increase the provisioned IOPS on the io1 volume to 20,000
The bottleneck is write throughput at 250 MB/s, which is the maximum throughput achievable with 10,000 provisioned IOPS on an io1 volume (assuming 256 KB I/O size). By increasing the provisioned IOPS to 20,000, the throughput doubles to 500 MB/s, directly reducing write latency. Option A is incorrect because EBS Multi-Attach is designed for shared volumes in multi-node clusters, not for a single-node HANA database. Option C is incorrect because EBS-optimized instances are already enabled by default on current-generation EC2 instances; additional configuration would not increase throughput. Option D is incorrect because changing to gp3 would require a volume type conversion and might not achieve the same IOPS performance; gp3 has a maximum of 16,000 IOPS and 1,000 MB/s throughput, but the simplest and most direct fix is to increase IOPS on the existing io1 volume.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable EBS Multi-Attach and add additional EC2 instances to share the volume
Why it's wrong here
EBS Multi-Attach is intended for shared volumes across multiple instances, not for a single-node database. It adds complexity without addressing write throughput.
- ✓
Increase the provisioned IOPS on the io1 volume to 20,000
Why this is correct
Increasing provisioned IOPS on the io1 volume from 10,000 to 20,000 doubles the throughput from 250 MB/s to 500 MB/s, directly resolving the write latency issue.
- ✗
Enable EBS-optimized on the EC2 instance
Why it's wrong here
EBS-optimized instances are already enabled by default on current-generation EC2 instances. Enabling it again does not increase throughput.
- ✗
Change the volume type to gp3 and increase throughput to 500 MB/s
Why it's wrong here
While gp3 can support higher throughput, converting the volume type is unnecessary and may not provide the same IOPS consistency. The most straightforward solution is to increase IOPS on the existing io1 volume.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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