PAS-C01 Technology Practice Question
A company runs its SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance (r5.8xlarge) with 8 EBS gp2 volumes (1 TB each) in a RAID 0 stripe. The database is critical and requires high availability. The current architecture uses a single EC2 instance in one Availability Zone. The company wants to implement a disaster recovery solution with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 4 hours. The DR site must be in a different AWS Region. The SAP HANA database size is 4 TB. The company has a 1 Gbps Direct Connect connection between the primary and DR Regions. The database workload is write-intensive with an average write throughput of 200 MB/s. Which solution meets the RPO and RTO requirements?
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
✓
Set up HANA System Replication (HSR) in asynchronous mode from the primary to a secondary EC2 instance in the DR Region. Use the same instance type and EBS configuration. In case of failure, perform a HSR takeover.
HANA System Replication (HSR) in asynchronous mode can achieve an RPO of seconds, well within the 15-minute requirement. The 1 Gbps Direct Connect connection, with HANA's built-in compression, can handle the 200 MB/s write throughput (approximately 1.6 Gbps uncompressed, compressed to ~800 Mbps or less). Using the same instance type and EBS RAID 0 configuration ensures performance parity after takeover. HSR takeover can be completed in minutes, meeting the 4-hour RTO. Option B is incorrect because EBS snapshots of a RAID array require stopping I/O for consistency, and taking snapshots every 15 minutes is impractical; restoring 4 TB from snapshots would significantly exceed the 4-hour RTO. Option C is incorrect because backing up to S3 every 15 minutes can impact database performance, and restoring from S3 takes longer than 4 hours due to data transfer and re-import time. Option D is incorrect because AWS DMS does not natively support SAP HANA as a target for continuous replication; it is designed for heterogeneous migrations, not HANA-specific replication.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Set up HANA System Replication (HSR) in asynchronous mode from the primary to a secondary EC2 instance in the DR Region. Use the same instance type and EBS configuration. In case of failure, perform a HSR takeover.
Why this is correct
HANA System Replication (HSR) in asynchronous mode can achieve an RPO of seconds, well within the 15-minute requirement. The 1 Gbps Direct Connect connection, with HANA's built-in compression, can handle the 200 MB/s write throughput (approximately 1.6 Gbps uncompressed, compressed to ~800 Mbps or less). Using the same instance type and EBS RAID 0 configuration ensures performance parity after takeover. HSR takeover can be completed in minutes, meeting the 4-hour RTO. Option A is correct.
- ✗
Take EBS snapshots of the RAID array every 15 minutes and replicate them to the DR Region using EBS snapshot copy. In the DR Region, restore the snapshots to new volumes and attach them to a new EC2 instance.
Why it's wrong here
EBS snapshots of a RAID array require stopping I/O for consistency, and taking snapshots every 15 minutes is impractical; restoring 4 TB from snapshots would significantly exceed the 4-hour RTO. Option B is incorrect.
- ✗
Back up the HANA database to Amazon S3 every 15 minutes using the HANA backup tool, and set up cross-Region replication for the S3 bucket. In the DR Region, restore the latest backup to a new EC2 instance.
Why it's wrong here
Backing up to S3 every 15 minutes can impact database performance, and restoring from S3 takes longer than 4 hours due to data transfer and re-import time. Option C is incorrect.
- ✗
Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to continuously replicate changes to a target HANA database in the DR Region.
Why it's wrong here
AWS DMS does not natively support SAP HANA as a target for continuous replication; it is designed for heterogeneous migrations, not HANA-specific replication. Option D is incorrect.
Visual reference
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 |
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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