PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Question
A company runs SAP BusinessObjects on AWS. The system includes a web application server and a CMS database on separate EC2 instances. The operations team receives alerts that the CMS database server's EBS volume is approaching its maximum capacity. The volume is a gp3 EBS volume with 3000 IOPS and 125 MB/s throughput. Upon investigation, the team finds that the volume is 90% full and write performance has degraded. The application is experiencing slow response times. What should the team do to resolve the issue without downtime?
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
✓
Expand the EBS volume size and extend the file system.
Expanding the EBS volume size increases both capacity and, for gp3, the baseline throughput (since gp3 throughput scales with volume size up to a maximum), which can resolve the capacity issue and improve write performance. This operation can be performed online without downtime. Option A is incorrect because instance store volumes are ephemeral and not suitable for persistent database data; migrating would also require downtime. Option B is incorrect because while io2 Block Express offers higher performance, it is not necessary for this scenario and may increase cost unnecessarily; the primary issue is capacity, which can be addressed by expanding the existing volume. Option C is incorrect because increasing only IOPS and throughput does not add storage capacity; the volume is 90% full, so capacity must also be increased.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Move the database to an instance store volume for better performance.
Why it's wrong here
Instance store is ephemeral; data would be lost on stop/terminate.
- ✗
Migrate the database to an io2 Block Express volume with higher performance.
Why it's wrong here
This does not address capacity issue and may require downtime.
- ✗
Increase the IOPS and throughput of the existing volume.
Why it's wrong here
This helps performance but not capacity; the volume is still 90% full.
- ✓
Expand the EBS volume size and extend the file system.
Why this is correct
Expanding volume increases capacity and improves performance; online resize is possible.
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 |
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 1,616 original PAS-C01 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.