PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
This PAS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of design of sap workloads on aws. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company runs SAP ERP on AWS. The system needs to be highly available with automatic failover in case of an Availability Zone failure. Which architecture should be used?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
SAP HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones with automatic failover
SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) across two Availability Zones with automatic failover is the correct architecture because it provides synchronous or asynchronous replication of the SAP HANA database at the storage or log level, enabling automatic failover to a standby instance in a different AZ when the primary fails. This meets the requirement for high availability and automatic failover during an AZ failure, as HSR is the native SAP mechanism for database-level HA on AWS, unlike generic AWS services that do not handle SAP-specific application state or replication requirements.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Route 53 failover routing policy
Why it's wrong here
Route 53 handles DNS failover, not application automatic failover.
✗
Auto Scaling group with multiple EC2 instances in different AZs
Why it's wrong here
Auto Scaling is for scaling, not automatic failover for SAP.
✓
SAP HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones with automatic failover
Why this is correct
HANA SR across AZs provides automatic failover for HA.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
AWS RDS Multi-AZ deployment
Why it's wrong here
RDS Multi-AZ is for Amazon RDS, not SAP HANA.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse generic AWS high-availability services (like Auto Scaling or RDS Multi-AZ) with SAP-specific requirements, failing to recognize that SAP HANA requires its own replication mechanism (HSR) and that RDS does not support SAP HANA at all.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
SAP HANA System Replication uses log shipping or storage replication to maintain a synchronized standby in another AZ, with automatic takeover triggered by the HANA nameserver or Pacemaker cluster in under 120 seconds for synchronous mode. Under the hood, HSR operates at the database layer using the SAP HANA replication protocol (based on TCP port 3xx01) and requires careful network latency tuning (typically <1 ms RTT for synchronous mode) to avoid performance degradation, which is critical in real-world AWS deployments where inter-AZ latency can vary.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Design of SAP Workloads on AWS — This question tests Design of SAP Workloads on AWS — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: SAP HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones with automatic failover — SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) across two Availability Zones with automatic failover is the correct architecture because it provides synchronous or asynchronous replication of the SAP HANA database at the storage or log level, enabling automatic failover to a standby instance in a different AZ when the primary fails. This meets the requirement for high availability and automatic failover during an AZ failure, as HSR is the native SAP mechanism for database-level HA on AWS, unlike generic AWS services that do not handle SAP-specific application state or replication requirements.
What should I do if I get this PAS-C01 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
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.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.