PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
A company runs SAP on AWS with an SAP HANA database on an r5.8xlarge instance. The company notices high network latency between the SAP application servers and the HANA database. The application servers are in the same VPC but different subnets. Which design change would MOST effectively reduce latency?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse Enhanced Networking (which improves throughput and CPU efficiency) with reducing latency, when in fact latency is dominated by physical distance and network hops, which only placement groups can address.
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
✓
Launch the application servers and the HANA database in the same placement group.
Placing both the SAP application servers and the HANA database in the same cluster placement group ensures they are in close physical proximity within a single Availability Zone, minimizing network hops and reducing latency. Placement groups achieve this by co-locating instances on the same high-bandwidth, low-latency network fabric, which is critical for SAP HANA's real-time data processing requirements.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Launch the application servers and the HANA database in the same placement group.
Why this is correct
Placement groups provide low-latency, high-bandwidth connectivity between instances.
- ✗
Create a VPC peering connection between the subnets of the application servers and the database.
Why it's wrong here
VPC peering is for cross-VPC connectivity; within the same VPC, it is not applicable.
- ✗
Change the HANA database instance type to a compute-optimized instance such as c5.9xlarge.
Why it's wrong here
Instance type change does not directly reduce network latency.
- ✗
Enable Enhanced Networking on the application servers by attaching an Elastic Network Adapter (ENA).
Why it's wrong here
Enhanced Networking is already enabled on current generation instances; this may not reduce latency further.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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