PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Question
A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS with a High Availability (HA) cluster spanning two Availability Zones (us-east-1a and us-east-1b). The cluster uses an Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP file system for the global transport directory. Recently, the cluster experienced a split-brain situation, leading to data corruption. The administrator wants to prevent this from recurring. The current setup uses a single FSx file system mounted on both cluster nodes. What should the administrator do to prevent split-brain?
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
✓
Configure a STONITH (Shoot The Other Node In The Head) mechanism using AWS Lambda
STONITH (Shoot The Other Node In The Head) is a fencing mechanism that ensures a failed node is forcefully isolated or powered off before the other node takes over, preventing split-brain scenarios in High Availability clusters. Option A is incorrect because adding a third node increases complexity without addressing the root cause of split-brain. Option B is incorrect because increasing memory does not affect cluster communication or fencing. Option D is incorrect because cross-region replication is for disaster recovery, not for preventing split-brain.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Add a third cluster node in a third Availability Zone
Why it's wrong here
More nodes can complicate quorum but don't directly prevent split-brain.
- ✗
Increase the memory on both EC2 instances
Why it's wrong here
Memory is unrelated to cluster split-brain.
- ✓
Configure a STONITH (Shoot The Other Node In The Head) mechanism using AWS Lambda
Why this is correct
STONITH ensures a failed node is terminated, preventing split-brain.
- ✗
Set up cross-region replication for the FSx file system
Why it's wrong here
Replication doesn't address cluster fencing.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This PAS-C01 question is part of Courseiva's 1,616-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. 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.