PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
A company wants to use AWS Systems Manager to automate patching of SAP application servers. What is a prerequisite for Systems Manager to manage these EC2 instances?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume SSH or public IP addresses are required for remote management, but Systems Manager is designed to work without them, relying solely on the SSM Agent and IAM permissions over HTTPS.
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
✓
Install the SSM Agent on the EC2 instances.
AWS Systems Manager requires the SSM Agent to be installed and running on EC2 instances to enable communication with the Systems Manager service for patching and other management tasks. Without the agent, Systems Manager cannot send commands, initiate patching workflows, or gather inventory data from the instances. The SSM Agent is pre-installed on many Amazon Linux and Windows AMIs but must be manually installed on custom or imported images.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable SSH access to the instances.
Why it's wrong here
SSH is not required; Systems Manager uses Agent.
- ✗
Assign a separate IAM role to each instance.
Why it's wrong here
An instance profile with appropriate permissions is needed, but not separate roles per instance.
- ✓
Install the SSM Agent on the EC2 instances.
Why this is correct
SSM Agent is required for Systems Manager to communicate with instances.
- ✗
Ensure the instances have public IP addresses.
Why it's wrong here
Systems Manager can work via VPC endpoints without public IPs.
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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.