PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
An architect is designing a disaster recovery (DR) solution for an SAP ERP system on AWS. The primary site is in us-east-1 and the DR site is in us-west-2. The SAP application uses an Oracle database. The RTO is 4 hours and RPO is 1 hour. Which solution meets these requirements with the least operational overhead?
⚠ Common exam trap
AWS often tests the misconception that native Oracle replication tools like Data Guard are always the best choice for DR, but the question emphasizes 'least operational overhead,' and DMS avoids the licensing and management burden of Active Data Guard while still meeting the RPO/RTO.
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 AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication from the primary Oracle database to a standby in us-west-2
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication provides continuous change data capture (CDC) from the primary Oracle database to a standby in us-west-2, meeting the 1-hour RPO and 4-hour RTO with minimal operational overhead. DMS handles schema conversion, replication, and failover without requiring manual intervention or complex Oracle licensing, making it the most efficient choice for cross-region DR.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Set up Oracle Active Data Guard between the primary and DR regions
Why it's wrong here
Active Data Guard requires additional licensing and more operational overhead compared to DMS.
- ✗
Take daily EBS snapshots of the database volumes and copy them to us-west-2, then restore using the snapshots
Why it's wrong here
Daily snapshots would not meet the 1-hour RPO.
- ✗
Use AWS Backup to copy EC2 AMIs and RDS snapshots to us-west-2 every hour
Why it's wrong here
Hourly snapshots may not achieve 1-hour RPO and recovery from AMIs takes longer than 4 hours RTO.
- ✓
Configure AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication from the primary Oracle database to a standby in us-west-2
Why this is correct
DMS provides continuous replication, meeting RPO of 1 hour, and can be automated for failover.
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.