The correct strategy is to set up HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones. This is the native SAP mechanism for achieving high availability across AZ with HANA System Replication, as it replicates data synchronously or synchronously in-memory to a standby instance in a different AZ, enabling automatic failover with minimal data loss during an AZ failure. On the AWS Certified SAP on AWS Specialty PAS-C01 exam, this question tests your understanding that SAP HANA’s own replication, not storage-level or database-agnostic tools, is the required approach for AZ-level recovery. A common trap is confusing HSR with Multi-AZ deployments for other databases or with AWS services like EBS Snapshots, which do not provide the same synchronous failover capability. Remember the mnemonic: “HSR = HANA’s Sync Replication” to recall that synchronous replication across AZs is the key to meeting this requirement.
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. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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.
An SAP administrator is setting up a new SAP HANA system on AWS and needs to ensure that the system can recover from an Availability Zone failure. Which strategy should they implement for high availability?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Set up HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones
HANA System Replication (HSR) is the native SAP mechanism for achieving high availability across Availability Zones (AZs). By replicating data synchronously or synchronously in-memory to a standby instance in a different AZ, it ensures automatic failover with minimal data loss in the event of an AZ failure. This directly meets the requirement for recovery from an AZ failure without relying on storage-level or database-agnostic approaches.
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.
✗
Attach multiple Elastic Network Interfaces (ENIs) to the HANA instance
Why it's wrong here
Multiple ENIs do not provide HA for the database.
✗
Configure the HANA database with Amazon RDS Multi-AZ
Why it's wrong here
RDS Multi-AZ is for RDS databases, not HANA on EC2.
✓
Set up HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones
Why this is correct
HANA System Replication synchronously replicates data to a secondary system in another AZ for HA.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Take EBS snapshots every hour and restore in another AZ
Why it's wrong here
Snapshots are for backup, not HA; recovery time would be too long.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse backup strategies (like EBS snapshots) with high availability, or mistakenly think that RDS Multi-AZ can be applied to SAP HANA, when in fact SAP HANA requires its own native replication mechanism (HSR) for cross-AZ failover.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
HANA System Replication uses log shipping and can be configured in synchronous mode (with 'full sync' or 'sync' option) to ensure zero data loss within the same region, though cross-AZ latency may introduce a slight performance impact. The replication is managed by SAP HANA itself, not by AWS, and requires careful sizing of the secondary instance and network throughput. In a real-world scenario, the primary and secondary instances must be in different subnets within the same VPC, and the HANA replication network should use a dedicated ENI or placement group to minimize latency.
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: Set up HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones — HANA System Replication (HSR) is the native SAP mechanism for achieving high availability across Availability Zones (AZs). By replicating data synchronously or synchronously in-memory to a standby instance in a different AZ, it ensures automatic failover with minimal data loss in the event of an AZ failure. This directly meets the requirement for recovery from an AZ failure without relying on storage-level or database-agnostic approaches.
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.
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Question Discussion
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