PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
An SAP administrator notices that the SAP application server is experiencing high latency when reading from the shared /sapmnt directory mounted from an Amazon EFS file system. The EFS file system is in General Purpose performance mode and uses Bursting throughput mode. The administrator checks CloudWatch metrics and sees that BurstCreditBalance is near zero. What is the most cost-effective solution to address the latency?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume increasing storage size (Option A) is the only way to increase throughput under Bursting mode, overlooking that Provisioned Throughput mode provides a direct, cost-effective alternative without requiring additional storage.
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
✓
Enable Provisioned Throughput mode on the EFS file system
The BurstCreditBalance is near zero, indicating the file system has exhausted its burst credits under Bursting throughput mode. Enabling Provisioned Throughput mode allows you to specify a consistent throughput level independent of the file system's size, eliminating reliance on burst credits and resolving the latency for the /sapmnt directory. This is the most cost-effective solution as it avoids the need to increase storage size (Option A) or migrate to a different storage service.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the size of the EFS file system to increase the burst credit balance
Why it's wrong here
Burst credit accumulation rate is based on size, but increasing size may not be cost-effective.
- ✓
Enable Provisioned Throughput mode on the EFS file system
Why this is correct
Provides consistent throughput without burst credits.
- ✗
Mount the /sapmnt directory from an Amazon EBS gp3 volume instead
Why it's wrong here
Mounting from an Amazon EBS gp3 volume is incorrect because `/sapmnt` is a shared directory in SAP environments, requiring a file system accessible concurrently by multiple application servers. EBS gp3 is block storage attachable to only one EC2 instance at a time, making it unsuitable for this shared access requirement. However, it is tempting as gp3 offers dedicated, predictable performance independent of burst credits and is a cost-effective choice for non-shared, single-instance block storage needs, which would address the burst credit issue if `/sapmnt` were not shared.
- ✗
Change the EFS performance mode to Max I/O
Why it's wrong here
Max I/O improves IOPS but not throughput.
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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.