PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
Network Topology
An SAP Basis administrator is troubleshooting a performance issue on a SAP HANA database running on an r5.4xlarge instance with dedicated tenancy. The instance is part of a placement group named 'sap-cluster'. The administrator suspects network throughput is suboptimal. Based on the exhibit, what is the MOST likely reason?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates assume all modern instance types automatically have Enhanced Networking enabled, but the actual driver and AMI support determine whether ENA is used, and the exhibit's network driver information reveals the root cause.
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
✓
The instance is using the Xen paravirtual network driver (xen-net) instead of Enhanced Networking with ENA, resulting in suboptimal throughput.
The exhibit shows the network driver is 'xen-net', indicating the instance is using the Xen PV (paravirtual) driver instead of the Elastic Network Adapter (ENA). While the r5.4xlarge instance uses the Nitro hypervisor, launching with an older AMI that lacks ENA support results in the Xen PV driver being used. This driver does not provide the advanced networking features of ENA, leading to suboptimal network throughput. Therefore, the most likely reason is option D, as the instance is effectively using a Xen-based driver configuration that does not support ENA.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Dedicated tenancy prevents the use of Enhanced Networking.
Why it's wrong here
Dedicated tenancy does not block Enhanced Networking.
- ✗
The instance type r5.4xlarge does not support Enhanced Networking.
Why it's wrong here
r5 instances support ENA.
- ✗
The placement group 'sap-cluster' restricts network throughput.
Why it's wrong here
Placement groups improve throughput.
- ✓
The instance is using the Xen paravirtual network driver (xen-net) instead of Enhanced Networking with ENA, resulting in suboptimal throughput.
Why this is correct
Xen hypervisor indicates no Enhanced Networking.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every PAS-C01 question from scratch — 1,616 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or 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.