The answer is to migrate from gp2 to gp3 volumes and increase IOPS. This is correct because gp3 volumes provide a higher baseline IOPS per gigabyte than gp2, and critically, they allow you to independently scale IOPS without adding storage, directly addressing the high queue depth that signals an I/O bottleneck. On the AWS Certified SAP on AWS Specialty PAS-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how SAP workloads behave under I/O pressure and the specific performance characteristics of EBS volume types; a common trap is assuming that simply increasing volume size will fix latency, but gp2’s IOPS are tied to storage, whereas gp3 decouples them. For an SAP system with consistently high queue depth, the root cause is insufficient I/O capacity, not storage space, making gp3 with increased IOPS the targeted fix. Memory tip: “gp3 gives you three independent knobs—size, IOPS, and throughput—while gp2 ties IOPS to size, so when queue depth is high, reach for the IOPS knob.”
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 system on AWS is experiencing high latency for disk I/O. The system uses Amazon EBS gp2 volumes. The operations team notices that the volume queue depth is consistently high. Which change is most likely to reduce latency?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Migrate from gp2 to gp3 volumes and increase IOPS.
The correct answer is B because gp3 volumes offer a baseline performance that is higher than gp2 for a given size, and they allow you to independently increase IOPS without needing to provision more storage. Since the volume queue depth is consistently high, the bottleneck is likely due to insufficient IOPS, and migrating to gp3 with increased IOPS directly addresses this by providing more I/O capacity, reducing latency.
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.
✗
Increase the EC2 instance size to get more EBS bandwidth.
Why it's wrong here
Instance size affects bandwidth but does not directly reduce queue depth on the volume.
✓
Migrate from gp2 to gp3 volumes and increase IOPS.
Why this is correct
gp3 provides higher baseline IOPS and consistent performance, reducing queue depth and latency.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Configure RAID 0 across multiple EBS volumes.
Why it's wrong here
RAID 0 increases throughput but queue depth per volume may remain high.
✗
Increase the block size of the file system.
Why it's wrong here
Block size impacts throughput but not latency due to queue depth.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often assume increasing instance size (Option A) or using RAID 0 (Option C) will fix any performance issue, but the question specifically points to a high queue depth caused by IOPS limits, which is best addressed by migrating to a volume type that allows independent IOPS scaling.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, gp2 volumes use a credit-based burst model where IOPS are tied to volume size (baseline 3 IOPS per GB, burst up to 3,000 IOPS for volumes up to 1 TiB). A consistently high queue depth indicates that the volume is exhausting its burst credits and hitting the baseline IOPS limit. gp3 volumes decouple IOPS from storage, offering a baseline of 3,000 IOPS for any size and allowing up to 16,000 IOPS without additional storage, which directly resolves the bottleneck. In real-world SAP workloads, such as heavy batch processing or database log writes, this queue depth issue is common when gp2 volumes are undersized for the I/O demand.
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: Migrate from gp2 to gp3 volumes and increase IOPS. — The correct answer is B because gp3 volumes offer a baseline performance that is higher than gp2 for a given size, and they allow you to independently increase IOPS without needing to provision more storage. Since the volume queue depth is consistently high, the bottleneck is likely due to insufficient IOPS, and migrating to gp3 with increased IOPS directly addresses this by providing more I/O capacity, reducing latency.
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "most likely". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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