SAP HANA System Replication for Disaster Recovery
A company is designing a disaster recovery (DR) solution for SAP HANA on AWS. The primary site is in us-east-1, and the DR site is in us-west-2. The RPO is 5 minutes, and the RTO is 1 hour. The company wants to use SAP HANA System Replication (HSR). Which configuration meets these requirements?
Quick Answer
The scenario combines two constraints - a 5-minute RPO and a 1-hour RTO - with a specific technology choice, SAP HANA System Replication, and the correct configuration is the one that satisfies both without exceeding what asynchronous replication can practically deliver. Asynchronous replication is necessary because the primary and DR sites are on opposite coasts (us-east-1 to us-west-2); synchronous replication would force the primary to wait for acknowledgment from a secondary thousands of miles away, adding latency that would hurt production performance. Asynchronous replication can still comfortably meet a 5-minute RPO, since it only needs to keep the secondary's data lag within that window, not achieve zero data loss. The multi-target aspect matters because it lets HANA replicate to more than one secondary instance simultaneously from a single primary, which gives the flexibility to fail over to a secondary in us-west-2 within the 1-hour RTO without requiring extra overhead or a chained replication topology on the primary side. Together, asynchronous mode and multi-target replication map directly onto the two stated requirements: async satisfies the RPO without harming primary performance over distance, and multi-target enables the DR failover target needed to hit the RTO. When you see an RPO and RTO pair alongside a long-distance HANA replication scenario, check whether the answer choices differ on sync-versus-async and single-versus-multi-target, since those are usually the deciding factors.
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates assume synchronous replication is always better for low RPO, but over long distances it introduces unacceptable latency, making asynchronous the only viable option for cross-region DR.
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
✓
Use asynchronous HSR with multiple secondary instances (multi-target) in us-west-2.
Multi-target asynchronous HSR allows SAP HANA to replicate data to multiple secondary instances simultaneously, meeting the 5-minute RPO with asynchronous replication while providing the flexibility to fail over to a secondary instance in us-west-2 within the 1-hour RTO. Asynchronous replication is necessary over such a long distance (us-east-1 to us-west-2) to avoid latency impacting primary site performance, and multi-target enables multiple DR targets without additional primary-side overhead.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use asynchronous HSR with multiple secondary instances (multi-target) in us-west-2.
Why this is correct
Multi-target async replication provides better RPO by replicating to multiple targets.
- ✗
Use synchronous HSR between us-east-1 and us-west-2.
Why it's wrong here
Synchronous replication across regions introduces too much latency.
- ✗
Use asynchronous HSR with a single secondary instance in us-west-2.
Why it's wrong here
Single async replication may not meet 5-minute RPO consistently.
- ✗
Use EBS snapshots every 5 minutes and copy them to us-west-2.
Why it's wrong here
Snapshots every 5 minutes are not feasible and restore time is long.
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Same concept, more angles
5 more ways this is tested on PAS-C01
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company is designing an SAP HANA disaster recovery (DR) solution on AWS. The primary site is in us-east-1, and the DR site is in us-west-2. The RPO is 15 minutes, and the RTO is 2 hours. Which AWS service should be used for replicating the SAP HANA database to the DR site?
medium- ✓ A.SAP HANA System Replication with log shipping using Amazon S3 or direct VPN connection.
- B.Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication for database backup files.
- C.Amazon EBS snapshots replicated to us-west-2 via Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager.
- D.AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication.
Why A: SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) is the native, SAP-supported mechanism for real-time database replication, capable of achieving sub-minute RPOs by continuously shipping log entries to a secondary system. When combined with a direct VPN connection or Amazon S3 as a log shipping target, it meets the 15-minute RPO and 2-hour RTO requirements for disaster recovery across AWS regions. This is the only option that provides synchronous or near-synchronous replication of the HANA database itself, not just backups or snapshots.
Variation 2. A company is designing an SAP HANA disaster recovery (DR) solution on AWS. The primary site is in us-east-1, and the DR site is in us-west-2. The RPO must be less than 15 minutes, and the RTO must be less than 2 hours. Which replication strategy meets these requirements?
easy- A.SAP HANA log shipping to an S3 bucket in the DR region.
- B.S3 cross-region replication for HANA data files.
- ✓ C.SAP HANA system replication with synchronous mode and pre-provisioned DR instances.
- D.EBS snapshot replication to the DR region every 15 minutes.
Why C: SAP HANA system replication with synchronous mode ensures that every committed transaction is replicated to the DR site before acknowledgment, meeting the <15-minute RPO. Pre-provisioned DR instances in us-west-2 allow rapid failover, enabling the <2-hour RTO by eliminating the need to provision infrastructure during recovery.
Variation 3. A company wants to implement a disaster recovery (DR) strategy for its SAP landscape on AWS. The primary site is in us-east-1, and the DR site is in us-west-2. They need to replicate SAP HANA database asynchronously with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes. Which AWS service should they use?
medium- A.AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (DRS)
- ✓ B.SAP HANA System Replication
- C.Amazon S3 cross-region replication for HANA backup files
- D.AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication
Why B: SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) is the native, SAP-supported mechanism for asynchronous replication of HANA databases, capable of achieving an RPO of 15 minutes or less. It replicates at the database level using log shipping and is tightly integrated with HANA's recovery processes, making it the correct choice for this DR scenario.
Variation 4. A company runs SAP on AWS and needs to implement a disaster recovery strategy for their SAP NetWeaver system. The primary site is in us-east-1, and the DR site is in us-west-2. They want to minimize data loss and recovery time. Which approach meets these requirements?
medium- ✓ A.Use SAP HANA System Replication in asynchronous mode across regions.
- B.Use SAP HANA System Replication in synchronous mode across regions.
- C.Use AWS Backup to back up the SAP HANA database and restore in us-west-2.
- D.Use Amazon S3 cross-region replication for SAP HANA data files.
Why A: SAP HANA System Replication in asynchronous mode across regions is the correct approach because it provides near-zero recovery point objective (RPO) with minimal impact on primary system performance, while enabling rapid failover to the DR region in us-west-2. Asynchronous replication is suitable for cross-region scenarios where network latency would make synchronous mode impractical, and it meets the requirement to minimize both data loss and recovery time for SAP NetWeaver.
Variation 5. A company is setting up a disaster recovery (DR) site for SAP on AWS. They need to replicate the SAP HANA database to another region. Which AWS service is BEST suited for this?
easy- ✓ A.SAP HANA System Replication
- B.AWS Backup cross-region copy
- C.AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
- D.Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication
Why A: SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) is the native, SAP-supported mechanism for replicating HANA databases asynchronously or synchronously across regions. It replicates at the database level using log shipping and is the only option that maintains full SAP HANA consistency, transaction integrity, and support for takeover in a DR scenario.
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.