High Availability for SAP ASCS and ERS on AWS Using Route53 Failover
A company is migrating its SAP system to AWS and needs to ensure high availability for the SAP Central Services (ASCS). The solution must support automatic failover in the event of an instance failure. Which AWS architecture meets these requirements?
Quick Answer
The correct answer is to deploy two EC2 instances in different Availability Zones with a shared Amazon EFS filesystem and use Route53 health checks for failover. This architecture meets high availability for SAP ASCS and ERS on AWS because SAP’s enqueue replication and shared /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans directories require a cluster-aware filesystem like EFS, and AWS does not support floating IPs for cluster failover, so Route53 DNS-based health checks provide the automatic failover mechanism. On the PAS-C01 exam, this question tests your understanding that SAP ASCS high availability on AWS relies on a shared filesystem and DNS failover rather than traditional cluster IPs, a common trap being to select Multi-AZ RDS or Global Accelerator, which address database or global traffic needs, not ASCS failover. A helpful memory tip: “No floating IP, no problem—Route53 and EFS keep SAP ASCS humming across AZs.”
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
✓
Deploy two EC2 instances in different Availability Zones with a shared Amazon EFS filesystem and use Route53 health checks for failover
SAP ASCS high availability on AWS requires a cluster spanning two Availability Zones with a shared filesystem for /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans. AWS does not support cluster-based floating IPs, so Route53 health checks are used for failover. Option B is correct: it uses two EC2 instances in different AZs with Amazon EFS (shared filesystem) and Route53 health checks for automatic failover. Option A (Amazon RDS Multi-AZ) is for databases, not ASCS. Option C (AWS Global Accelerator) provides traffic routing and static IP but does not handle ASCS failover. Option D (single EC2) lacks high availability.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Deploy ASCS on Amazon RDS Multi-AZ
Why it's wrong here
ASCS is not a database; RDS is for databases.
- ✓
Deploy two EC2 instances in different Availability Zones with a shared Amazon EFS filesystem and use Route53 health checks for failover
Why this is correct
This is the standard architecture for ASCS HA on AWS.
- ✗
Use AWS Global Accelerator with a static IP
Why it's wrong here
Global Accelerator provides static IPs but does not automatically failover ASCS.
- ✗
Deploy a single EC2 instance with a large EBS volume
Why it's wrong here
Single instance does not provide high availability.
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6 more ways this is tested on PAS-C01
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Variation 1. A company is migrating an SAP system to AWS and needs to ensure high availability for SAP Central Services (ASCS) and Enqueue Replication Server (ERS). Which architecture meets SAP's high availability requirements?
hard- ✓ A.Use a cluster solution with a shared file system and a virtual IP address in a multi-AZ setup
- B.Deploy ASCS and ERS in a single Availability Zone with an automatic restart
- C.Use an Application Load Balancer to distribute traffic between ASCS and ERS
- D.Configure Amazon Route 53 health checks to failover between ASCS and ERS
Why A: A cluster solution with a shared file system and a virtual IP address in a multi-AZ setup meets SAP's high availability requirements for ASCS and ERS. This architecture ensures automatic failover across Availability Zones (AZs) and is the standard recommendation for SAP HA. Option B is incorrect because deploying ASCS and ERS in a single AZ with automatic restart does not protect against AZ failure. Option C is incorrect because an Application Load Balancer is designed for HTTP/HTTPS traffic, not for SAP Central Services which require a shared file system and virtual IP. Option D is incorrect because Amazon Route 53 health checks alone do not provide the fast failover required; they are typically used with DNS-based failover, not cluster-based HA.
Variation 2. A company is migrating its SAP systems to AWS and needs to ensure high availability for the SAP Central Services (ASCS) instance. Which AWS service can be used to implement a failover cluster for ASCS?
easy- A.Amazon S3
- B.Application Load Balancer (ALB)
- ✓ C.AWS using shared file system and DNS-based failover
- D.Amazon RDS Multi-AZ
Why C: For SAP ASCS failover, AWS recommends using a shared file system (e.g., Amazon EFS) combined with DNS-based failover via Route53. This provides high availability without requiring additional clustering software. Option C correctly describes this approach. Option A (Amazon S3) is object storage, not suitable for ASCS. Option B (Application Load Balancer) handles inbound traffic, not ASCS clustering. Option D (Amazon RDS Multi-AZ) is for database high availability, not ASCS.
Variation 3. An organization is migrating a SAP ERP system to AWS. The system has a requirement for high availability for the SAP Central Services (ASCS) instance. Which architecture should be used to meet this requirement?
hard- A.Deploy the ASCS on a single EC2 instance with a Multi-AZ RDS database.
- ✓ B.Deploy two ASCS instances in different Availability Zones with a shared Amazon EFS or FSx for Windows File Server and a floating IP using Route 53.
- C.Deploy two ASCS instances in different Availability Zones with an EBS volume attached to both.
- D.Use an Application Load Balancer to distribute traffic between two ASCS instances.
Why B: For high availability of SAP Central Services (ASCS), you need to deploy two ASCS instances in different Availability Zones with a shared filesystem (Amazon EFS or FSx for Windows File Server) and a floating IP mechanism. Option B correctly describes this architecture using Route 53 for the floating IP. Option A is incorrect because Multi-AZ RDS is for databases, not ASCS. Option C is incorrect because an EBS volume cannot be attached to multiple EC2 instances simultaneously. Option D is incorrect because an Application Load Balancer does not support floating IPs and is not appropriate for ASCS.
Variation 4. A company is migrating a critical SAP system to AWS and needs to ensure high availability for the SAP Central Services (ASCS) and Enqueue Replication Server (ERS). Which AWS service can be used to manage the virtual IP address required for the SAP high availability setup?
hard- A.AWS Transit Gateway
- ✓ B.Elastic Load Balancer (ELB)
- C.Amazon Route 53 Application Recovery Controller
- D.AWS Global Accelerator
Why B: For SAP high availability on AWS, the virtual IP (VIP) for ASCS/ERS is typically managed using a Network Load Balancer (NLB), which provides a static IP address that can be used as the VIP. NLB supports health checks and automatic failover between active and passive instances. Amazon Route 53 Application Recovery Controller is designed for multi-region recovery and DNS-level failover, not for managing a VIP within a single region. AWS Transit Gateway handles network connectivity between VPCs, and AWS Global Accelerator provides static IPs for global traffic optimization, not for SAP HA VIP management.
Variation 5. A company is migrating an SAP system to AWS. They need to ensure high availability for the SAP Central Services (ASCS/ERS). Which THREE components are required for a highly available SAP ASCS/ERS setup on AWS? (Choose THREE.)
medium- ✓ A.A cluster manager (e.g., Pacemaker)
- B.An Application Load Balancer
- C.Amazon Route 53 health checks
- ✓ D.Shared file system (e.g., Amazon FSx or EFS)
- ✓ E.Elastic IP address for the virtual IP
Why A: For a highly available SAP ASCS/ERS setup on AWS, three components are required: a cluster manager (e.g., Pacemaker) to manage failover (Option A), a shared file system (e.g., Amazon FSx or EFS) to store the SAP profile and transport directories (Option D), and an Elastic IP address to provide a stable virtual IP that can be moved between EC2 instances during failover (Option E). An Application Load Balancer (Option B) is not used for ASCS/ERS, and Amazon Route 53 health checks (Option C) are optional for DNS-based routing, not a required component.
Variation 6. An organization is planning to migrate its SAP landscape to AWS and needs to ensure high availability for the SAP Central Services (ASCS) instance. Which TWO AWS services can be used to implement a high-availability architecture for ASCS?
medium- ✓ A.Amazon EC2 Auto Recovery
- B.Amazon CloudFront
- C.AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
- D.Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)
- ✓ E.Amazon Route 53
Why A: Options A and E are correct. Amazon EC2 Auto Recovery can automatically restart an ASCS instance if it fails due to underlying hardware issues, providing a basic level of high availability. Amazon Route 53 can be configured with DNS failover to route traffic to a standby ASCS instance in another Availability Zone, enabling multi-AZ resilience. Option B (CloudFront) is a content delivery network and not designed for SAP ASCS HA. Option C (DMS) is a database migration service, irrelevant for ASCS. Option D (ELB) is typically not used for ASCS because ASCS requires a single active node with a virtual IP or DNS name, not load-balanced traffic.
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.