Automatic Failover Across Availability Zones for SAP and HANA
An SAP customer has a mission-critical system running on AWS. They need to ensure that the SAP application can survive an Availability Zone failure without manual intervention. The SAP application is stateless. The database is SAP HANA with System Replication. What is the most comprehensive architecture to achieve automatic failover?
Quick Answer
The answer is deploying the SAP application in an Auto Scaling group across multiple Availability Zones and configuring SAP HANA System Replication with automatic failover using AWS resources. This architecture is the most comprehensive because it separates concerns: the stateless SAP application tier scales and recovers automatically across AZs via the Auto Scaling group, while the database tier leverages SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) with automatic failover, typically managed by AWS services like the cluster agent or custom scripts, to handle database continuity without manual intervention. On the AWS Certified SAP on AWS Specialty PAS-C01 exam, this question tests your understanding that SAP HANA does not use RDS Multi-AZ—a common trap—and that Route 53 health checks or Elastic Load Balancers alone cannot trigger database failover. The key is recognizing that full automation requires both application and database layers to be AZ-resilient independently. Memory tip: “App scales, DB replicates—both AZs, no manual gates.”
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates assume Amazon RDS Multi-AZ supports SAP HANA, but RDS Multi-AZ is only available for Amazon Aurora, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server — not for SAP HANA, which requires native HSR for high availability.
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 the SAP application in an Auto Scaling group across multiple AZs and configure SAP HANA System Replication with automatic failover using AWS resources
It combines stateless SAP application auto-scaling across multiple Availability Zones (AZs) with SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) configured for automatic failover. HSR uses synchronous replication to keep the standby HANA database in sync, and when combined with AWS services like Amazon Route 53 health checks or a cluster manager (e.g., Pacemaker), the failover occurs automatically without manual intervention. This architecture ensures both the application and database tiers survive an AZ failure seamlessly.
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 the SAP application in an Auto Scaling group across multiple AZs and configure SAP HANA System Replication with automatic failover using AWS resources
Why this is correct
Auto Scaling for app tier and HSR automatic failover for DB tier provide full automation.
- ✗
Use Amazon Route 53 health checks to switch DNS to a standby instance in another AZ
Why it's wrong here
DNS switching does not handle database failover automatically.
- ✗
Deploy the SAP application in an Auto Scaling group across two AZs and use Amazon RDS Multi-AZ for HANA
Why it's wrong here
Amazon RDS does not support SAP HANA; HANA is self-managed.
- ✗
Deploy the SAP application behind an Application Load Balancer and use SAP HANA System Replication with manual failover scripts
Why it's wrong here
Manual scripts are not automatic.
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1 more way this is tested on PAS-C01
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Variation 1. A customer runs SAP HANA on an AWS Multi-AZ deployment with a primary and secondary instance. They want to ensure automatic failover in case of instance failure. What is the recommended approach?
hard- ✓ A.Implement SAP HANA System Replication in a multi-AZ configuration with automatic failover using AWS services.
- B.Set up a Route 53 health check to redirect traffic to the secondary instance manually.
- C.Use Amazon RDS for SAP HANA with Multi-AZ enabled.
- D.Configure an Auto Scaling group with a lifecycle hook to launch a new HANA instance.
Why A: SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) in a multi-AZ configuration, combined with AWS services like Amazon Route 53 health checks and custom scripts for automatic failover, provides the recommended approach for ensuring automatic failover upon instance failure. HSR replicates data synchronously or asynchronously between primary and secondary HANA instances, and when integrated with AWS, you can automate the failover process without manual intervention, meeting the requirement for high availability.
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.