- A
AWS Auto Scaling groups with lifecycle hooks
Why wrong: Auto Scaling is not designed for database failover.
- B
Pacemaker cluster with STONITH across two Availability Zones
Pacemaker with STONITH provides automatic failover and fencing.
- C
Amazon RDS Multi-AZ deployment
Why wrong: RDS does not support SAP HANA.
- D
Amazon EFS as shared storage for HANA data
Why wrong: EFS is not supported for SAP HANA data files.
Question 516 of 1,733
SAP HANA Automatic Failover with Pacemaker and STONITH on AWS
This PAS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of design of sap workloads on aws. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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.
A company is planning to run SAP S/4HANA on AWS and needs to ensure that the system can automatically recover from an Availability Zone failure. They want to use SAP HANA System Replication with automatic failover. Which AWS configuration is required?
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
✓
Pacemaker cluster with STONITH across two Availability Zones
SAP HANA System Replication with automatic failover requires a Pacemaker cluster with STONITH (Shoot The Other Node In The Head) configured across two Availability Zones. This setup provides the fencing mechanism necessary to prevent split-brain scenarios and ensures that the failed primary node is forcibly isolated before the secondary node takes over, enabling reliable automatic failover for SAP S/4HANA on AWS.
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.
- ✗
AWS Auto Scaling groups with lifecycle hooks
Why it's wrong here
Auto Scaling is not designed for database failover.
- ✓
Pacemaker cluster with STONITH across two Availability Zones
Why this is correct
Pacemaker with STONITH provides automatic failover and fencing.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Amazon RDS Multi-AZ deployment
Why it's wrong here
RDS does not support SAP HANA.
- ✗
Amazon EFS as shared storage for HANA data
Why it's wrong here
EFS is not supported for SAP HANA data files.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse managed database services like Amazon RDS Multi-AZ with the specific requirements of SAP HANA System Replication, assuming that AWS's built-in high availability features can replace the need for a Pacemaker cluster with STONITH, but SAP HANA on AWS requires explicit cluster configuration and fencing to achieve automatic failover across Availability Zones.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Pacemaker with STONITH uses a fencing agent (e.g., AWS EC2 API or AWS Lambda) to power off or isolate the failed primary node via the AWS API, ensuring that the secondary node can safely take over without data corruption. The cluster typically runs on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) or Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) with HA extensions, and the STONITH mechanism relies on IAM roles and API calls to terminate or stop the faulty instance, which is critical for maintaining data consistency in a multi-AZ setup.
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 — study guide chapter
Learn the concepts, then practise the questions
- →
Design of SAP Workloads on AWS practice questions
Targeted practice on this topic area only
- →
All PAS-C01 questions
1,733 questions across all exam domains
- →
AWS Certified SAP on AWS Specialty PAS-C01 study guide
Full concept coverage aligned to exam objectives
- →
PAS-C01 practice test guide
How to use practice tests most effectively before exam day
Related practice questions
Related PAS-C01 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
Design of SAP Workloads on AWS practice questions
Practise PAS-C01 questions linked to Design of SAP Workloads on AWS.
Technology practice questions
Practise PAS-C01 questions linked to Technology.
Migration practice questions
Practise PAS-C01 questions linked to Migration.
Operations and Maintenance practice questions
Practise PAS-C01 questions linked to Operations and Maintenance.
PAS-C01 fundamentals practice questions
Practise PAS-C01 questions linked to PAS-C01 fundamentals.
PAS-C01 scenario practice questions
Practise PAS-C01 questions linked to PAS-C01 scenario.
PAS-C01 troubleshooting practice questions
Practise PAS-C01 questions linked to PAS-C01 troubleshooting.
Practice this exam
Start a free PAS-C01 practice session
Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this PAS-C01 question test?
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: Pacemaker cluster with STONITH across two Availability Zones — SAP HANA System Replication with automatic failover requires a Pacemaker cluster with STONITH (Shoot The Other Node In The Head) configured across two Availability Zones. This setup provides the fencing mechanism necessary to prevent split-brain scenarios and ensures that the failed primary node is forcibly isolated before the secondary node takes over, enabling reliable automatic failover for SAP S/4HANA on AWS.
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.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
2 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 running SAP S/4HANA on AWS. The application team reports that batch jobs are failing intermittently with database connection timeouts. The SAP system uses a single Availability Zone deployment. Which design change should the architect recommend to improve database availability?
medium- A.Use Amazon EBS Multi-Attach to attach the same volume to multiple EC2 instances
- B.Implement an Amazon RDS for SAP HANA read replica
- ✓ C.Configure SAP HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones
- D.Scale up the SAP HANA instance to a larger instance type
Why C: SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) across two Availability Zones provides synchronous or asynchronous data replication at the database level, ensuring that if the primary HANA instance fails, the secondary can take over with minimal downtime. This directly addresses the intermittent database connection timeouts by eliminating the single point of failure in a single-AZ deployment, as the application can failover to the replica without manual intervention.
Variation 2. A company is deploying SAP S/4HANA on AWS and needs to ensure high availability for the database layer. Which TWO actions should the company take?
easy- A.Store HANA backups in Amazon S3 Standard-IA
- ✓ B.Configure SAP HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones
- C.Use Amazon EFS as the data volume for HANA
- ✓ D.Provision Amazon EBS io2 Block Express volumes for HANA data
- E.Enable EC2 Auto Scaling for the HANA instance
Why B: SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) across two Availability Zones provides synchronous or asynchronous data replication at the database level, ensuring automatic failover and high availability for the HANA database. This is a core requirement for SAP S/4HANA on AWS, as it protects against AZ-level failures and meets SAP's HA architecture guidelines.
Keep practising
More PAS-C01 practice questions
- A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS. The environment includes an SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance with multiple EBS vo…
- A company runs SAP S/4HANA on AWS with a High Availability (HA) cluster spanning two Availability Zones (us-east-1a and…
- A company is planning to migrate its SAP landscape to AWS. The landscape includes development, quality assurance, and pr…
- A company is using AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager to patch a fleet of EC2 instances. The instances are in a patch gro…
- A company is migrating a legacy on-premises application to AWS. The application uses a MySQL database with a complex sto…
- A company is migrating a large SAP ERP system to AWS using SAP HANA. They want to minimize downtime and ensure consisten…
Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.