What to Do When SAP HANA /hana/data Filesystem is 96% Full
This PAS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of design of sap workloads on aws. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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.
Exhibit
Refer to the exhibit.
[ec2-user@ip-10-0-0-10 ~]$ df -h /hana/data
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/xvdf 500G 480G 20G 96% /hana/data
An SAP administrator runs the df command on an SAP HANA server and sees the output above. The /hana/data filesystem is 96% full. Which action should be taken to prevent the database from running out of space?
Exhibit
Refer to the exhibit.
[ec2-user@ip-10-0-0-10 ~]$ df -h /hana/data
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/xvdf 500G 480G 20G 96% /hana/data
A
Increase the IOPS of the EBS volume
Why wrong: IOPS increase does not increase storage capacity.
B
Delete old database logs to free up space
Why wrong: This may provide temporary relief but not a long-term solution.
C
Increase the size of the EBS volume and extend the filesystem
This is the standard procedure to add more disk space.
D
Migrate the database to a larger instance type
Why wrong: Instance type change does not increase storage capacity.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Increase the size of the EBS volume and extend the filesystem
The correct action is to increase the size of the EBS volume and extend the filesystem because the /hana/data filesystem is 96% full, and SAP HANA requires sufficient free space for data growth and savepoint operations. Simply increasing the EBS volume size without extending the filesystem (e.g., using resize2fs or xfs_growfs) would not make the additional space available to the operating system. This approach directly addresses the capacity issue without unnecessary changes to performance or instance type.
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 IOPS of the EBS volume
Why it's wrong here
IOPS increase does not increase storage capacity.
✗
Delete old database logs to free up space
Why it's wrong here
This may provide temporary relief but not a long-term solution.
✓
Increase the size of the EBS volume and extend the filesystem
Why this is correct
This is the standard procedure to add more disk space.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Migrate the database to a larger instance type
Why it's wrong here
Instance type change does not increase storage capacity.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
A common misconception in the AWS SAP on AWS Specialty exam is that modifying performance parameters like IOPS or changing the instance type can resolve storage capacity issues. In reality, only resizing the underlying EBS volume and extending the filesystem (e.g., with xfs_growfs or resize2fs) directly addresses a full filesystem on /hana/data.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, SAP HANA uses a persistent data volume (/hana/data) for column store data and savepoints; when this volume reaches 100% capacity, the database may crash or become read-only. Extending an EBS volume involves modifying the volume size via the AWS console/CLI (up to 16 TiB for gp2/gp3), then resizing the filesystem using xfs_growfs for XFS or resize2fs for ext4—this must be done online without unmounting. A real-world scenario is when a customer monitors only /hana/shared or /hana/log and misses the /hana/data growth from large data loads or insufficient data lifecycle management.
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 cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
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: Increase the size of the EBS volume and extend the filesystem — The correct action is to increase the size of the EBS volume and extend the filesystem because the /hana/data filesystem is 96% full, and SAP HANA requires sufficient free space for data growth and savepoint operations. Simply increasing the EBS volume size without extending the filesystem (e.g., using resize2fs or xfs_growfs) would not make the additional space available to the operating system. This approach directly addresses the capacity issue without unnecessary changes to performance or instance type.
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.
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Question Discussion
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