SAP HANA DR with HANA System Replication
A company is running SAP on AWS and needs to design a disaster recovery (DR) solution with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 4 hours. The primary region is us-east-1 and the DR region is us-west-2. The SAP application uses an SAP HANA database with a size of 2 TB. Which combination of AWS services should be used to meet the DR requirements most cost-effectively?
Quick Answer
The answer is to configure HANA System Replication (HSR) across regions with a smaller standby instance in us-west-2. This is correct because HSR is SAP’s native asynchronous replication technology, which can easily meet a 15-minute RPO by continuously shipping log volumes across AWS regions, while the smaller standby instance keeps costs low and still satisfies the 4-hour RTO since it can be scaled up or promoted to primary without a full restore. On the AWS Certified SAP on AWS Specialty PAS-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding that HSR is the most cost-effective DR method for SAP HANA, avoiding expensive third-party tools or slow backup-based restores; a common trap is choosing cross-region backup replication, which cannot meet the 15-minute RPO. Remember the mnemonic “HSR for HANA DR” to instantly recall that native replication, not storage or backup services, is the go-to for low RPO/RTO on AWS.
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume AWS Backup or DMS can handle SAP HANA replication, but neither supports the required continuous, low-RPO replication for HANA, and the native HSR is the only service that meets both the RPO and RTO cost-effectively.
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
✓
Configure HANA System Replication (HSR) across regions and use a standby HANA instance in us-west-2 with a smaller instance size.
HANA System Replication (HSR) is the native SAP HANA replication technology that can achieve an RPO of 15 minutes or less by asynchronously replicating data across regions. By using a smaller standby instance in us-west-2, the solution meets the RTO of 4 hours (since the standby can be scaled up or promoted quickly) while minimizing ongoing DR costs. This approach is purpose-built for SAP HANA and avoids the overhead of third-party tools or backup-based restores.
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 AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with continuous replication from the primary HANA database to a target in us-west-2.
Why it's wrong here
DMS does not support HANA as a source for continuous replication.
- ✗
Use AWS Backup with continuous backups and cross-region copy to achieve RPO of 15 minutes.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Backup for HANA does not support continuous backups; it supports periodic backups only.
- ✗
Use AWS Backup to take hourly backups of the HANA database and restore in us-west-2 during a disaster.
Why it's wrong here
Hourly backups result in RPO of up to 1 hour, exceeding 15 minutes.
- ✓
Configure HANA System Replication (HSR) across regions and use a standby HANA instance in us-west-2 with a smaller instance size.
Why this is correct
HSR provides near-synchronous replication with RPO of seconds; a smaller standby reduces cost and can be scaled up during failover within RTO.
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Same concept, more angles
4 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 a disaster recovery (DR) strategy for its SAP environment on AWS. The primary site is in us-east-1, and the DR site must be in us-west-2. The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is 15 minutes, and the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is 4 hours. Which TWO AWS services should be used to meet these objectives?
medium- A.Amazon Route 53 health checks to fail over DNS to the DR site.
- B.Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling groups to launch instances in us-west-2 on failover.
- ✓ C.SAP HANA System Replication configured with asynchronous replication to a HANA instance in us-west-2.
- ✓ D.AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS) to continuously replicate SAP servers to us-west-2.
- E.AWS Backup to copy EBS snapshots to us-west-2 every 15 minutes.
Why C: SAP HANA System Replication with asynchronous mode can achieve an RPO of 15 minutes or less by continuously replicating log buffers from the primary HANA database in us-east-1 to a secondary HANA instance in us-west-2. This is the native SAP replication mechanism and directly meets the database-level RPO requirement. AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS) continuously replicates entire SAP servers (including OS, applications, and data) to us-west-2, enabling full server failover within the RTO. Together, HANA replication handles database consistency while DRS covers the application and infrastructure layer, meeting both the RPO and RTO objectives.
Variation 2. A company is designing a disaster recovery (DR) strategy for its SAP environment on AWS. The primary site is in us-east-1 and the DR site in us-west-2. The SAP HANA database is 3 TB and uses HANA System Replication (HSR) in async mode. The RPO requirement is 15 minutes. What is the most cost-effective way to meet the RPO?
easy- A.Take full database backups to Amazon S3 every 15 minutes.
- B.Use EBS snapshots every 5 minutes to replicate data to DR region.
- C.Use HANA System Replication in synchronous mode to ensure zero data loss.
- ✓ D.Configure HANA System Replication in asynchronous mode over AWS Direct Connect.
Why D: HANA System Replication (HSR) in asynchronous mode over AWS Direct Connect provides a low-latency, reliable network path that can achieve an RPO of 15 minutes without the performance penalty of synchronous replication. Asynchronous replication sends committed transactions to the DR site without waiting for acknowledgment, which is suitable for the 3 TB HANA database and meets the RPO requirement cost-effectively by avoiding the need for expensive, high-bandwidth dedicated connections or frequent full backups.
Variation 3. A company is designing a disaster recovery (DR) strategy for SAP HANA on AWS. Which TWO of the following are valid DR approaches? (Choose two.)
hard- ✓ A.Configure HANA System Replication to a secondary Region.
- B.Use S3 cross-Region replication (CRR) to copy HANA backups.
- ✓ C.Copy EBS snapshots to another Region using cross-Region snapshot copy.
- D.Use AWS Backup with cross-Region copy.
- E.Use Amazon RDS cross-Region read replicas for HANA.
Why A: HANA System Replication (HSR) is a native SAP feature that asynchronously replicates the in-memory database to a secondary Region, enabling a full DR failover with minimal data loss. This approach is fully supported on AWS by deploying HANA instances in different Availability Zones or Regions, and it meets the RPO/RTO requirements for enterprise SAP HANA workloads.
Variation 4. A company is designing a disaster recovery solution for SAP HANA on AWS using HANA System Replication. The primary site is in us-east-1 and the DR site is in us-west-2. Which component is required to enable replication across Regions?
hard- ✓ A.AWS Site-to-Site VPN or AWS Direct Connect between the two Regions
- B.VPC peering between the two VPCs
- C.Automated EBS snapshots of /hana/data and /hana/log volumes in us-east-1, copied to us-west-2
- D.AWS Global Accelerator
- E.Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration
Why A: To enable HANA System Replication (HSR) across AWS Regions, a reliable, low-latency network connection is required. AWS Site-to-Site VPN or AWS Direct Connect provides a dedicated, secure network path that meets SAP's latency and stability requirements. The other options (VPC peering, automated EBS snapshots, Global Accelerator, S3 Transfer Acceleration) are not required for HSR; HSR performs its own initial data synchronization, and VPC peering does not guarantee the required performance for HANA replication.
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.