The correct answer is to configure SAP HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones. This design change directly resolves intermittent database connection timeouts by eliminating the single point of failure inherent in a single-AZ deployment. SAP HANA System Replication (HSR) across AZs 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, allowing the application to failover without manual intervention. On the AWS Certified SAP on AWS Specialty PAS-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of high availability patterns and the distinction between database-level replication versus infrastructure-level redundancy like Multi-AZ for RDS. A common trap is to recommend a Multi-AZ deployment for the SAP application tier alone, but the root cause here is database availability, not compute. Remember: for SAP HANA on AWS, cross-AZ system replication is the gold standard for database HA—think “HSR across AZs, not just app layers.”
PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
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.
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?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Configure SAP HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones
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.
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.
✗
Use Amazon EBS Multi-Attach to attach the same volume to multiple EC2 instances
Why it's wrong here
EBS Multi-Attach is not supported for SAP HANA and does not provide database failover.
✗
Implement an Amazon RDS for SAP HANA read replica
Why it's wrong here
RDS for SAP HANA does not support read replicas; also read replicas do not provide failover.
✓
Configure SAP HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones
Why this is correct
SAP HANA System Replication with automatic failover ensures high availability across AZs.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Scale up the SAP HANA instance to a larger instance type
Why it's wrong here
Scaling up increases resources but does not provide high availability.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
AWS often tests the misconception that scaling up or adding storage redundancy (like Multi-Attach) solves database availability issues, but the key is that SAP HANA requires database-level replication (HSR) to handle AZ failures, not just infrastructure-level changes.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
SAP HANA System Replication uses log shipping and can be configured in synchronous mode (with 'full sync' or 'sync' setting) to ensure zero data loss within a sub-second RPO, or asynchronous mode for lower latency over longer distances. The failover can be automated using AWS services like Amazon Route 53 health checks or a custom script that updates the SAP HANA hostname, and the secondary instance must be in a different Availability Zone to survive AZ-level failures. In a real-world scenario, a single-AZ deployment might experience timeouts due to underlying hardware degradation or network issues, which HSR resolves by allowing the application to reconnect to the secondary instance via a virtual IP or DNS update.
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
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
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: Configure SAP HANA System Replication across two Availability Zones — 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.
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 →
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 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?
hard
A.AWS Auto Scaling groups with lifecycle hooks
✓ B.Pacemaker cluster with STONITH across two Availability Zones
C.Amazon RDS Multi-AZ deployment
D.Amazon EFS as shared storage for HANA data
Why B: Pacemaker cluster with STONITH ensures automatic failover by fencing failed nodes. EBS Multi-Attach is not supported across AZs, so NFS or other shared storage is used.
Last reviewed: Jun 30, 2026
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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.
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