Reducing SAP HANA Recovery Time with System Replication
A company runs its SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance in a single Availability Zone. The system is critical and requires high availability. The current setup uses an EBS volume for data storage. During a recent failure simulation, the database took 45 minutes to recover because the EBS volume had to be reattached and the database had to replay logs. The operations team wants to reduce recovery time to less than 15 minutes. Which solution should they implement?
Quick Answer
A 45-minute recovery time in the original setup came from having to reattach an EBS volume and replay logs after a failure - in other words, rebuilding a working database state from scratch after the fact. Reducing that recovery time to under 15 minutes requires eliminating that rebuild step entirely, which is exactly what deploying a second EC2 instance in a different Availability Zone with SAP HANA system replication does: it maintains an already-running, continuously synchronized standby database that can be promoted to primary almost immediately, rather than requiring storage reattachment and log replay after the failure has already happened. Because the standby is kept current through replication rather than reconstructed after the fact, the time to recover collapses from the time needed to rebuild a database down to just the time needed to detect the failure and promote the standby. It's worth contrasting this with the other options, which all still involve some form of rebuild-after-failure: more frequent snapshots would shrink the amount of data to restore and replay, but restoring from a snapshot and replaying logs still takes meaningfully longer than promoting an already-running replica; higher provisioned IOPS improves ongoing performance but does nothing for how quickly you can recover after a failure; and Amazon S3, as object storage, isn't suited to serving as the live database itself. Whenever a question emphasizes cutting recovery time dramatically, look for the answer built around a standby that's already running and synchronized, rather than one that improves the speed of a rebuild-from-storage process.
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 a second EC2 instance in a different Availability Zone and configure SAP HANA system replication.
Deploying a second EC2 instance in a different Availability Zone with SAP HANA system replication (synchronous replication) provides a standby database that can be promoted quickly, reducing recovery time to minutes. Option B is incorrect because more frequent snapshots still require restoring and log replay, which takes longer. Option C is incorrect because increasing provisioned IOPS improves performance but does not affect recovery time during failure. Option D is incorrect because Amazon S3 is an object storage service not suitable for low-latency database operations like SAP HANA.
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 a second EC2 instance in a different Availability Zone and configure SAP HANA system replication.
Why this is correct
Deploying a second EC2 instance in a different AZ with SAP HANA system replication ensures a synchronous standby that can take over within minutes, reducing RTO to under 15 minutes.
- ✗
Use AWS Backup to create more frequent snapshots.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Backup snapshots require restoring the volume and replaying logs, which can take 45 minutes or more; more frequent snapshots do not reduce the time for log replay.
- ✗
Increase the provisioned IOPS of the EBS volume.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing provisioned IOPS improves I/O performance but does not reduce recovery time; recovery is dominated by log replay and volume attachment.
- ✗
Move the database to Amazon S3 for faster access.
Why it's wrong here
Amazon S3 is not a block storage solution for databases; it is object storage and cannot be used as a primary database storage for SAP HANA.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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Variation 1. Which THREE components are required to set up a highly available SAP HANA database using AWS services? (Choose 3)
hard- A.Application Load Balancer
- B.Single Availability Zone deployment
- ✓ C.Multi-AZ deployment with synchronous replication
- ✓ D.Cluster manager (e.g., Pacemaker)
- ✓ E.Elastic IP address
Why C: Options C, D, and E are correct. A Multi-AZ deployment with synchronous replication (C) provides high availability by replicating data across Availability Zones. A cluster manager like Pacemaker (D) automates failover and manages the cluster. An Elastic IP address (E) provides a static IP that can be remapped to the standby host during failover, ensuring connectivity. Option A (Application Load Balancer) is not required for SAP HANA database HA; it's used for web traffic. Option B (Single AZ) does not provide 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.