- A
Switch to gp3 EBS volumes with maximum throughput.
Why wrong: gp3 volumes provide lower maximum IOPS and higher latency compared to io2 Block Express for SAP HANA.
- B
Increase the EC2 instance size to a compute-optimized type.
Why wrong: Compute-optimized instances improve CPU performance but do not directly address storage latency.
- C
Use EBS io2 Block Express volumes with multi-attach enabled.
io2 Block Express volumes offer up to 256,000 IOPS and sub-millisecond latency, meeting SAP HANA performance requirements.
- D
Migrate the data to instance store volumes.
Why wrong: Instance store volumes are ephemeral and data is lost on instance stop/termination, making them unsuitable for databases.
Question 99 of 1,733
Resolve SAP HANA Write Latency with io2 Block Express
This PAS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of technology. 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 an SAP HANA database on an EC2 instance with EBS volumes. The database experiences high write latency during peak hours. Which configuration change would most effectively reduce latency?
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
✓
Use EBS io2 Block Express volumes with multi-attach enabled.
SAP HANA is a high-performance in-memory database that requires extremely low-latency storage for its data and log volumes. EBS io2 Block Express volumes provide up to 256,000 IOPS per volume with single-digit millisecond latency, and multi-attach enables a cluster configuration for high availability. This directly addresses high write latency during peak hours by delivering consistent, ultra-low latency performance that gp3 or larger instances cannot match.
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.
- ✗
Switch to gp3 EBS volumes with maximum throughput.
Why it's wrong here
gp3 volumes provide lower maximum IOPS and higher latency compared to io2 Block Express for SAP HANA.
- ✗
Increase the EC2 instance size to a compute-optimized type.
Why it's wrong here
Compute-optimized instances improve CPU performance but do not directly address storage latency.
- ✓
Use EBS io2 Block Express volumes with multi-attach enabled.
Why this is correct
io2 Block Express volumes offer up to 256,000 IOPS and sub-millisecond latency, meeting SAP HANA performance requirements.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Migrate the data to instance store volumes.
Why it's wrong here
Instance store volumes are ephemeral and data is lost on instance stop/termination, making them unsuitable for databases.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often choose gp3 (Option A) because it is the newer, cost-effective general-purpose volume, but they overlook that SAP HANA's strict latency requirements demand the premium io2 Block Express, not just high throughput.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
EBS io2 Block Express volumes leverage a new storage architecture that uses NVMe over TCP and a distributed storage backend to deliver up to 256,000 IOPS and 4,000 MB/s throughput per volume with 99.999% durability. In an SAP HANA scale-out or multi-node cluster, multi-attach allows multiple EC2 instances to share the same volume for shared storage, which is critical for HANA system replication and failover scenarios. Real-world deployments often pair io2 Block Express with instances like r5b.metal or x2iedn.metal to achieve the sub-500-microsecond latency required for peak write workloads.
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
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this PAS-C01 question test?
Technology — This question tests Technology — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use EBS io2 Block Express volumes with multi-attach enabled. — SAP HANA is a high-performance in-memory database that requires extremely low-latency storage for its data and log volumes. EBS io2 Block Express volumes provide up to 256,000 IOPS per volume with single-digit millisecond latency, and multi-attach enables a cluster configuration for high availability. This directly addresses high write latency during peak hours by delivering consistent, ultra-low latency performance that gp3 or larger instances cannot match.
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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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 HANA on an EC2 instance with multiple EBS volumes for data and log. The instance is experiencing high write latency on the log volume. The administrator notices that the log volume is a gp2 EBS volume with 1,000 GB size and 3,000 IOPS baseline. The average write IOPS to the log volume is 4,000, with peaks up to 5,500. Which action should the administrator take to resolve the latency?
hard- ✓ A.Replace the gp2 volume with an io2 Block Express volume provisioned at 6,000 IOPS.
- B.Change the volume type to st1 (throughput optimized) to improve throughput.
- C.Add a second log volume and stripe them using LVM.
- D.Increase the gp2 volume size to 2,000 GB to double the baseline IOPS.
Why A: Option A is correct. The gp2 volume's baseline IOPS is 3,000, but the log volume requires an average of 4,000 write IOPS with peaks up to 5,500, which exceeds the burst balance, causing latency. Replacing with an io2 Block Express volume provisioned at 6,000 IOPS provides consistent high IOPS and low latency, ideal for SAP HANA log volumes. Option B is incorrect because st1 volumes are throughput-optimized, not IOPS-optimized, and would not address the IOPS bottleneck. Option C is incorrect because striping additional gp2 volumes adds complexity and still relies on burst performance, which may not sustain the required IOPS. Option D is incorrect because while increasing gp2 size to 2,000 GB doubles baseline IOPS to 6,000, gp2 still uses a burst model; if the burst balance is depleted, latency can occur. io2 Block Express provides provisioned, consistent performance without bursting.
Variation 2. A company runs SAP on AWS and uses a Multi-AZ RDS for SAP HANA as the database. The database instance is m5.8xlarge with 1000 GB of gp2 storage. The application team reports that write latency spikes during peak hours. The average write throughput is 200 MB/s. Which change would most effectively reduce write latency?
hard- A.Increase the volume size to 2000 GB
- B.Enable EBS Auto Scaling on the volume
- C.Change the volume type to Throughput Optimized (st1)
- ✓ D.Change the volume type to Provisioned IOPS (io1 or io2)
Why D: Option D is correct because SAP HANA is highly sensitive to write latency, and the current gp2 volume cannot sustain the required 200 MB/s write throughput without experiencing latency spikes. Provisioned IOPS (io1 or io2) volumes provide consistent, low-latency performance with guaranteed IOPS, which directly addresses the write throughput demand and eliminates the burst-bucket exhaustion that causes latency spikes on gp2.
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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