PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Question
Which THREE of the following are best practices for operating an SAP HANA database on AWS in a production environment?
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
✓
Ensure the EC2 instance is EBS-optimized.
EBS-optimized instances provide dedicated bandwidth for EBS, which is essential for HANA workloads. Option C is correct because separating data and log files onto different EBS volumes is a best practice recommended by SAP to improve performance and manageability. Option E is correct because using multiple EBS volumes striped with LVM or RAID 0 aggregates IOPS and throughput, providing the high performance required for production HANA databases. Option A is incorrect because configuring a swap partition on the instance store is not recommended for HANA; HANA relies on memory and swap usage is discouraged. Option D is incorrect because using a single large EBS volume for both data and logs can lead to performance bottlenecks and is not a best practice.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure a swap partition on the instance store.
Why it's wrong here
Swap is not recommended for HANA; it relies on memory.
- ✓
Ensure the EC2 instance is EBS-optimized.
Why this is correct
EBS-optimized instances provide dedicated network bandwidth to EBS.
- ✓
Separate data and log files onto different EBS volumes.
Why this is correct
Separation allows independent tuning and reduces contention.
- ✗
Use a single large EBS volume for both data and logs to simplify management.
Why it's wrong here
Single volume can cause I/O contention and is not a best practice.
- ✓
Use multiple EBS volumes striped with LVM or RAID 0 for data and log files.
Why this is correct
Striping improves I/O throughput for HANA.
Quick reference
RAID Level Comparison
| RAID Level | Min Disks | Fault Tolerance | Read | Write | Usable Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RAID 0 | 2 | None | Excellent | Excellent | 100% |
| RAID 1 | 2 | 1 disk | Good | Moderate | 50% |
| RAID 5 | 3 | 1 disk | Good | Moderate | 67–94% |
| RAID 6 | 4 | 2 disks | Good | Lower | 50–88% |
| RAID 10 | 4 | 1 disk per mirror | Excellent | Good | 50% |
RAID is not a backup strategy — it protects against disk failure but not against accidental deletion, ransomware, or site-level events.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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