PAS-C01 Technology Practice Question
You are managing an SAP S/4HANA system on AWS. The system uses a multi-AZ deployment with two application servers (one in us-east-1a, one in us-east-1b) and a HANA database in us-east-1a with a standby in us-east-1b using HSR. The /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans are on an EFS file system. Recently, you noticed that during a failover test of the HANA database, the application servers lost connectivity to the database for several minutes, causing errors. You also observed that after the failover, the application servers could not reconnect until the EFS mount was remounted. What is the most likely cause and solution?
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 EFS mount targets in each AZ and use an EFS access point with a consistent mount path.
The issue is that during a HANA database failover, the application servers lost connectivity and could not reconnect until the EFS mount was remounted. This indicates that the EFS mount targets are not properly configured for multi-AZ access. When the database fails over to the standby in us-east-1b, the application servers may be trying to access the EFS file system through a mount target that is only in us-east-1a, or the DNS resolution leads to a mount target in the wrong AZ, causing connectivity loss. Option C is correct because configuring EFS mount targets in each AZ and using an EFS access point with a consistent mount path ensures that application servers in any AZ can reliably mount and access the shared file system without relying on cross-AZ connectivity. Option A (increase EFS throughput) does not address connectivity issues during failover. Option B (migrate to FSx for ONTAP) is not the immediate solution and may be unnecessary. Option D (synchronous replication) does not fix the EFS connectivity problem.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the provisioned throughput on the EFS file system to handle the increased load during failover.
Why it's wrong here
Throughput is not the issue; connectivity loss is due to mount target resolution.
- ✗
Migrate the shared file systems to Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP with multi-AZ deployment.
Why it's wrong here
While this could be a long-term solution, it does not address the immediate cause of the disconnection.
- ✓
Configure EFS mount targets in each AZ and use an EFS access point with a consistent mount path.
Why this is correct
This ensures that after failover, the application servers can mount the file system using the access point that resolves in the AZ.
- ✗
Reconfigure SAP HANA System Replication to use synchronous replication.
Why it's wrong here
Replication mode does not affect file system connectivity.
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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.