Preparing for SAP on AWS – Specialty (PAS-C01)

In this blog I wish to share my personnel experience in preparing for the beta exam ‘SAP on AWS – Specialty (PAS-C01)” .

NOTE: This does not cover any new additions or modifications that AWS might bring in with the Standard version starting from 7th April 2022

As this is a brand new exam till today , there is no single guide which covers all the required details in one place . So , below are the compilation of key links and documents to crack this exam.

Exam Guide:

For any exam , the first starting point is definitely the exam guide which consists of list of topics that are needed for this exam along with its  weightage. You can get those details from below link.

https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/docs-sap-on-aws-specialty/SAP-on-AWS-Specialty_Exam-Guide.pdf

Below are the sample question from AWS:

https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/docs-sap-on-aws-specialty/SAP-on-AWS-Specialty_Sample-Questions.pdf

Prerequisite:

As per AWS, this exam does not have any mandatory prerequisite certification .However the practical knowledge of handling AWS, SAP Basis, HANA  and cloud migrations will be the easiest path to crack this exam.

I felt that completing the certification  “AWS Architect – Associate” helped me to better understand the AWS terms in-depth along with hand-on practice. I used the below udemy course for the same.

https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-hands-on/#instructor-1

Documentations:

The documentation provided by AWS varies from SAP specific guides, SAP specific blogs, Topic area specific FAQs . We can also not ignore the key SAP OSS note that has been released by SAP for AWS. Below are the details.

Important SAP OSS notes :

2358420	Oracle Database Support for Amazon Web Services EC2
1656099	SAP Applications on AWS: Supported DB/OS and AWS EC2 products
1656250	SAP on AWS: Support prerequisites
2591601	SAP on AWS: Adaption of your SAP License

Key topics that a SAP Basis person must be comfortable with before attempting the exam are below

AWS related topics:EC2,ASG,EBS,EFS,VPC,Security group,NACL,AWS Data Sync, AWS Storage gateway,S3, Cloud Front,WAF,Cost optimization, Placement group, Transit gateway, VPC peering,AWS SMS migration, Cloud Endure,AWS Config,SNS, Reserved Instance, Savings plan,NAT gateway,AWS backup,SSM,Route53,ALB,NLB,Basics of IAM-user,group,role, Instance profile etc

SAP Basis topics: SWPM, SUM DMO with system move, HSR,HANA,ASCS and ERS clustering, HA setup, Cloud migration etc

Documentation from AWS:

a.SAP on AWS guides:

AWS has provided key guides specific to SAP on AWS below.

https://aws.amazon.com/sap/docs/

b.Important links:

Quick starts:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/quickstart/latest/sap-hana/welcome.html

SAP Launch Wizard:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/launchwizard/latest/userguide/launch-wizard-sap.html

SAP HANA backint and troubleshooting section:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sap/latest/sap-hana/aws-backint-agent-sap-hana.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sap/latest/sap-hana/aws-backint-agent-troubleshooting.html

AWS SAP Data provider , security group, troubleshooting section:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sap/latest/general/aws-data-provider.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sap/latest/general/data-provider-troubleshooting.html

SAP HANA Dynamic tiering;

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sap/latest/sap-hana/sap_hana_data_tiering_overview.html

Overlay IP:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sap/latest/sap-hana/sap-ha-overlay-ip.html

HA cluster configuration:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sap/latest/sap-hana/sap-hana-on-aws-ha-configuration.html

Change and Transport management:

https://d0.awsstatic.com/enterprise-marketing/SAP/SAP_on_AWS_Implementation_Guide.pdf

Migration approaches:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sap/latest/sap-hana/migrating-hana-tools.html

C.Important blogs from AWS:

VPC patterns;

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/awsforsap/vpc-subnet-zoning-patterns-for-sap-on-aws/

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/awsforsap/vpc-subnet-zoning-patterns-for-sap-on-aws-part-2-network-zoning/

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/awsforsap/vpc-subnet-zoning-patterns-for-sap-on-aws-part-3-internal-and-external-access/

Cross endian migration for oracle – XTSS

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/awsforsap/reducing-downtime-with-oracle-xtts-method-for-cross-platform-sap-migrations/

Usage of Cloud front for caching:

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/awsforsap/improving-sap-fiori-performance-with-amazon-cloudfront-and-aws-global-accelerator/

AWS Config – usage of standard and custom rules;

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/awsforsap/audit-your-sap-systems-with-aws-config-part-i/

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/awsforsap/audit-your-sap-systems-with-aws-config-part-ii/

Cost optimized DR setup for HANA:

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/awsforsap/sap-hana-sizing-considerations-for-secondary-instance-with-reduced-memory-footprint/

Securing Fiori with WAF:

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/awsforsap/securing-sap-fiori-with-aws-waf-web-application-firewall/

AWS SSO and Fiori SSO:

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/awsforsap/aws-single-sign-on-integration-with-sap-fiori-in-s-4hana/

d.FAQs from AWS:

For every AWS service, AWS provides a extensive list of FAQs. For SAP on AWS, just an understanding of basic FAQs in each of the topic area will be helpful.

Eg:EBS -FAQs; https://aws.amazon.com/ebs/faqs/

In the similar fashion , ensure to go through the respective FAQs of below at the least atleast at an high level.

“EC2,ASG,EBS,EFS,VPC,Security group,NACL,AWS Data Sync, AWS Storage gateway,S3, Cloud Front,WAF,Cost optimization, Placement group, Transit gateway, VPC peering,AWS SMS migration, Cloud Endure,AWS Config,SNS, Reserved Instance, Savings plan,NAT gateway,AWS backup,SSM,Route53,ALB,NLB,Basics of IAM-user,group,role, Instance profile etc”

 

I strongly believe that  there is no shortcut to success which will help us in long run!

All the best for the exam!  Happy learning!