DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company has an Amazon Redshift cluster with a mix of frequently accessed hot data and rarely accessed cold data. They want to reduce storage costs without affecting query performance for the hot data. Which strategy is MOST effective?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often choose Redshift Spectrum (Option C) thinking it automatically offloads cold data, but Spectrum requires manual external table creation and does not integrate with the cluster's automatic storage tiering.
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 RA3 nodes with managed storage to automatically offload cold data to Amazon S3.
RA3 nodes with managed storage automatically separate compute and storage, offloading cold data to Amazon S3 while keeping hot data on local SSD for fast queries. This reduces storage costs without manual intervention or affecting hot data performance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use RA3 nodes with managed storage to automatically offload cold data to Amazon S3.
Why this is correct
RA3 nodes use managed storage that automatically moves cold data to S3, reducing local storage costs.
- ✗
Reduce the number of nodes and increase the number of slices.
Why it's wrong here
This reduces capacity and may degrade performance; does not address hot/cold separation.
- ✗
Create external tables in Redshift Spectrum to query cold data in S3.
Why it's wrong here
Spectrum allows querying S3 data but does not automatically manage hot/cold separation within the cluster.
- ✗
Use Dense Compute nodes and unload cold data to Amazon S3 manually.
Why it's wrong here
Manual unloading is not efficient and Dense Compute nodes have limited local storage.
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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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DEA-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 DEA-C01 exam.