DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A company is ingesting data from multiple on-premises databases into AWS using AWS Database Migration Service (DMS). The data must be continuously replicated with minimal downtime. However, the source databases do not support native CDC. What should the data engineer do to enable continuous replication?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume AWS DMS always requires native CDC or that Kinesis is the only way to achieve streaming replication, but DMS provides fallback mechanisms like batch replication with frequent refreshes to handle sources without native CDC support.
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 AWS DMS with log-based CDC if the source databases support it; otherwise, use DMS with batch replication and schedule frequent refreshes.
When source databases do not support native CDC, AWS DMS can still achieve continuous replication by using log-based CDC if the database engine supports it (e.g., Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL). If log-based CDC is not supported, DMS batch replication with frequent scheduled refreshes provides near-continuous replication by periodically extracting full or incremental changes, minimizing downtime. This approach leverages DMS's built-in task settings for change data capture and resumption without requiring external streaming services.
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 Amazon Kinesis Data Streams with a custom producer to capture database changes.
Why it's wrong here
Kinesis requires a producer to push data, not pull from databases.
- ✗
Use Amazon Redshift Spectrum to directly query the on-premises databases.
Why it's wrong here
Redshift Spectrum queries data in S3, not on-premises databases.
- ✓
Use AWS DMS with log-based CDC if the source databases support it; otherwise, use DMS with batch replication and schedule frequent refreshes.
Why this is correct
DMS supports CDC via source database logs, and if not available, batch replication can approximate continuous sync.
- ✗
Set up AWS Glue jobs to run every minute to extract and load the data.
Why it's wrong here
Glue is batch-oriented and not designed for real-time CDC.
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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.