DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A company is using AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to migrate a 2 TB Oracle database to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL. The migration must have minimal downtime. The source database is highly active with continuous writes. Which DMS migration type and additional configuration should the engineer use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume a CDC-only task can handle both initial load and ongoing changes, but DMS requires a full load phase to populate the target before CDC can start, and they overlook that a full load alone cannot capture writes occurring during the migration.
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 a full load migration task followed by ongoing replication (CDC).
A full load migration followed by ongoing replication (CDC) allows the initial data copy to complete while continuously capturing and applying incremental changes from the highly active source. This minimizes downtime by keeping the target database nearly synchronized, requiring only a brief cutover window to stop writes and finalize replication.
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 a CDC-only migration task to capture changes from the source.
Why it's wrong here
CDC-only replicates ongoing changes but never loads the existing 2 TB of rows, so Aurora PostgreSQL starts empty apart from newly captured transactions. It suits continuous replication between already-synchronised endpoints, or adding a replica after an initial load has run separately. Here the full load must precede CDC in one task.
- ✗
Use a full load migration task and stop the source database before starting.
Why it's wrong here
Stopping the source halts writes, but the 2 TB full load still runs while the application is offline, producing downtime proportional to copy duration rather than the minimal downtime required. Full load alone suits small, quiescent databases where a maintenance window is acceptable and no changes occur during the copy.
- ✗
Use a full load migration task with task restart enabled.
Why it's wrong here
Task restart resumes a failed load from the last checkpoint; it does not capture writes committed on the source after each table's load completes, so those changes never reach Aurora PostgreSQL. Restart suits recovering interrupted full loads on static datasets, not continuously written sources needing change data capture.
- ✓
Use a full load migration task followed by ongoing replication (CDC).
Why this is correct
A full load plus change data capture (CDC) copies existing rows then continuously applies ongoing source changes, keeping Aurora PostgreSQL synchronised until cutover. This satisfies the minimal-downtime constraint for a highly active 2 TB Oracle source, unlike full load alone.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every DEA-C01 question from scratch — 1,321 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
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.