DEA-C01 AWS DMS Task Settings Practice Question
A company is using AWS DMS to migrate a 5 TB SQL Server database to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL. The migration is using full load plus CDC. After the full load completes, the ongoing replication task is failing with errors related to large transactions on the source. The team needs to ensure that CDC continues without falling behind. What should the team do?
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
✓
Increase the DMS replication instance size to provide more memory and CPU.
Increasing the DMS replication instance size provides more memory and CPU, enabling the instance to process large transactions more efficiently and keep up with CDC changes without falling behind. Option C (modifying MaxFileSize and decreasing CommitRate) is not the best solution because decreasing CommitRate means less frequent commits, which could worsen the problem by accumulating more data per commit. The more direct approach is to scale the instance vertically to handle the load.
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 as an intermediate target for CDC.
Why it's wrong here
Using Amazon Kinesis Data Streams as an intermediate target adds complexity and does not directly address the large transaction handling issue in DMS.
- ✓
Increase the DMS replication instance size to provide more memory and CPU.
Why this is correct
Increasing the DMS replication instance size provides more memory and CPU, allowing the instance to process large transactions more efficiently and keep up with CDC changes without falling behind.
- ✗
Modify the DMS task settings to increase MaxFileSize and decrease the CommitRate.
Why it's wrong here
Modifying MaxFileSize and decreasing CommitRate is not the primary solution; decreasing CommitRate means less frequent commits, which could exacerbate issues with large transactions. The more direct approach is to scale the instance.
- ✗
Disable foreign key constraints on the target Aurora database.
Why it's wrong here
Disabling foreign key constraints might help with data loading but does not resolve CDC transaction issues.
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on DEA-C01
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A data engineer uses AWS DMS to migrate a 2 TB PostgreSQL database to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL. The migration task is set to full load + CDC. After the full load completes, the CDC phase starts but shows a high latency of 5 minutes. The source database has a low write load. What should the engineer do to reduce the CDC latency?
medium- A.Decrease the batch size for the CDC task.
- B.Disable the validation feature on the DMS task.
- ✓ C.Increase the size of the DMS replication instance.
- D.Enable logging for the DMS task to capture additional details.
Why C: To reduce CDC latency, increasing the size of the DMS replication instance (Option C) is the most effective action because it provides more CPU and memory to process the change data capture stream. Option A (decreasing batch size) could actually worsen latency by increasing the number of batches. Option B (disabling validation) might reduce some overhead but does not address potential resource constraints. Option D (enabling logging) adds overhead and does not reduce latency.
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.