DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A company needs to ingest data from an on-premises MySQL database into Amazon S3 for analytics. The database is 2 TB in size. The company has a low-bandwidth internet connection (10 Mbps). They need to perform an initial full load and then incremental updates every hour. Which approach should they use?
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 Database Migration Service (DMS) to perform the full load and ongoing replication.
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) supports full load and ongoing replication, and can be used with limited bandwidth. Option A is wrong because Kinesis Data Firehose is for streaming data, not database replication. Option C is wrong because Glue ETL is not optimized for continuous replication. Option D is wrong because Snowball Edge is for offline transfer, not ongoing 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 Kinesis Data Firehose to stream data from MySQL to S3.
Why it's wrong here
Firehose cannot directly connect to MySQL.
- ✓
Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to perform the full load and ongoing replication.
Why this is correct
AWS DMS can perform a full 2 TB load from MySQL to S3 even over a 10 Mbps link because it uses change data capture (CDC) to track incremental changes after the initial load, enabling hourly updates without re-scanning the entire source. This satisfies the low-bandwidth constraint by minimising repeated data transfer.
- ✗
Use AWS Glue ETL jobs to extract data and load into S3.
Why it's wrong here
Glue ETL is not designed for continuous replication.
- ✗
Use AWS Snowball Edge to transfer the initial full load, then use AWS DataSync for incremental updates.
Why it's wrong here
Snowball Edge is for offline transfer, but DataSync is not suitable for database replication.
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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Same concept, more angles
6 more ways 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 company needs to ingest data from a MySQL database into Amazon S3 in near real-time. The database is running on EC2. The data engineer wants to minimize the impact on the source database. Which service should be used?
easy- ✓ A.AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication
- B.AWS Glue ETL job with a JDBC connection
- C.Amazon RDS for MySQL with read replica
- D.AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT)
Why A: AWS DMS with ongoing replication (change data capture) is the correct choice because it can continuously replicate changes from a MySQL source database to Amazon S3 with minimal performance impact. DMS uses a transactional log-based approach (MySQL binlog) to capture changes as they occur, avoiding heavy SELECT queries on the source. This enables near real-time ingestion without adding significant load to the production database.
Variation 2. A company needs to ingest data from a relational database into Amazon S3 for analytics. The database is an Amazon RDS MySQL instance. Which AWS service should be used for a one-time historical data load?
easy- ✓ A.AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
- B.AWS Glue ETL
- C.Amazon Athena
- D.Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
Why A: AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) is the correct choice for a one-time historical data load from Amazon RDS MySQL to Amazon S3. DMS supports full-load migrations from relational databases to S3, making it ideal for this use case. AWS Glue ETL can also perform similar tasks but is more suited for complex transformations and scheduled jobs, and DMS is the dedicated service for database migrations. Amazon Athena is a query service, not an ingestion tool. Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose is designed for streaming data, not one-time loads.
Variation 3. A company needs to ingest data from an on-premises Oracle database into Amazon S3 on a daily basis. The data volume is about 100 GB per day. Which AWS service is BEST suited for this task?
easy- A.Use AWS DataSync to copy the database files to S3.
- B.Use Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose with a database connector.
- ✓ C.Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to replicate data to S3.
- D.Use AWS Glue to extract data from Oracle and write to S3.
Why C: AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) can continuously replicate data from Oracle to S3, and it supports full load and change data capture (CDC). Option A (AWS DataSync) is for file-based transfers, not database replication. Option B (Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose) is for streaming data, not database pull. Option D (AWS Glue) is for ETL but does not natively support continuous CDC from Oracle.
Variation 4. A company needs to ingest data from an on-premises SQL Server database into Amazon Redshift. The data volume is less than 1 TB and the network bandwidth is limited. Which AWS service should be used for the initial full load?
easy- A.AWS Snowball Edge
- ✓ B.AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
- C.Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration
- D.AWS Direct Connect
Why B: AWS DMS is designed for migrating databases to AWS, including to Redshift. Option A (AWS Snowball) is for large data volumes (petabytes) and not efficient for <1 TB. Option C (Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration) speeds up uploads to S3 but not directly to Redshift. Option D (AWS Direct Connect) is a network connection, not a migration service.
Variation 5. A company needs to ingest data from multiple on-premises databases into Amazon S3 for analytics. The databases include Oracle, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. The data must be continuously replicated with minimal latency. Which AWS service should be used?
easy- ✓ A.AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS)
- B.Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
- C.AWS Snowball
- D.AWS Glue
Why A: AWS DMS supports continuous replication (change data capture, CDC) from Oracle, MySQL, and PostgreSQL to S3 as a target, enabling near-real-time data ingestion with minimal latency. It handles schema conversion and can replicate ongoing changes without interrupting source databases, making it the correct choice for this use case.
Variation 6. A company needs to ingest data from an on-premises Oracle database into Amazon S3 for analytics. The data volume is about 1 TB initially, with daily incremental updates of about 10 GB. Which TWO services can be combined to achieve this with minimal custom code?
easy- A.AWS Glue
- B.Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
- C.Amazon Athena
- ✓ D.Amazon S3
- ✓ E.AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
Why D: The correct combination is AWS DMS (Database Migration Service) for migration and Amazon S3 as the target. DMS can perform full load and ongoing replication with minimal custom code, making it suitable for the initial 1 TB load and daily 10 GB increments. AWS Glue (option A) could be used but often requires more custom code for change data capture (CDC) compared to DMS. Amazon Kinesis Data Streams (option B) is designed for real-time streaming data, not database migration. Amazon Athena (option C) is a query service, not a data movement service. Therefore, the correct answers are D (Amazon S3) and E (AWS DMS).
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.