DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company runs a production Amazon Redshift cluster with a 5-node ra3.4xlarge configuration. The data engineer observes that write operations are failing with 'Disk Full' errors on some nodes. The cluster has not reached its total capacity. What should the engineer do to resolve this issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
The DEA-C01 exam often tests the misconception that disk full errors always mean the cluster is at capacity, leading candidates to add nodes (Option D) instead of diagnosing data skew; the trap here is that local node disk exhaustion can occur even when the cluster's total storage is underutilized.
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
✓
Recreate the table with a different distribution style to avoid data skew.
The 'Disk Full' errors on some nodes, despite the cluster not reaching total capacity, indicate data skew caused by an inappropriate distribution style. Recreating the table with a different distribution style (e.g., DISTKEY on a high-cardinality column or DISTSTYLE EVEN) redistributes data evenly across all nodes, eliminating the hot spots that exhaust local disk space.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Recreate the table with a different distribution style to avoid data skew.
Why this is correct
Choosing an appropriate DISTKEY distributes data evenly across nodes.
- ✗
Change the sort keys to distribute data evenly.
Why it's wrong here
SORT keys affect order, not distribution.
- ✗
Enable compression on all tables.
Why it's wrong here
Compression reduces storage but may not resolve skew.
- ✗
Add more nodes to the cluster.
Why it's wrong here
Adding nodes increases capacity but doesn't address data skew.
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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.