DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A company runs a SQL Server transactional database on Amazon RDS. They need to capture change data (inserts, updates, deletes) in near real-time and replicate them to an Amazon S3 data lake. Which AWS service is most suitable?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse Kinesis Data Streams as a general-purpose streaming solution for any real-time data, but it lacks native CDC capabilities for relational databases without additional custom code or connectors, making DMS the correct choice for database-to-S3 replication.
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
✓
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with change data capture
AWS DMS with change data capture (CDC) is the most suitable service because it can continuously capture and replicate incremental changes (inserts, updates, deletes) from a SQL Server transactional database on Amazon RDS to an S3 data lake in near real-time. DMS uses native SQL Server transaction logs (e.g., MS-CDC or log-based replication) to read changes without impacting source performance, and it supports target S3 in formats like Parquet or CSV. This directly meets the requirement for near-real-time CDC replication to a data lake.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with change data capture
Why this is correct
DMS change data capture reads the database transaction log continuously, streaming inserts, updates and deletes to S3 with minimal source impact. This satisfies the near real-time replication requirement, unlike batch exports or snapshot-only tools that cannot capture ongoing changes.
- ✗
AWS Glue DataBrew
Why it's wrong here
AWS Glue DataBrew profiles and cleans datasets visually; it cannot read a SQL Server transaction log or stream inserts, updates and deletes continuously. It is tempting for preparing S3 data, but change data capture from RDS requires AWS Database Migration Service with ongoing replication.
- ✗
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams with Kinesis Client Library
Why it's wrong here
Kinesis Data Streams ingests events but has no native SQL Server change capture; you would still need a producer reading the transaction log. It is tempting for real-time pipelines, yet AWS DMS with ongoing replication performs the CDC extraction and S3 delivery directly.
- ✗
Amazon Redshift Spectrum
Why it's wrong here
Redshift Spectrum queries data already in S3 from a Redshift cluster; it does not connect to SQL Server or capture row-level changes. It is tempting because it bridges Redshift and S3, but the requirement is near real-time CDC from RDS, which AWS DMS provides.
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 |
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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