DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A company uses AWS DMS to migrate data from an on-premises Oracle database to Amazon Redshift. The migration is successful, but after a few days, data in Redshift becomes inconsistent with the source due to ongoing changes. The company needs to keep Redshift synchronized with minimal latency. Which approach should the data engineer use?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse Amazon Redshift Spectrum's federated querying capability with actual data replication, or assume that nightly batch loads (Option C) are sufficient for 'minimal latency' requirements, when DMS CDC is the only option that provides continuous, low-latency synchronization.
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
✓
Configure DMS with ongoing replication using change data capture (CDC).
AWS DMS supports ongoing replication using change data capture (CDC), which captures incremental changes from the Oracle source (via Oracle LogMiner or binary logs) and applies them to Amazon Redshift in near real-time. This approach ensures that Redshift remains synchronized with the source database with minimal latency, meeting the requirement for ongoing consistency after the initial full 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.
- ✓
Configure DMS with ongoing replication using change data capture (CDC).
Why this is correct
CDC captures changes continuously and applies them to Redshift.
- ✗
Use Amazon Redshift COPY with S3 staging and AWS Lambda triggers.
Why it's wrong here
This approach requires custom coding and does not capture all changes.
- ✗
Schedule a full DMS load every night.
Why it's wrong here
Full loads are time-consuming and do not provide low-latency sync.
- ✗
Set up Amazon Redshift Spectrum to query the Oracle database directly.
Why it's wrong here
Spectrum queries external data in S3, not live databases.
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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 company uses AWS DMS to migrate data from an on-premises Oracle database to Amazon Aurora MySQL. After the migration, the data in Aurora is inconsistent with the source. The engineer needs to ensure ongoing replication with minimal downtime. Which solution should the engineer implement?
medium- A.Use AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) to convert the schema
- B.Export the data from Oracle and import into Aurora using mysqldump
- ✓ C.Configure a DMS task with change data capture (CDC)
- D.Perform a full load migration again
Why C: Configuring a DMS task with Change Data Capture (CDC) enables ongoing replication of changes from the source Oracle database to the target Aurora MySQL database with minimal downtime, ensuring consistency. Option A is incorrect because AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) only converts schema and does not handle data replication. Option B is incorrect because mysqldump provides a one-time export/import, not ongoing replication. Option D is incorrect because performing a full load migration again would disrupt operations and would not capture ongoing changes.
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.