DEA-C01 Amazon Redshift CloudWatch Metrics Practice Question
A data engineer needs to monitor the performance of an Amazon Redshift cluster. Which Amazon CloudWatch metric should the engineer monitor to detect disk space issues?
⚠ Common exam trap
DEA-C01 often tests the distinction between performance metrics (e.g., IOPS, CPU) and capacity metrics (e.g., disk space), causing candidates to overlook PercentageDiskSpace as the direct indicator of disk space issues.
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
✓
PercentageDiskSpace
PercentageDiskSpace is the correct metric because it directly reports the percentage of disk space used in the Redshift cluster. Monitoring this metric allows the engineer to detect when disk space is running low, which can lead to performance degradation or query failures. Unlike I/O or CPU metrics, it specifically measures storage utilization, making it the most relevant for disk space issues.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
ReadIOPS
Why it's wrong here
ReadIOPS counts read operations per second, reflecting query activity rather than storage capacity. It is tempting because intensive reads accompany large datasets, but the metric never reports used or free disk; PercentageDiskSpaceUsed directly measures disk consumption and is the correct choice for detecting space issues.
- ✗
WriteIOPS
Why it's wrong here
WriteIOPS counts write operations per second, indicating workload intensity rather than remaining capacity. It is tempting because heavy writes can fill storage, but the metric itself never reports free space; PercentageDiskSpaceUsed directly reflects disk consumption and is the correct alarm source for space issues.
- ✓
PercentageDiskSpace
Why this is correct
PercentageDiskSpace reports the proportion of each node's disk already consumed, so it surfaces storage exhaustion directly. Monitoring it lets the engineer detect when Redshift nodes approach capacity, which is the disk-space issue the stem asks about, unlike CPU or query-latency metrics.
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NetworkThroughput
Why it's wrong here
NetworkThroughput measures data transfer rates between the cluster and clients, unrelated to storage capacity. It is tempting as a general performance metric, but disk space issues are detected by PercentageDiskSpaceUsed, which reports the proportion of disk consumed and triggers alarms before storage is exhausted.
- ✗
CPUUtilization
Why it's wrong here
CPUUtilization reports compute load across cluster nodes, not storage consumption. It is tempting because sustained high CPU often accompanies heavy query workloads that write data, but it gives no indication of disk usage; PercentageDiskSpaceUsed is the metric that signals impending disk space exhaustion.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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.