DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A data engineering team uses AWS Glue ETL jobs to process data from Amazon S3 and load it into an Amazon Redshift cluster. The cluster has a single node of type dc2.large. The team notices that the ETL jobs are failing intermittently with errors related to disk space. The Redshift cluster shows that the disk is nearly full. The team needs to resolve the disk space issue and ensure the ETL jobs can complete successfully without increasing costs significantly. Which solution should the team implement?
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
✓
Convert the cluster to use RA3 node types (e.g., ra3.xlarge) with managed storage.
Converting to RA3 node types with managed storage allows compute and storage to scale independently, resolving the disk space issue without over-provisioning compute. Options B and D do not increase disk capacity. Option C adds more nodes but still uses fixed storage per node and increases cost significantly.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Convert the cluster to use RA3 node types (e.g., ra3.xlarge) with managed storage.
Why this is correct
Correct: RA3 nodes decouple compute and storage via managed storage, eliminating fixed local disk limits and enabling storage scaling as needed.
- ✗
Load data into a staging table first, then perform a VACUUM and ANALYZE on the target tables.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Loading into a staging table and running VACUUM frees space from deleted rows but does not increase total disk capacity.
- ✗
Add more nodes to the Redshift cluster by resizing to a multi-node dc2.large configuration.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Adding more dc2.large nodes increases both compute and storage, but each node has limited local storage, and this approach typically costs more than RA3 for the same storage need.
- ✗
Set the table's distribution style to ALL for fact tables to avoid data redistribution during joins.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Setting distribution style to ALL for fact tables improves join performance but does not add storage space.
Visual reference
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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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.