Question 1,266 of 1,663
DBS-C01 Management and Operations Practice Question
A company has an Amazon Redshift cluster with two dc2.large nodes. The cluster is used for daily ETL jobs and reporting. The operations team receives an alert that the cluster's disk space is 90% full. The ETL jobs are failing with 'disk full' errors. The team needs to resolve the issue quickly with minimal downtime. Which action should be taken?
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
✓
Resize the cluster to a larger node type, such as dc2.large to ds2.xlarge, or add more nodes.
Resizing the cluster to a larger node type or adding more nodes increases the total storage capacity, directly addressing the disk full issue. Option A is wrong because a deep copy reorganizes data but does not increase storage capacity. Option B is wrong because VACUUM reclaims space from deleted rows but may not free enough space when the cluster is already 90% full. Option D is wrong because unloading data to S3 removes data from the cluster only if deleted, but the statement does not include deletion; even if deleted, the space is not reclaimed until VACUUM.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Perform a deep copy to re-sort and reclaim space.
Why it's wrong here
Deep copy reorganizes data but does not increase allocated storage.
- ✗
Run the VACUUM command to reclaim space from deleted rows.
Why it's wrong here
VACUUM can free some space but may not be sufficient if the cluster is 90% full.
- ✓
Resize the cluster to a larger node type, such as dc2.large to ds2.xlarge, or add more nodes.
Why this is correct
Resizing increases the total storage capacity, resolving the disk full issue.
- ✗
Unload old data to Amazon S3 and delete from the cluster.
Why it's wrong here
Unloading data to S3 does not automatically free space; the data must be deleted and VACUUM run, which is not immediate.
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 |
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Last reviewed: Jun 20, 2026
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