DBS-C01 Management and Operations Practice Question
A company runs an Amazon Redshift cluster with three nodes. The data warehouse team notices that some queries are slow due to high disk usage. The cluster has reached 80% storage capacity. What is the MOST cost-effective way to increase storage without interrupting operations?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse elastic resize with classic resize, assuming both require downtime, or they incorrectly think adding a node of the same type is a simple online operation, when in fact Redshift does not support online addition of nodes without a resize operation.
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
✓
Perform an elastic resize to change to a node type with larger storage per node.
Amazon Redshift's elastic resize operation allows you to change the node type to one with larger storage per node without downtime, and it completes in minutes. This is the most cost-effective approach for a cluster at 80% capacity, as it avoids the overhead of provisioning additional nodes or the longer downtime associated with classic resize, while directly addressing the high disk usage by increasing per-node storage.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Add one more node of the same type to the cluster.
Why it's wrong here
Adding nodes increases storage but also compute, which may be unnecessary.
- ✗
Use classic resize to change to a node type with larger storage.
Why it's wrong here
Classic resize requires more downtime than elastic resize.
- ✓
Perform an elastic resize to change to a node type with larger storage per node.
Why this is correct
Elastic resize completes in minutes and minimizes downtime.
- ✗
Create a second cluster and use Redshift Spectrum to offload queries.
Why it's wrong here
Spectrum queries external data, but does not increase local storage.
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