DBS-C01 Monitoring and Troubleshooting Practice Question
A company uses Amazon Redshift for data warehousing. They run a daily ETL job that loads data into the cluster. Recently, the job started failing with 'Disk Full' errors. The cluster has 5 RA3 nodes. Which step should be taken to resolve the issue?
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 or add more nodes
Resize the cluster to a larger node type or add more nodes. RA3 nodes use managed storage with a local cache, and a 'Disk Full' error typically indicates that the local cache or the overall storage limit for the cluster is exhausted. Resizing adds more local cache and increases the total managed storage capacity, resolving the disk full error. Option A is incorrect because disabling concurrency scaling does not free up disk space; it only affects query concurrency. Option B is incorrect because VACUUM reclaims space from deleted rows, but it requires temporary disk space; if the disk is already full, VACUUM may fail or not help. Option D is incorrect because Redshift Spectrum allows querying data directly from S3 without loading it into Redshift, but it does not resolve a disk full error on the Redshift cluster itself.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Disable concurrency scaling to free up resources
Why it's wrong here
Concurrency scaling does not use local disk space.
- ✗
Run a VACUUM command to reclaim space from deleted rows
Why it's wrong here
VACUUM requires free disk space to operate and may not help if disk is full.
- ✓
Resize the cluster to a larger node type or add more nodes
Why this is correct
RA3 nodes separate compute and storage; you can increase storage by resizing or adding nodes.
- ✗
Enable Redshift Spectrum to offload queries to S3
Why it's wrong here
Spectrum queries external data in S3 but does not free local storage.
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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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DBS-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 DBS-C01 exam.