DBS-C01 Workload-Specific Database Design Practice Question
Exhibit
Refer to the exhibit. CloudWatch Logs snippet: "2023-01-15T10:00:00Z [ERROR] ... Timeout error while writing to Amazon Redshift cluster." Cluster configuration: dc2.large, 2 nodes, RA3 nodes not used.
A data analyst reports that a nightly ETL job to Amazon Redshift is failing with timeout errors shown in the exhibit. The cluster is a dc2.large with 2 nodes. The ETL job inserts large volumes of data. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often attribute timeout errors to network or WLM configuration issues, overlooking the fact that Redshift's fixed storage per node can be silently exhausted during large data loads, leading to apparent timeouts rather than explicit 'disk full' errors.
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
✓
The cluster has insufficient disk space for the data load.
The dc2.large node type has a fixed storage limit of 160 GB per node (320 GB total for 2 nodes). When an ETL job inserts large volumes of data and the cluster runs out of disk space, Redshift cannot write new rows, causing the load to hang and eventually time out. Insufficient disk space is a common cause of timeout errors during bulk inserts because the database cannot complete the write operations.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The cluster has reached the maximum number of connections.
Why it's wrong here
Redshift does not have a hard max_connections limit.
- ✗
The workload manager (WLM) queue timeout is too low.
Why it's wrong here
WLM timeout would result in a different error message.
- ✗
The security group is blocking inbound traffic from the ETL server.
Why it's wrong here
Blocked traffic would prevent connection, not cause timeout during writes.
- ✓
The cluster has insufficient disk space for the data load.
Why this is correct
dc2 nodes use local SSD; full disk causes write failures.
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