Manage a solution that can span multiple database technologies →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
PCDE Practice Question: Manage a solution that can span multiple database technologies
A Cloud SQL for MySQL instance is running out of storage. The team wants to increase storage automatically without manual intervention. However, they also want to control costs and avoid a sudden increase in storage beyond 1 TB. What should they do?
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
✓
Enable auto-storage increase and set the maximum storage size to 1 TB.
Cloud SQL for MySQL provides an 'auto-storage increase' feature that automatically adds storage when usage is high. To control costs and prevent storage from exceeding 1 TB, you can enable this feature and set the maximum storage size to 1 TB. Option B is correct because it combines automation with a cost cap. Option A (using a Cloud Function) is more complex and not necessary since Cloud SQL has a built-in feature; it also doesn't guarantee a cap. Option C (manual resize) is not automated. Option D (enable auto-storage increase without setting a maximum) would allow storage to grow beyond 1 TB, failing the cost control requirement.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Set up a Cloud Function to monitor disk usage and resize the disk when needed.
Why it's wrong here
Using a Cloud Function to manage Cloud SQL storage resizing is unnecessarily complex for this scenario. Cloud SQL for MySQL instances natively support automatic storage increases, allowing a maximum storage limit to be configured directly within the instance settings. This built-in feature provides the required automatic scaling and cost control (up to 1 TB) without custom code. Cloud Functions are typically employed for bespoke event-driven automation or integrating services where native platform features are absent or insufficient, such as triggering custom actions based on non-standard metrics or complex multi-service workflows.
- ✓
Enable auto-storage increase and set the maximum storage size to 1 TB.
Why this is correct
Auto-increase with a cap meets both requirements.
- ✗
Manually increase disk size by 10% each time usage reaches 80%.
Why it's wrong here
Not automatic.
- ✗
Enable auto-storage increase; it automatically stops at 1 TB.
Why it's wrong here
Auto-increase has no default cap; you must set a maximum.
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4 more ways this is tested on PCDE
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Variation 1. A company runs Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL and wants to automatically increase storage when usage reaches a threshold. What should they enable?
easy- A.Create a cron job to resize via gcloud
- B.Configure automated backups
- C.Use Active Assist recommendations to resize
- ✓ D.Enable storage auto-increase in instance settings
Why D: Cloud SQL has a built-in 'auto-storage increase' feature that automatically adds storage when necessary, avoiding manual intervention.
Variation 2. A company is using Cloud SQL and wants to automatically increase storage when disk usage reaches a threshold. What should they configure?
easy- ✓ A.Enable 'auto-storage increase' in the instance settings.
- B.Use Active Assist recommendations to manually resize.
- C.Set up a Cloud Monitoring alert to manually increase storage when usage exceeds 80%.
- D.Configure a Cloud Function to resize the disk via API when threshold is reached.
Why A: Cloud SQL provides a built-in 'auto-storage increase' setting that, when enabled, automatically increases the instance's storage capacity when disk usage reaches a predefined threshold (typically 90% or when free space drops below a certain amount). This eliminates the need for manual intervention or custom automation, ensuring high availability and preventing out-of-disk errors.
Variation 3. A Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL instance is running out of storage. The engineer wants to configure automatic storage increase to avoid manual intervention. What should they do?
easy- A.Use gcloud sql instances patch with the --disk-size flag to set a larger size.
- ✓ B.Use gcloud sql instances patch with the --storage-auto-increase flag.
- C.Create a cron job to monitor disk usage and increase storage via API.
- D.Use gcloud sql instances create to create a new instance with larger storage.
Why B: Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL supports automatic storage increase, which can be enabled via the `--storage-auto-increase` flag in the `gcloud sql instances patch` command. This feature automatically increases the instance's storage capacity when it approaches the configured limit, eliminating the need for manual intervention.
Variation 4. A Cloud SQL for MySQL instance is running low on disk space. You have enabled automatic storage increase, but you also want to be proactively alerted when disk usage exceeds 80%. Which steps should you take?
easy- A.Set the storage size to a fixed large value to avoid alerts.
- B.Create a Cloud Logging sink for disk usage logs and set up a Pub/Sub notification.
- ✓ C.Create a Cloud Monitoring alert on the metric 'disk/utilization' with a threshold of 80%.
- D.Use Cloud SQL's built-in email notifications for disk usage.
Why C: Cloud Monitoring allows you to create alerting policies based on metrics. The disk usage metric for Cloud SQL is available, and you can set a threshold of 80%. Automatic storage increase is a separate setting that automatically increases storage when needed.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCDE practice question is part of Courseiva's free Google Cloud 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 PCDE exam.