Question 655 of 1,446
PCDE Practice Question: Manage a solution that can span multiple database technologies
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?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse manual resizing (using `--disk-size`) with automatic storage increase, or think that a custom monitoring solution is required, when Cloud SQL's built-in `--storage-auto-increase` flag is the correct and simplest solution.
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
✓
Use gcloud sql instances patch with the --storage-auto-increase flag.
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.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use gcloud sql instances patch with the --disk-size flag to set a larger size.
Why it's wrong here
This manually resizes the disk but does not enable automatic increase.
- ✓
Use gcloud sql instances patch with the --storage-auto-increase flag.
Why this is correct
This enables automatic storage increase for the Cloud SQL instance.
- ✗
Create a cron job to monitor disk usage and increase storage via API.
Why it's wrong here
This is unnecessary because Cloud SQL provides a built-in automatic storage increase feature.
- ✗
Use gcloud sql instances create to create a new instance with larger storage.
Why it's wrong here
Creating a new instance is overkill; the existing instance can be patched.
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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.
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