PCDE Practice Question: Manage a solution that can span multiple database technologies
A team wants to create a Cloud Spanner database backup and store it in a Cloud Storage bucket for long-term archival. Which method should they use?
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 the gcloud spanner databases backup command to create a backup that resides in Cloud Storage.
Cloud Spanner provides database-level backups directly to Cloud Storage in Avro + Protobuf format. Export/import is for migration, not archival backups.
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 spanner instances create-backup to create a backup of the instance.
Why it's wrong here
The correct command is for database, not instance.
- ✓
Use the gcloud spanner databases backup command to create a backup that resides in Cloud Storage.
Why this is correct
Correct. Backup creates a full backup in Cloud Storage (Avro + Protobuf) that can be restored.
- ✗
Take a snapshot of the Spanner instance using Cloud Storage snapshots.
Why it's wrong here
Spanner does not support Cloud Storage snapshots for instance data.
- ✗
Use the gcloud spanner databases export command to export to Cloud Storage.
Why it's wrong here
Export is for data migration, not creating a database backup that can be restored in Spanner.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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