ADA-C01 Question 516
Single answerEnable scheduled replicationA global company uses Snowflake in AWS us-east-1 for production and wants a near-real-time read-only reporting copy of a database in AWS eu-west-1. The DBA has already enabled account-level replication between the two accounts and verified that the target account can receive replicated databases. The reporting team wants the source database replicated automatically every 30 minutes with minimal manual intervention. Which action should the DBA take next to enable this requirement?
- A
In the source account, enable replication for the database and define a replication schedule on the primary database.
- B
In the target account, create a task that runs ALTER DATABASE ... REFRESH every 30 minutes.
- C
In the source account, create a stream on the database and use a task to push changed rows to the secondary account every 30 minutes.
- D
In the target account, convert the replicated database to failover mode and set the failover refresh interval to 30 minutes.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
To enable scheduled replication, the DBA must configure replication on the source (primary) object and set a replication schedule there. Snowflake manages refreshes of the secondary based on that schedule; the target account does not typically drive the schedule with tasks or custom jobs. In practice, administrators first ensure account/database eligibility and required privileges, then enable replication for the database or, more commonly in broader DR designs, use replication or failover groups and define a schedule. Snowflake documentation on database replication and replication/failover groups emphasizes that scheduling is part of the primary-side replication configuration and that native replication is preferred over building custom pipelines with streams and tasks for this scenario.
- A. Correct.
Correct. Scheduled replication is configured on the primary replication or failover group/object in the source account after replication has been enabled. For databases, the administrator enables replication for the database and specifies a schedule so Snowflake performs automatic refreshes to the secondary on the defined interval. This is the supported way to achieve recurring cross-region replication with minimal manual effort.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Refresh operations for secondary databases are initiated by Snowflake based on the replication configuration and schedule defined on the primary object; they are not implemented by creating a task in the target account to run an ALTER DATABASE ... REFRESH command on a timer. A common misconception is to treat replication like a user-managed polling job, but scheduled replication is a native feature managed from the source side.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Streams and tasks are for change data capture and orchestration within Snowflake, not for enabling database replication across accounts and regions. This option confuses row-level data movement patterns with Snowflake's native object replication capability. It would add unnecessary complexity and would not replicate full database metadata and supported objects as native replication does.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Failover and replication are related but distinct administrative concepts. Converting a database to 'failover mode' in the target account is not how scheduled replication is enabled, and there is no separate target-side failover refresh interval setting for this use case. This distractor reflects confusion between failover groups and standard database replication mechanics.