ADA-C01 Question 541
Single answerHistorical usage dataA Snowflake administrator is asked to produce a chargeback report showing warehouse credit consumption by warehouse for the last 10 months. The report must be generated from SQL inside Snowflake, without relying on external monitoring tools. The administrator first queries ACCOUNT_USAGE.WAREHOUSE_METERING_HISTORY but notices that older records are missing. Which approach should the administrator use to return the full required time range with the least operational overhead?
- A
Query the ORGANIZATION_USAGE.WAREHOUSE_METERING_HISTORY view, because it retains all warehouse metering history indefinitely for every account.
- B
Query the READER_ACCOUNT_USAGE.WAREHOUSE_METERING_HISTORY view, because it contains longer retention than ACCOUNT_USAGE for metering data.
- C
Query the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.WAREHOUSE_METERING_HISTORY table function, because Information Schema provides the longest historical retention for warehouse usage.
- D
Enable a process to regularly persist ACCOUNT_USAGE.WAREHOUSE_METERING_HISTORY data into a custom table for long-term reporting, because ACCOUNT_USAGE retention is limited and older data is not guaranteed to remain available.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: D
Explanation
This question tests practical knowledge of Snowflake historical usage data retention and how to design durable reporting. In real environments, administrators often use SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE views such as WAREHOUSE_METERING_HISTORY for cost and chargeback analysis. However, these system-provided historical views have retention limits and data latency considerations. When the business requires reporting over a period longer than the available retained history, the best practice is to implement a scheduled extract-and-store pattern inside Snowflake, such as using a task to copy ACCOUNT_USAGE data into a custom reporting table. INFORMATION_SCHEMA is generally better suited to near-real-time operational metadata and shorter windows, while ORGANIZATION_USAGE helps with multi-account organization reporting but does not eliminate retention constraints. This aligns with Snowflake documentation on ACCOUNT_USAGE, INFORMATION_SCHEMA, and historical usage reporting best practices.
- A. Incorrect.
Incorrect. ORGANIZATION_USAGE provides cross-account visibility for organizations, but it does not offer indefinite retention for warehouse metering history. It is useful for organization-level reporting, not as a way to bypass historical retention limits permanently.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. READER_ACCOUNT_USAGE is intended for reader accounts and specific shared-account reporting scenarios. It is not the appropriate solution for extending warehouse metering history retention for a standard account chargeback requirement.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. INFORMATION_SCHEMA table functions generally expose more recent operational metadata and typically have shorter historical windows than ACCOUNT_USAGE. They are not the right choice for retrieving 10 months of warehouse metering history.
- D. Correct.
Correct. ACCOUNT_USAGE views are commonly used for historical reporting, but their retention is limited. For reporting periods beyond what remains available in the system views, the recommended practical pattern is to extract and store the needed usage data in a custom table on a schedule. This provides reliable long-term history with minimal ongoing operational complexity once automated.