ADA-C01 Question 564
Single answerEnable or disable Time TravelA Snowflake administrator is reviewing storage costs for a development database that contains transient schemas used only for short-lived testing. The development team confirms they do not need historical data retention on these transient schemas and wants fail-safe exposure minimized. Which action should the administrator take to meet this requirement while aligning with Snowflake behavior for Time Travel and object types?
- A
Set DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS = 0 on the transient schemas so Time Travel is disabled for those schemas and their future child objects where allowed
- B
Convert the transient schemas to permanent schemas and set DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS = 0, because Time Travel can only be disabled on permanent objects
- C
Set MIN_DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS = 0 on the account, which disables Time Travel for all existing transient schemas and tables immediately
- D
Disable Time Travel by suspending all warehouses that access the transient schemas, because historical retention is tied to warehouse activity
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The best answer is to set DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS = 0 on the transient schemas. In Snowflake, Time Travel is configured through object parameters, and transient objects are commonly used when organizations want reduced data recovery retention and no Fail-safe. This makes them appropriate for short-lived development and test workloads. By contrast, permanent objects include Fail-safe, so converting transient schemas to permanent would conflict with the stated requirement. Administrators should also be aware of parameter hierarchy and governance controls such as MIN_DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS, which can enforce a minimum retention period and therefore affect whether Time Travel can effectively be reduced to 0. This question reflects a practical exam scenario: choosing the correct object type and retention setting to control recovery capability and storage cost in line with Snowflake best practices.
- A. Correct.
Correct. Snowflake supports configuring Time Travel retention with the DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS parameter. For transient and temporary objects, setting this value to 0 disables Time Travel, which also aligns with the goal of minimizing retention and avoiding Fail-safe exposure associated with permanent objects. Applying the setting at the transient schema level is a practical administrative approach because schema-level parameters can affect contained objects according to Snowflake's parameter inheritance behavior.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. This does the opposite of the stated requirement. Permanent objects are associated with Fail-safe, while transient schemas and transient tables are designed to avoid Fail-safe and reduce storage costs for short-lived data. Although permanent objects can have retention configured, converting transient schemas to permanent schemas would increase, not minimize, retained recovery exposure.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. MIN_DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS is an account-level safeguard that can enforce a minimum retention period, not a mechanism to disable Time Travel across objects. In fact, if set above 0, it can prevent lowering object-level retention below that minimum. It does not immediately disable Time Travel on existing transient schemas and tables.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Time Travel retention is controlled by object parameters and edition/features, not by whether warehouses are running. Suspending warehouses affects compute consumption, not historical data retention. This is a common misconception when administrators try to reduce costs by targeting compute rather than storage-related settings.