ARA-C01 Question 248
Single answerFail-safeA financial services company stores regulated transaction data in a permanent Snowflake table in the Standard Edition. An ETL process accidentally runs a DELETE statement without a WHERE clause, and the mistake is discovered 9 days later. The architects must determine the most appropriate recovery approach and set stakeholder expectations about cost and timing. Which option is the BEST answer?
- A
Recover the deleted rows using Time Travel because permanent tables in Standard Edition retain historical data for up to 90 days by default.
- B
Submit a support request for Fail-safe recovery, understanding that Fail-safe begins after Time Travel ends and recovery is handled by Snowflake, not by the customer directly.
- C
Use undrop on the table because Fail-safe allows self-service object restoration after the 7-day retention window has expired.
- D
Clone the table at a point before the DELETE because zero-copy cloning can access historical versions during Fail-safe.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
This scenario tests the distinction between Time Travel and Fail-safe for permanent objects. In Snowflake Standard Edition, permanent tables typically have 1 day of Time Travel retention. After that period expires, the data transitions into a 7-day Fail-safe period. Fail-safe is a Snowflake-managed recovery mechanism intended for exceptional disaster recovery situations, not for routine self-service restoration. Customers cannot query, clone, or undrop data from Fail-safe directly; they must contact Snowflake Support. Architects should also communicate that Fail-safe recovery is not instantaneous and may involve additional charges. This aligns with Snowflake documentation on data protection features, particularly the behavior of permanent tables, edition-based Time Travel retention, and the operational boundaries of Fail-safe.
- A. Incorrect.
Incorrect. In Standard Edition, permanent tables support up to 1 day of Time Travel retention, not 90 days by default. Since the deletion was discovered 9 days later, the Time Travel window has already expired. The 90-day Time Travel capability is associated with higher editions for eligible objects, not Standard Edition defaults.
- B. Correct.
Correct. For a permanent table, after the Time Travel retention period ends, the data enters the 7-day Fail-safe period. Fail-safe is intended for disaster recovery and is not self-service; Snowflake Support must be engaged. Architects should also set expectations that recovery can take time and may incur additional costs because Snowflake performs the recovery operation.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. UNDROP is a self-service feature that works only while the object is still within its Time Travel retention period. Once the object is beyond Time Travel and in Fail-safe, customers cannot perform direct restoration themselves. This option reflects a common confusion between Time Travel and Fail-safe capabilities.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Zero-copy cloning can use current objects or historical data available through Time Travel, but it does not provide direct customer access to data in Fail-safe. Once the table is past Time Travel retention, cloning cannot be used as a self-service recovery method for that deleted data.