Which Distribution Style is Ideal for a Redshift Table?
Question
Your company is going to create a table in a Redshift cluster.
Below are the key characteristics for the table: The data in the table don't change frequently. There would be less than 10 millions rows. The table would have joined with other tables. Which of the following distribution styles would be ideal for the table?
Answers
Explanations
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A. B. C. D.Answer - A.
The AWS Documentation mentions the following.
ALL distribution multiplies the storage required by the number of nodes in the cluster, and so it takes much longer to load, update, or insert data into multiple tables.
ALL distribution is appropriate only for relatively slow moving tables; that is, tables that are not updated frequently or extensively.
Small dimension tables do not benefit significantly from ALL distribution, because the cost of redistribution is low.
Since the concept of this distribution style is clearly mentioned in the documentation , all other options are incorrect.
For more information on Distribution styles, please refer to the below URL.
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/redshift/latest/dg/c_choosing_dist_sort.htmlIn Amazon Redshift, the distribution style of a table determines how the table data is distributed across the nodes in the Redshift cluster. The distribution style plays a significant role in determining the query performance in Redshift, particularly for join operations.
Based on the characteristics mentioned in the question, the ideal distribution style for the table would be "EVEN".
Explanation of distribution styles:
EVEN: In this distribution style, the data is evenly distributed across all the nodes in the Redshift cluster. This distribution style is ideal for small tables that are frequently used for joining with other tables. The data is distributed evenly, which can help reduce the skewness of the data and improve query performance.
KEY: In this distribution style, the data is distributed based on the values in a specific column, known as the distribution key. This distribution style is ideal for large tables where most queries involve join operations based on the values in the distribution key column. However, if the distribution key is not carefully chosen, it can lead to data skewness and performance issues.
ALL: In this distribution style, a copy of the entire table is stored on every node in the Redshift cluster. This distribution style is ideal for small tables that are frequently used in join operations, where the size of the table is small enough to be replicated across all the nodes. However, this distribution style can be expensive in terms of storage space.
DEFAULT: In this distribution style, Redshift chooses the distribution style automatically based on the table size and the number of nodes in the cluster. For small tables, the distribution style chosen would most likely be EVEN, while for larger tables, the distribution style chosen would most likely be KEY.
In summary, based on the characteristics mentioned in the question, the ideal distribution style for the table would be EVEN, as it would evenly distribute the data across all the nodes in the Redshift cluster, which can help reduce data skewness and improve query performance.
