ARA-C01: SnowPro Advanced: Architect Certification

Database replication is a feature that allows you to create a copy of a database in another account, region, or cloud platform for disaster recovery or business continuity purposes. However, not all database objects can be replicated. External tables are one of the exceptions, as they reference data files stored in an external stage that is not part of Snowflake. Therefore, to replicate a database that contains external tables, you need to move the external tables to a separate database that is not replicated, and then replicate the primary database that contains the other objects. This way, you can avoid replication errors and ensure consistency between the primary and secondary databases. The other options are incorrect because they either do not address the issue of external tables, or they use an alternative method that is not supported by Snowflake. You cannot create a clone of the primary database and then replicate it, as replication only works on the original database, not on its clones. You also cannot share the primary database with another account, as sharing is a different feature that does not create a copy of the database, but rather grants access to the shared objects. Finally, you do not need to ensure that the replicated database is in the same region as the external tables, as external tables can access data files stored in any region or cloud platform, as long as the stage URL is valid and accessible.Reference:

[Replication and Failover/Failback]1

[Introduction to External Tables]2

[Working with External Tables]3

[Replication : How to migrate an account from One Cloud Platform or Region to another in Snowflake]4

These two actions are possible with an inbound share, according to the Snowflake documentation and the web search results. An inbound share is a share that is created by another Snowflake account (the provider) and imported into your account (the consumer). An inbound share allows you to access the data shared by the provider, but not to modify or delete it. However, you can perform some actions with the inbound share, such as:

Clone a table from a share. You can create a copy of a table from an inbound share using the CREATE TABLE ... CLONE statement. The clone will contain the same data and metadata as the original table, but it will be independent of the share.You can modify or delete the clone as you wish, but it will not reflect any changes made to the original table by the provider1.

Create additional views inside the shared database. You can create views on the tables or views from an inbound share using the CREATE VIEW statement. The views will be stored in the shared database, but they will be owned by your account.You can query the views as you would query any other view in your account, but you cannot modify or delete the underlying objects from the share2.

The other actions listed are not possible with an inbound share, because they would require modifying the share or the shared objects, which are read-only for the consumer.You cannot grant modify permissions on the share, create a table from the shared database, or create a table stream on the shared table34.

Cloning Objects from a Share | Snowflake Documentation

Creating Views on Shared Data | Snowflake Documentation

Importing Data from a Share | Snowflake Documentation

Streams on Shared Tables | Snowflake Documentation

According to the Snowflake documentation, these two system functions are provided by Snowflake to monitor clustering information within a table. A system function is a type of function that allows executing actions or returning information about the system. A clustering key is a feature that allows organizing data across micro-partitions based on one or more columns in the table. Clustering can improve query performance by reducing the number of files to scan.

SYSTEM$CLUSTERING_INFORMATION is a system function that returns clustering information, including average clustering depth, for a table based on one or more columns in the table. The function takes a table name and an optional column name or expression as arguments, and returns a JSON string with the clustering information.The clustering information includes the cluster by keys, the total partition count, the total constant partition count, the average overlaps, and the average depth1.

SYSTEM$CLUSTERING_DEPTH is a system function that returns the clustering depth for a table based on one or more columns in the table. The function takes a table name and an optional column name or expression as arguments, and returns an integer value with the clustering depth. The clustering depth is the maximum number of overlapping micro-partitions for any micro-partition in the table.A lower clustering depth indicates a better clustering2.

SYSTEM$CLUSTERING_INFORMATION | Snowflake Documentation

SYSTEM$CLUSTERING_DEPTH | Snowflake Documentation