Fastest Method to Transfer 10 TB Database Export to Cloud Storage
Configuring individual storage systems.
Creating a migration plan (i.e., documents and architectural diagrams).
Your company wants to migrate their 10-TB on-premises database export into Cloud Storage. You want to minimize the time it takes to complete this activity, the overall cost, and database load. The bandwidth between the on-premises environment and Google Cloud is 1 Gbps. You want to follow Google-recommended practices. What should you do?
Answer
Correct answer: D — Compress the database export and upload it to Cloud Storage using gsutil -m, completing the 10-TB transfer in roughly 30 hours at 1 Gbps, far faster and cheaper than Transfer Appliance.
Community Insight
The question tests Google's recommended data transfer practices for large datasets; the common trap is choosing Transfer Appliance for data over 1 TB, but at 1 Gbps a 10-TB transfer completes in roughly 30 hours—well under the ~20-day appliance turnaround—so gsutil -m is faster, cheaper, and still Google-recommended for this scale.
This PCA exam question asks the optimal method to migrate a 10-TB on-premises database export into Google Cloud Storage over a 1 Gbps link while minimizing time, cost, and database load. The correct approach is to compress the data and upload it using gsutil -m for multi-threaded parallel transfer, since the ~30-hour transfer time far beats the 1–3 week turnaround of Transfer Appliance.
Most learners choose B (Transfer Appliance) because Google associates it with large transfers over 1 TB, but at 1 Gbps the 10-TB upload finishes in about 30 hours versus 1–3 weeks for appliance shipping, loading, returning, and rehydration—making the appliance both slower and more expensive.
Community Discussion (175 comments)
ttttttttt
👍 1
Selected: D
The database has already been exported, so you don’t need to keep querying the production database. That minimizes database load. Compressing the export reduces the amount of data that must cross the network, and parallel/multithreaded transfers maximize utilization of the available 1 Gbps connection. For B — Transfer Appliance For only 10 TB with a 1-Gbps connection, shipping physical hardware introduces additional time and cost. Network transfer is practical at this size/bandwidth.
eff12c1
👍 2
Selected: D
for a 10-TB export over a 1-Gbps link, compress it and use parallel gsutil -m upload to Cloud Storage. B. Transfer Appliance → Overkill for 10 TB when you have 1 Gbps bandwidth. Better for much larger data or poor connectivity.
ahmed75.zahran00
👍 1
Selected: D
Time will be less than 10 day
KCjoe
👍 1
Selected: D
Reasoning Feasibility of Online Transfer: At a 1 Gbps bandwidth, a 10-TB transfer is theoretically possible in approximately 22 to 30 hours. Google generally recommends online transfers for datasets up to 10–100 TB if sufficient bandwidth is available. Cost and Efficiency: Using the gsutil -m flag enables parallel (multi-threaded) uploads, which maximizes bandwidth utilization and significantly reduces transfer time compared to single-threaded operations.
ast3citos
👍 1
Selected: D
The Transfer Appliance is only recommended for datasets generally over 20 TB (or when network bandwidth is very poor/unavailable). For 10 TB over a 1 Gbps link, the cost and time associated with leasing, loading, shipping, and processing the appliance make it inefficient compared to the fast online transfer.
CtrlX
👍 1
Selected: B
Question says minimise the Time to complete the activity, and not that they want to have it as soon as possible. So yes B will add shipping time but the operation itself will be very fast and minimize database load.
chickenwingz
👍 1
Selected: D
fully saturating the 1Gbps link just takes 10 x (1000*8)Gb = 80,000 seconds for the transfer, or 55 hours. Transfer appliance will take weeks.
mahi_h
👍 1
Selected: D
Choosing option D based on below documentation: https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/developers-practitioners/how-transfer-your-data-google-cloud Conclusion: A few TBs (like 10 TB) can be transferred with help of transfer tools like GSUTIL, Transfer appliance might be an expensive solution as it's come in min 40 TB size. It's also a method to overcome challenge of typical network (100 Mbps) which is not a case here (1 GBPS) as mentioned in the question.
david_tay
👍 1
Selected: B
B is correct. Search at Gemini it explains in detail why so.
hpf97
👍 1
Selected: D
Answer A/C : very to setup and does not improve network limitation Answer D: Interesting for PB, not TB... and minimum 2 weeks after purchase to get the appliance (see https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/storage-data-transfer/transfer-appliances-for-simple-secure-performant-data-movement) Answer D is the best : compress would reduce the size, and even with a 1Gbps network, the transfert would take less 3 hours at full speed. Furthermore -m option use multithread.
T12344223
👍 1
Selected: B
B and D sounds feasible but gsutil is not recommended any more so definitely B. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/gsutil However, I'm not sure if D is replaced with gcloud storage cp.
ccpmad
👍 1
Selected: B
D says compress data, ¿in a single file? it will be more than the limit 5 TB of gsutil, so it is B.
huuthanhdlv
👍 1
I think the answer is B. The main consideration is between B and D. Just thinking if they want the answer to be online transfer, they should have added Online Transfer Service instead of gsutils. Just guessing Google must want us to choose B :)
seetpt
👍 1
Selected: B
B fo sho
afsarkhan
👍 2
D will be most cost effective where as B will incur cost (question asking to consider cost effective solution as well) so D is my answer
gbemimatti
👍 1
Selected: B
Compressing the data and uploading it with gsutil -m can be a good optimization for your transfer, but it has limitations to consider: Compression Overhead: While compressing the data can reduce upload size and potentially speed up transfer, the compression and decompression processes themselves take time and resources. Depending on your data type, the benefit of reduced size might be offset by the processing overhead. Transfer Appliance: The recommended approach with the Transfer Appliance already utilizes parallel transfers for faster uploads, potentially making gsutil -m less impactful. I will go with B
342f1c6
👍 2
Selected: D
with 1 Gbps it will take only 30 hrs so best option is D
RajSelvaraj
👍 1
Option B and D are most feasible options Option B will be okay if the size of the data is too huge Option D will be good for a few TBs of data. I am assuming 10 TB will fit in this case. https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/developers-practitioners/how-transfer-your-data-google-cloud
madcloud32
👍 3
Selected: B
Answer B. Cp limit is 5 TB max
OrangeTiger
👍 2
Selected: D
I chose D. According to the link below, 10TB of data can be transferred in 30h. The light blue area is the acceptable line for online transfer. https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets?hl=ja#online_versus_offline_transfer
ccpmad
👍 1
D says compress data, in a single file? it will be more than the limit 5 TB of gsutil
didek1986
👍 2
Selected: B
It is B
brushek
👍 1
Selected: D
it is D. it is far more faster to send this 10TB data over network, than 'call' for Transfer Applience.
brucfrs
👍 2
Selected: D
Transfer Appliance: 1-3 weeks Transfer using 1Gbps : 30 hours
odacir
👍 1
Selected: D
Is Transfer Appliance suitable for me? Transfer Appliance is a good fit for your data transfer needs if: You are an existing Google Cloud customer. Your data resides in locations that Transfer Appliance is available. It would take more than one week to upload your data over the network. vs Time to transfer using 1Gbps : 30 hours
ArtistS
👍 1
I just want to ask who choose B. Both B and D you can find some evidence in the doc. So we do not talk about the doc, we just talk about if 30 hours to transfer it you can not accept it, and if you use transfer appliance it will spend over 10 days you can accept? So forget about the doc, if google want you to choose B, they will give you 100TB or 1PB rather than 10TB
asharma7
👍 1
Selected: B
Option B is correct. Below is the explanation. Transfer scenario Recommendation Transferring from another cloud storage provider Use Storage Transfer Service. Transferring less than 1 TB from on-premises Use gcloud storage. Transferring more than 1 TB from on-premises Use Storage Transfer Service. Transferring less than 1 TB from another Cloud Storage region Use gcloud storage. Transferring more than 1 TB from another Cloud Storage region Use Storage Transfer Service.
sam_test_89
👍 1
Selected: B
"The expected turnaround time for a network appliance to be shipped, loaded with your data, shipped back, and rehydrated on Google Cloud is 20 days. If your online transfer timeframe is calculated to be substantially more than this timeframe, consider Transfer Appliance."
MikeH20
👍 2
10 TB @ 1 Gbps = 30 hour transfer time. So would you go with the 20 day timeline, or 30 hours?
CyanideX
👍 1
Selected: B
B for me as this is a Google exam.
kenneth1998
👍 1
Selected: D
d is faster
didek1986
👍 1
Selected: B
For sure B
Murtuza
👍 1
The Data Transfer Appliance is a physical device that can be sent to the customer to transfer large amounts of data quickly and securely. The appliance is designed to transfer large amounts of data, and it comes with built-in security features to protect the data during the transfer process. It is also easy to set up and use. The appliance can be connected to the on-premises environment, and the data can be transferred directly to Google Cloud Storage, which minimizes the database load and reduces the time it takes to complete the migration. Therefore, the best option to migrate a large on-premises database export into Cloud Storage, while minimizing cost, time, and database load, is to use the Data Transfer Appliance.
RaviRS
👍 1
Selected: D
D it is... 1GBPS for 10TB would take 30 hours, TA takes 3 weeks roughly.
zz05wh
👍 5
The best option is B - Use the Data Transfer appliance to perform an offline migration. The key considerations here are: - Minimize time: Offline migration with the Data Transfer appliance will be faster than online extraction for a 10 TB database due to reduced load on the database. - Minimize cost: The Data Transfer appliance uses discounted network pricing, reducing overall cost. - Minimize database load: Offline migration eliminates load on the production database. - Recommended practices: Google recommends the Data Transfer appliance for migrations over 10 TB. The other options have downsides: A) Online Dataflow extraction adds database load. C) Commercial ETL adds cost, may be slower. D) Multithreaded gsutil upload will be bottlenecked by the 1 Gbps bandwidth. So for a 10 TB migration, the Data Transfer appliance provides the fastest, most cost-effective migration option following Google recommendations.
Rajivjain
👍 2
Selected: B
I go with B
DS2023
👍 1
Selected: D
Ans: D, Refer the link, it gave a calculation, as per which approximately 30 hours/1 Day needed to transfer 10 TB of Data on 1 GPBS bandwidth. https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets
BiddlyBdoyng
👍 1
I'd go for D. Seems the fastest (1day) and simplest. "The expected turnaround time for a network appliance to be shipped, loaded with your data, shipped back, and rehydrated on Google Cloud is 20 days. If your online transfer timeframe is calculated to be substantially more than this timeframe, consider Transfer Appliance."
TheCloudGuruu
👍 1
Selected: D
Answer is D, transfer appliance will take too long
medi01
👍 1
Selected: A
Maximum object size in Cloud Storage per: https://cloud.google.com/storage/quotas#object_size Is 5TB. Now, whether compressed version of DB dump will be smaller than that, is not guaranteed. So suddenly A is an option.
Armanna
👍 1
-m Causes supported operations (acl ch, acl set, cp, mv, rm, rsync, and setmeta) to run in parallel. This can significantly improve performance if you are performing operations on a large number of files over a reasonably fast network connection. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/gsutil/addlhelp/GlobalCommandLineOptions So, D is not correct, B is correct
GCP_Tanu
👍 1
Selected: D
Use the calc at ttps://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets
lokiinaction
👍 3
Selected: A
I am thinking of A: for D transferring 10 TB with 1Gbps takes 3 hours: 10000/60/60 , but the problem is with -m option, database files are normally quite huge, which are not really good option to use multi threading Transfer Appliance is not required. Only meaninful option for me is A
kripya
👍 4
Took the exam yesterday and gsutil option was not even there. Only 2 viable options were dataflow or transfer appliance. Question was to select most cost effective option, so went with dataflow. I did pass the test in first attempt.
musumusu
👍 1
Answer D, 10 Tb limit of gsutil, and compression reduce size by 60 to 80 percent. Transfer appliance used when data is so big and bad internet connection
medi01
👍 1
gsutil limit (rather CS limit) is 5TB per file. How much of it will be compessed, depends on data, you cannot guarantee it will be 50%+.
JC0926
👍 1
Selected: D
Key: minimize the time it takes to complete this activity, So it's D
Ralucas
👍 2
It says to minimize the time for the operation. That is why I am leaning towards D. Plus after reading the documentation here (https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets) we are in the scenario: "Enough bandwidth to meet your project deadline for more than 1 TB of data" and we DO NOT have the "Storage Transfer service" option available to pick. My 2 cents.
medi01
👍 2
And there it says that gsutil is for less than 1Tb.
telp
👍 5
Selected: B
Answer B because it's a google exam. The rule for best practices is for more than 1 Tb to transfer data => use the google transfer appliance. But we all know in reality with 1gbs, we will use classic upload with gsutils. Ref. https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets#transfer-options
Deb2293
👍 1
Selected: B
Should be B. Google would recommend using their appliance.
cert2020
👍 3
Answer is B. Although the time taken for transfer of 10TB with 1 GBPS is 30 hours, Google recommends to use GSUTIL for data transfers less than 1 TB. Perhaps Storage Transfer Service would have been better choice but not listed. Ref. https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets#transfer-options
Deb2293
👍 2
Selected: B
To minimize the time it takes to complete the activity, the overall cost, and database load when migrating a 10-TB on-premises database export into Cloud Storage, the best option is to use the Data Transfer Appliance to perform an offline migration. This solution involves shipping a physical device that can transfer large amounts of data quickly and securely to Google Cloud.
segkhachat
👍 1
Selected: D
With gsutil it will take 20 mins
BeCalm
👍 1
Practical answer is gsutil, exam answer is Appliance
ykunth
👍 1
Selected: D
Transfer Appliance 1+ weeks, gsutil = 30hrs
nick_name_1
👍 1
"The gsutil tool is the standard tool for small- to medium-sized transfers (less than 1 TB) over a typical enterprise-scale network" AND "Where you're moving data from Your private data center to Google Cloud Enough bandwidth to meet your project deadline for more than 1 TB of data Suggested product: Storage Transfer Service for on-premises data"
jay9114
👍 4
Selected: B
I agree with @mikesp. Based on google recommended practices the answer is B. In section, "options available from google", it states that you should use the storage appliance IF you (1) 1. Have enough bandwidth to meet your project deadline and need to migrate greater than 1 TB of data 2. Not enough bandwidth to meet your project deadline 3. Migrate data from another cloud provider to google cloud 4. migrate data from cloud storage to cloud storage Reference: 1. https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets
sank8
👍 3
Answer is B Google-recommended practices" means than if more than 1TB, then Transfer Appliance. The main drawback of gsutil option is that it does not enable to manage bandwidth and corporate connection could be congested by transfer and affect other business activities. Reference: https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets
medi01
👍 1
No, it's "more than 1TB, if network is fast enough, use Transfer Service".
thamaster
👍 3
Selected: D
you need low cost and low db load so by compressing data and using gstuls -m ( multi threading) you're achieving both requirement
Santanu_01
👍 2
Option D is correct - 10 TB with 1GBPS with min time of 1 Day will be required while Option B -Transfer applaince will take around 3weeks
rhawk
👍 3
Selected: B
In real life, I'd use "gsutil", but it's a cert exam which follows "Google best practices"
bent_blue
👍 1
Selected: D
I go for D. A dataset of 10 TB with 1 Gbps bandwidth needs just one day transfer time. As the answer D suggests it will compressed before, so the dataset may have a lot less size and the transfer time is therefore shorter.
exam9391
👍 2
Selected: D
D is definitely a better answer than B. https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets "The two main criteria to consider with Transfer Appliance are cost and speed. With reasonable network connectivity (for example, 1 Gbps), transferring 100 TB of data online takes over 10 days to complete. If this rate is acceptable, an online transfer is likely a good solution for your needs."
Jador
👍 1
Selected: D
Transfer Appliance is expensive, they ask for cost effective way, also they want a low workload to DB, so A is deleted too. Its D
ale_brd_111
👍 2
Selected: B
gonna go for B
gonlafer
👍 2
Selected: A
B takes long time and expensice C no sense D is only suggested for <1Tb
hamid13
👍 1
D- not correct - “The gsutil tool is the standard tool for small- to medium-sized transfers (less than 1 TB) “
Kulwant85
👍 2
Selected: B
B is correct... D is incorrect because it take too much time
nosense
👍 2
Selected: B
In this case discusing about transfer 10TB. This link provide information about limit. I guess in this case right answer can be only B. https://cloud.google.com/storage-transfer/docs/known-limitations-transfer
przema86
👍 2
Selected: B
B is my choice. D - yes it is 30 hrs of constant transfer - assuming that you can utilize that 1 Gbps for 30 hrs. but in real life rather not, some other services would already use the same link - this is why Google recommends to use Transfer appliance and they have right.
ashrafh
👍 1
Focus on this part of the question :- "You want to minimize the time it takes to complete this activity, the overall cost, and database load". Now please check the below link. https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets
nosense
👍 2
Selected: B
b is right
megumin
👍 2
Selected: B
B is correct: Google Recommended Practice. ~ 1 TB : gsutil - 1TB ~ with enough bandwith : Storage Transfer Service - 1TB ~ not enough bandwith : Transfer Appliance https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets
Tesla
👍 2
Actually D is the right answer ... As per https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets#gsutil_for_smaller_transfers_of_on-premises_data "The two main criteria to consider with Transfer Appliance are cost and speed. With reasonable network connectivity (for example, 1 Gbps), transferring 100 TB of data online takes over 10 days to complete. If this rate is acceptable, an online transfer is likely a good solution for your needs. If you only have a 100 Mbps connection (or worse from a remote location), the same transfer takes over 100 days. At this point, it's worth considering an offline-transfer option such as Transfer Appliance."
666Amitava666
👍 2
Selected: B
B because anything above 1TB, Google recommends Data Transfer appliance not D because, although the Time to transfer using 1Gbps is around 30 hours, the option is not uploading the content straight away, "Compress the data and upload" - compression of 10TB will take time, again, we must decompress the data before it is usable - again a time consuming process!!
kazob
👍 2
Answer would be Storage Transfer Service A: not suitable for 10 TB load. B: It will take around 3 weeks but feasible. C: not suitable for 10 TB load. D: storage object uploads are limited to 5TiB https://cloud.google.com/storage/quotas. not feasible.
abdelilahfa
👍 1
Selected: D
https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets#time
abhinav855
👍 1
Answer is D For Data/Storage Transfer appliance the source should be online(Amazon S3 etc), however in this case it is on-premise and gsutil option is present with multi-threads so gsutil makes more sense
kiappy81
👍 1
Selected: D
https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets#options_available_from_google https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets#gsutil_for_smaller_transfers_of_on-premises_data gsutil is especially useful in the following scenarios: Your transfers need to be executed on an as-needed basis, or during command-line sessions by your users. THIS IS OUT USECASE: --> You're transferring only a few files or very large files, or both. because we are moving a dump of 10TB.
EricG77
👍 1
Its B guys as this is Google Best Practices. anything over 1TB of data transfer recommendation is the transfer appliance
cloud_enth0325
👍 2
Even if it's the best-practice, there are specific requirements in the question. "You want to minimize the time it takes to complete this activity, the overall cost, and database load" Seems like the fitted answer is D
Nirca
👍 1
Selected: D
Answer is D, using gsutil
Sbgani
👍 1
https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets The two main criteria to consider with Transfer Appliance are cost and speed. With reasonable network connectivity (for example, 1 Gbps), transferring 100 TB of data online takes over 10 days to complete. If this rate is acceptable, an online transfer is likely a good solution for your needs. If you only have a 100 Mbps connection (or worse from a remote location), the same transfer takes over 100 days. At this point, it's worth considering an offline-transfer option such as Transfer Appliance.
Jay_Krish
👍 5
The ask in the question is "minimize the time, cost and load on the DB" Option A : Not sure why no one talks about it? Is it not possible using Data flow? And that there's no downtime as the data is being read directly from the DB Option B : It says transfer offline.. one of the criteria of DB Load is not fulfilled as this means the DB has to be shutdown for whatever time (30hrs or 3 weeks as the discussion goes) Option D : Same as above I feel Option C: Ruled out as it is going for commercial tools. Appreciate if someone can throw some comments/discussion on this
Bahubali1988
👍 1
Selected: B
GSUtil is not for >1TB , hence i will go with transfer appliance https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets
hisunilarora
👍 2
D is the right answer IMHO As per this document, Storage Transfer Service for on-premises data could have been the right choice but since we don't have this option in the set of answers, I will go with D because first it is time sensitive and the bandwidth (1Gbps) is good to transfer this 10TB data in 30 hours. Transfer appliance will take 3-4 weeks to transfer this data. Hope this helps. https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets#time
6721sora
👍 2
Selected: B
gsutil is not recommended by google for size > 1TB
RitwickKumar
👍 3
Selected: D
Please note the keyword "Compress" in the option D. Due to lower entropy or randomness of data (which means similarity in values with in a column) would greatly reduce the size of the file from 1TB which means that despite the fact that the actual uncompressed data size is 1TB the compressed size should be much lower reducing the overall time to upload. gsutil with multi threaded upload of the file chunk fits the bill here and should not take considerable time.
RitwickKumar
👍 1
Please consider 10TB wherever I have mentioned 1TB.
SIMMEAT
👍 2
Google Recommended Practice. - ~ 1 TB : gsutil - 1TB ~ with enough bandwith : Storage Transfer Service - 1TB ~ not enough bandwith : Transfer Appliance so Answer is B https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets
bchmni
👍 1
Selected: D
I go with D after reading this snippet from the documentation at this link. https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets#time
desertlotus1211
👍 1
First off... requesting an appliance is one thing company has to put a change window in CCB board to approve the appliance, then upload the data, validate the data.... get a courier or someone to take it to the GCP region DC, more checks and separation of duties, paperwork etc... all is which is not include in cost of the transfer appliance. Logistical cost is at play here.... So a migration window might be the best practice way to go.
moiradavis
👍 1
Selected: D
With -m will take 30 hrs. so D
RitwickKumar
👍 1
Much lower for compressed data (as mentioned in the option)
AzureDP900
👍 1
D is best. https://cloud.google.com/transfer-appliance/docs/4.0/overview
Ric350
👍 1
Do you mean B since you referencing the transfer appliance doc???
ryzior
👍 3
Selected: D
I vote D: https://cloud.google.com/transfer-appliance/docs/4.0/overview Is Transfer Appliance suitable for me? Transfer Appliance is a good fit for your data transfer needs if: You are an existing Google Cloud Platform (GCP) customer. Your data size is greater than or equal to 10TB. Your data resides in locations that Transfer Appliance is available. >>> It would take more than one week to upload your data over the network. 30hrs is the point - you have to minimize the time, with transfer appliance it takes a week minimum.
JohnnyBG
👍 1
They removed the mention of 10TB in the link you provided ! I remember seeing it but it's no longer there .. I would go with D just for that reason.
amxexam
👍 2
Selected: B
For anything over 10TB automatically A C and D disqualify even if then is 1 GBPS delicatead connection.
sbgcp
👍 5
Selected: A
A is the correct ans. B) too expensive and maybe it will take more than 30h, Google suggest to use it for more than 100 TB. C) doesn't make sense. D) gsutil is recommended for less than 1TB of data https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets
Bando
👍 2
B is correct. If data size equal or more than use Transfer Appliance. https://cloud.google.com/transfer-appliance/docs/4.0/overview#suitability
Venket
👍 1
The gsutil tool is the standard tool for small- to medium-sized transfers (less than 1 TB) over a typical enterprise-scale network, from a private data center to Google Cloud. We recommend that you include gsutil in your default path when you use Cloud Shell. Thereby Storage Transfer Service is recommended
DeepDiveDevops
👍 8
Selected: B
D is not possible. max upload limit for an object using gsutil is 5Tb. https://cloud.google.com/storage/quotas
Ric350
👍 1
Great catch!! Def B then. By the way, it's actually 5.49756 TB. The doc says 5TiB which is different from TB. Minor detail and still well under the 10TB limit!!
brvinod
👍 2
Selected: D
offline transfer with Appliance is very costly. Online transfer of 10TB at 1GBPS should take about 14 to 30 hrs. If we eliminate the ETL related answers as irrelevant, then between B&D, D seems to be the most optimal solution as we want to keep not only time, but also cost and bb load to minimum.
cloudmon
👍 3
Unnecessarily difficult question that relies on a conflict between two Google "best practices" 1. gsutil is recommended up to 1TB of data 2. Appliance is recommended if your upload would take "substantially longer" than 3 weeks. In this case, the correct answer would be to use Transfer service for on-premises data, but they don't provide that option, thus forcing us to pick the best from a bad bunch of options, and hope that we luckily avoid whichever pitfall they are focusing on here (e.g., which of the above "best practices" will we not pick). They probably want us to choose the Appliance option (i.e., trapping us with the "up to 1TB" recommendation for gsutil), but I would never do that in real life. I'm voting for gsutil out of a matter of principal.
utwo
👍 3
Selected: B
Answer: B
azureaspirant
👍 1
2/15/21
nkit
👍 3
This guy has commented the same on all the questions.
haroldbenites
👍 1
Go for B
ZackW
👍 1
Is Transfer Appliance suitable for me? Transfer Appliance is a good fit for your data transfer needs if: You are an existing Google Cloud Platform (GCP) customer. Your data size is greater than or equal to 10TB. Your data resides in locations that Transfer Appliance is available. It would take more than one week to upload your data over the network. https://cloud.google.com/transfer-appliance/docs/4.0/overview#location-availability It will take 30 hours, but it is also 10TB. Hard to say what is the best practice. One bullet point says 10 TB or more, use appliance. But it also mentions if it would take over a week using the network upload... It would take 30 hours... Feels like a crap shoot.
hantanbl
👍 1
I got this question in the exam. Answer is B. This is google exam so you need to wear google hat. In real world i will go with D and do the transfer over a holiday or weekend
akhil1234567
👍 1
Compressing the data and using multithreaded upload in gsutil will take more CPU and database load to the on premises server which they said they do not need that. So, it's better to choose option B though time taking will be higher. I go with Option B
dhuna
👍 1
Go with D
OrangeTiger
👍 1
Online to online is best plactis.
Narinder
👍 2
Answer is D. Please check the constraint in the question - minimize time to copy data, the overall cost, and database load. If you compress the DB exported dump using gzip utility it can reduce the size to 1~2 TB and using gsutil with composite transfer (for a single large file) or gsutil -m (for multi-threaded transfer) you can transfer the files in few hours (less than 5-6 hours) I will not opt for B because of the reason that the expected turnaround time for a network appliance to be shipped, loaded with your data, shipped back, and rehydrated on Google Cloud is 20 days. If your online transfer timeframe is calculated to be substantially more than this timeframe than only consider Transfer Appliance.
Chandudode
👍 1
D is correct
Moss2011
👍 2
Selected: D
Since it takes just 24 hrs, could be D Yo can check the calc here: https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets
SolutionArchitect27
👍 2
The answer is B as per google documentation the transfer appliance takes around 1 day to transfer 10 TB of with bandwidth of 1 GBPS https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets
OrangeTiger
👍 1
Selected: D
I choose D.
OrangeTiger
👍 1
30 hour.1Gbps/10Tb Column. https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets#time I think don't need an appliance in terms of cost and time.So Exclude B and C.
OrangeTiger
👍 1
Withch prefer A or D? I think D.Because part of the question text 'on-premises database export into Cloud Storage'. If use Bigquery in ETL solution, need Data Flow. But if just want to complement Cloud Strage, D is the simplest way.
Gimyjony
👍 2
Option A Based on this link https://www.progress.com/tutorials/cloud-and-hybrid/etl-on-premises-oracle-data-to-google-bigquery-using-google-cloud-dataflow Use of Dataflow is correct. Option A is correct as gsutil not ideal for > 1TB and Transfer Appliance take 13 Weeks
Aiffone
👍 2
Transfer appliance -A
Deb2293
👍 6
Go home you are drunk
Aiffone
👍 2
I mean I'd go with A rather...questions says to spend minimum time and we have 1Gbps to do 10Tb in 30hrs
AmitMittal
👍 1
Selected: D
Time to transfer using 1Gbps : 30 hours (https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets) Answer is D, using gsutil
KirkD
👍 1
According to https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets and https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets#time it should not take more than 1 MD to transfer 10TB. Transfer appliance is recommended when transferring hundreds of TBs or PTs of data.
PeterAH
👍 3
Selected: B
According to https://cloud.google.com/storage-transfer/docs/overview , a proposed question in the document is "Should you use gsutil or Storage Transfer Service?" , the answer states that Transferring more than 1 TB from on-premises - Use Transfer service for on-premises data. so I vote for B , please confirm if I am thinking correctly.
menon_sarath
👍 1
option best fit is B. We can do an offline migration and not via the 1Gbs bandwdit connection. Also it is 10 TB. Looking at these two features option B is best suited IMO
Nalo1
👍 2
Selected: B
After seeing the sentence google recommended practices, I would go with B
Bobch
👍 2
Selected: B
Answer B: as Storage Transfer Service option isn't listed https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets#transfer-options
pakilodi
👍 1
Selected: D
Vote D
joe2211
👍 4
Selected: B
vote B
ravisar
👍 2
As per google best practice, for transferring more than 1 TB data from on-premises use “Transfer Service for on-premises data” which is different from “Transfer Appliance”. https://cloud.google.com/storage-transfer/docs/on-prem-overview With 1 Gbps, transferring 10 TB of data online takes only 30 hours to complete. If I am the decision maker, I will choose this. Not sure why google’s best practice is saying to use gsutil only up to 1 TB! https://cloud.google.com/storage-transfer/docs/overview The issue is, we don’t have “Transfer Service for on-premises data” as one of the choices. As per google console, Transfer Appliance is recommended for data that exceeds 20 TB or would take more than a week to upload. I would choose option D
rjupc
👍 2
Agree B
Agrossi74
👍 2
I think the answer is A. The request is not to migrate the DB form on-prem to Cloud but to extract data and write them on a Cloud Storage. Then is an ETL operation and i use Dataflow
MaxNRG
👍 1
https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets#step_3_evaluating_your_transfer_options
BrijMohan08
👍 2
The correct answer is A For those who are supporting D, think few scenarios 1. How you are going to compress 10TB of data? 2. In case if you manage to compress also, then -m is used when you have lots of small files to transfer like jpeg, gif, HTML, etc 3. Suppose if you are saying that you are going to logically group the files and then compress them into multiple small files, and use -m to copy in multiple threads? That's too much work for 10 TB of Data, you are definitely going to need Dataflow for that. Out of all these options, I see A is more appropriate answer.
gingerbeer
👍 21
No perfect answer as B and D both have flaws. B is time latency as transfer appliance usually takes weeks; D gsutil applies for less than 1TB. The answer should be storage transfer service for on-premises data, which is not available here. If have to choose one I go for B
RitwickKumar
👍 1
Storage transfer service is for online data. It can't serve the purpose if you don't have the connectivity established between on prem and gcp. Which is what we can't assume ourselves in this question.
Besss
👍 4
Transfer Appliance is not correct. According to GCP documentation: The two main criteria to consider with Transfer Appliance are cost and speed. With reasonable network connectivity (for example, 1 Gbps), transferring 100 TB of data online takes over 10 days to complete. If this rate is acceptable, an online transfer is likely a good solution for your needs.
mikesp
👍 20
I agree. "Google-recommended practices" means than if more than 1TB, then Transfer Appliance. The main drawback of option D is that gsutil does not enable to manage bandwidth and corporate connection could be congested by transfer and affect other business activities.
valgorodetsky
👍 1
"If It would take more than one week to upload your data over the network." You always need to take in account you connection speed.
amxexam
👍 2
Sorry Ignore my comment, as the transfer id 1Gps it will take 1 Day, 0 Hours, and 26 Minutes, 1 Second even in the case of multi-thread ( although compression will reduce the over data size) for 10TB of that is will be faster than using a TA
pr2web
👍 108
This is pretty simple. Time to transfer using Transfer Appliance: 1-3 weeks (I've used it twice and had a 2-3 week turnaround total) Time to transfer using 1Gbps : 30 hours (https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets) Answer is D, using gsutil
mahi_h
👍 1
More documentation supporting option D https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets "The two main criteria to consider with Transfer Appliance are cost and speed. With reasonable network connectivity (for example, 1 Gbps), transferring 100 TB of data online takes over 10 days to complete. If this rate is acceptable, an online transfer is likely a good solution for your needs. "
ArtistS
👍 2
Agree. Must be D. We do not need to think about too many technical things here. You just compare totally need 30 hours to complete this job, if you rent a data transfer appliance and back to gcp and then upload it. It will over 30 hours. This is the first point. Please read the doc again, it will recommend you to use transfer appliance over 40 TB.
Petya27
👍 3
Plus, you use the Transfer Appliance for data, which is over 40 TB, and 10 TB is way below that.
ckw_1206
👍 1
make sense!
moota
👍 7
According to https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets > The expected turnaround time for a network appliance to be shipped, loaded with your data, shipped back, and rehydrated on Google Cloud is 20 days. If your online transfer timeframe is calculated to be substantially more than this timeframe, consider Transfer Appliance.
mickeythecraycray
👍 3
Will that not increase the Database load?, one of the requirement is to reduce the load of the DB during this operation.
Aiffone
👍 3
If I can do it in 30hrs, why choose 1 week? i'd go with B
cloudguy2
👍 15
B) Google recommends gsutil for <1TB; for >1TB, Storage Transfer Service is recommended. Since STS is not in the answers, the next best large transfer option would be offline Storage Appliance.
joe2211
👍 8
Not about time but "Google-recommended practices"
PleeO
👍 23
according to your real case, D definitely is a correct answer. However this is the GCP exam, I would go with B - Use data transfer appliance -> the precise answer
MikeB19
👍 3
This is the correct article to support this question but the article proves the transfer appliance is the correct answer. Right below the transfer calc chart is recommended amount of data for gsutil. Gsutil should be used for data transfer under 1 tb “Your private data center to Google Cloud Enough bandwidth to meet your project deadline for less than 1 TB of data gsutil”
victory108
👍 2
B. Use the Data Transfer appliance to perform an offline migration.
diaga2
👍 2
It should be B - https://cloud.google.com/transfer-appliance/docs/4.0/specifications
JustADudeTakingATest
👍 1
None of these answers are very good imho. I hope I dont get a question like this. THey are all flawed but I think its B because 10TB is the trigger in the docs. However, taking 1 day to upload this is surely easier and quicker then dealing with a transfer appliance.
VishalB
👍 4
Answer D -- Question talks about minimize time, cost & database load. So Option D is more suitable for above scenario as it is using compressed files and parallel upload option
amxexam
👍 1
Wrong answer
Sandipcst
👍 3
Option A is wining - because, to upload 10 TB data with 1 GBPS connection will take only 1 day. Whereas transferring through transfer appliance will take more than a month.
MikeB19
👍 2
Data flow is an etl tool. There is no req around transforming the data. The only req is to ingest to gcs. Therefore i think the best tool is the transfer appliance
VishalB
👍 1
Question has explicitly mentioned about -- database load means reading data directly from database is not recommended which would increase load
Sandipcst
👍 3
Well - Option A is wining than D - because, to upload 10 TB data with 1 GBPS connection will take only 1 day. Whereas transferring through transfer appliance will take more than a month.
J19G
👍 2
"It would take more than one week to upload your data over the network." in this case upload would only take 1 day therefore it seems the best options is D using gsutil.
Nik22
👍 3
10 TB is not much - 2 would be an overkill, D is recommended if it is upto 1TB, I don't understand, why to use commercial partner to move data, A also does not make sense since there is no data manipulation. I would go with D
Sandipcst
👍 4
-m means multi thread. It is useful for parallel uploads with large number of files, NOT large files like 10 TB. So, Option D will not work. Rather transfer appliance would be better choice
Nik22
👍 2
I change it. Its B. Check https://cloud.google.com/transfer-appliance/docs/4.0/overview & look for Is Transfer Appliance suitable for me?
MaxNRG
👍 2
Docker is not an ETL solution! Transfer service for on-premises data would be the best option here, but there's no such answer, so I would choose D - gsutil
vladik820
👍 3
I go with C. Google recommends use 'Storage Transfer Service for on-premises data' for 10 TB database. https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets And its a Docker - commercial partner ETL solution. commercial partner ETL solution
vladik820
👍 1
https://cloud.google.com/storage-transfer/docs/on-prem-overview
Comments & Corrections
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Expert Analysis
Why the Answer Is Correct
Option D—compress the data and upload it with gsutil -m—minimizes time, cost, and database load simultaneously. At 1 Gbps, 10 TB transfers in roughly 30 hours using multi-threaded parallel uploads, which is dramatically faster than the 1–3 week turnaround for a Transfer Appliance (ship, load, ship back, rehydrate). Google's architecture guidance on transferring large datasets explicitly states that Transfer Appliance should only be considered when the online transfer time is "substantially more than" the ~20-day appliance turnaround time—30 hours is nowhere close. Compression further reduces transfer time and the multi-threaded flag maximizes throughput without adding load to the database, since the export is a file-level upload.
Why the Other Options Are Wrong
Option A (Dataflow job reading directly from the database) would sustain heavy load on the on-premises database for the entire transfer duration, directly contradicting the requirement to minimize database load. Option B (Transfer Appliance) is designed for scenarios where the online transfer time substantially exceeds 20 days; here the online transfer completes in under two days, so the appliance adds weeks of latency and shipping costs with no benefit. Option C (commercial partner ETL solution) is not a Google-recommended practice and introduces unnecessary licensing costs and complexity for what is simply a bulk file transfer.
Community Comment Notes
The most upvoted comment by pr2web provides a concrete calculation: "Time to transfer using 1Gbps: 30 hours" versus "Time to transfer using Transfer Appliance: 1-3 weeks," concluding "Answer is D." Several learners like mikesp note that Google's guidance recommends Transfer Appliance for transfers exceeding 1 TB, but they overlook that the recommendation is conditional on online transfer time exceeding the appliance turnaround. Commenter moota correctly quotes Google's guidance that appliance consideration applies when online transfer is "substantially more than" 20 days, which does not apply here.
Official Reference
Exam Strategy
When comparing transfer methods, always calculate the actual online transfer time from the bandwidth given. If the online transfer completes far faster than appliance turnaround (~20 days), the online method (gsutil -m or Storage Transfer Service) is the correct choice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why isn't Transfer Appliance (B) faster for a 10-TB database export at 1 Gbps?
At 1 Gbps, 10 TB transfers online in about 30 hours. Transfer Appliance requires shipping, loading, returning, and rehydrating data—totaling 1–3 weeks—so it is substantially slower for this volume and bandwidth.
Google recommends Transfer Appliance for transfers over 1 TB—why doesn't that apply here?
That recommendation is conditional: appliance is preferred only when the online transfer time substantially exceeds the ~20-day appliance turnaround. Here 30 hours is far less than 20 days, so gsutil -m is the faster, cheaper option.
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