Nutanix Certified Associate Practice Exam

For a highly active SQL workload writing I/Os in 2 MB chunks, which storage optimization technology should be selected?

1. Deduplication

2. Compression

3. Replication

4. Erasure Coding

The correct answer is: Compression

When dealing with a highly active SQL workload that generates write I/Os in 2 MB chunks, compression is the optimal storage optimization technology to select. Compression reduces the overall data footprint by efficiently encoding the data, resulting in less storage space usage for the same amount of raw data. In the context of SQL workloads that produce large write operations, using compression can lead to significant savings without affecting performance negatively. Since the writes are in 2 MB chunks, the inherent redundancy within that data can be significantly reduced, allowing for more efficient storage. Additionally, this means that the system can handle larger volumes of data more efficiently, which is particularly beneficial for a highly active environment. While other technologies such as deduplication and erasure coding have their use cases, they may not be as effective or suitable for this scenario. Deduplication focuses on eliminating duplicate copies of data, which might not occur frequently in a highly active workload. Erasure coding is intended for data protection and provides redundancy but has a more complex overhead associated with it, potentially impacting performance in a write-intensive situation. Replication is primarily a disaster recovery mechanism that duplicates data for availability but does not optimize storage usage or address the direct needs of a high-write workload. Therefore, compression stands out as