A healthcare provider is building a new data analytics platform on Google Cloud to process patient health records. The system requires high availability and disaster recovery across multiple regions to ensure continuous operation and data integrity in case of a regional outage. You need to design the BigQuery component of this platform to meet these requirements. How should you configure BigQuery for multi-region disaster recovery?
- AUse a single-region BigQuery dataset and regularly export data to a Cloud Storage bucket in another region.
- BCreate a multi-region BigQuery dataset location, which automatically replicates data across regions within that multi-region.
- CManually copy BigQuery tables using `bq cp` commands to another BigQuery dataset in a separate region on a scheduled basis.
- DSet up BigQuery Data Transfer Service to replicate data from a primary BigQuery dataset to a secondary dataset in a different region.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Create a multi-region BigQuery dataset location, which automatically replicates data across regions within that multi-region.
BigQuery datasets can be created in a multi-region location (e.g., EU, US). When a dataset is created in a multi-region, BigQuery automatically replicates data across multiple regions within that multi-region to provide high availability and disaster recovery, ensuring data durability and availability even during a regional outage.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Exporting to Cloud Storage is a backup mechanism, but it requires manual restoration and does not provide automatic, real-time data replication for disaster recovery of the BigQuery dataset itself.
- C. Manually copying tables is a cumbersome and error-prone process that does not provide continuous, real-time replication or automatic failover for disaster recovery.
- D. BigQuery Data Transfer Service is primarily for ingesting data from external sources or other BigQuery datasets, not for continuous, automatic multi-region replication for disaster recovery purposes.
BigQuery Multi-Region Datasets
BigQuery datasets configured to store data across multiple geographical regions, providing high availability and disaster recovery.
- Data automatically replicated by BigQuery.
- Protects against regional outages.
- Ensures data durability and availability.
Memory trick: BigQuery's multi-region is like having data mirrored in two different continents, so if one falls, the other instantly takes over.