COF-C03 - Data Collaboration - Section 5.3

Use zero-copy cloning, Time Travel, and Fail-safe for data recovery and low-cost duplication.

Use Snowflake's data continuity features: zero-copy cloning to duplicate a database, schema, or table without copying storage until data diverges; Time Travel to query, clone, or restore data within the retention period and to UNDROP a dropped object; and Fail-safe as the non-configurable seven-day recovery window that follows Time Travel. Distinguish the cost and purpose of Time Travel and Fail-safe.

zero-copy cloningTime Traveldata retention periodFail-safeUNDROP

Practice question for this objective

Free sampleData Collaborationmedium

A developer dropped a permanent table by mistake roughly two hours ago, then noticed that another table with the same name was never created in its place. The table had default Time Travel retention. What is the simplest way to bring the dropped table back?

  • ARecreate the table from its DDL and reload it from yesterday's external files, since a dropped permanent table cannot be brought back through any built-in Snowflake recovery command
  • BOpen a Fail-safe support request with Snowflake to retrieve the dropped table, because dropping a permanent object moves its data straight into Fail-safe and bypasses Time Travel
  • CClone the table from its pre-drop state with CREATE TABLE restored CLONE old_table, naming the dropped object as the clone source to rebuild it under a new table name
  • DRun UNDROP TABLE on the dropped table, which restores it from Time Travel because the drop happened within the table's retention period and no new object reused the name Correct
Use UNDROP TABLE to restore a recently dropped permanent table from Time Travel when the drop is within retention and the name is free. When a table is dropped, Snowflake retains its data within the Time Travel retention period rather than removing it immediately, and UNDROP TABLE recovers the most recent dropped version provided the retention window has not elapsed and no new object has taken the same name; this is faster and simpler than rebuilding from source files.

Why A is wrong: Rebuilding from files is tempting when a table seems gone, but Snowflake can restore a recently dropped table directly, so this slower manual rebuild is unnecessary.

Why B is wrong: A drop within retention is recoverable through Time Travel, not Fail-safe; raising a support case is slower and unnecessary while UNDROP can still restore it.

Why C is wrong: Cloning needs an existing source object, but the table is dropped, so this CLONE statement cannot resolve its source and will fail rather than restore it.

Why D is correct: UNDROP restores a dropped object from Time Travel while it is in the retention window, and with the name still free the original table comes back intact.

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