SOA-C02 Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation Practice Test 10 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A SysOps administrator uses AWS CloudFormation to deploy a stack that includes an Amazon EC2 instance and a security group. The administrator wants to ensure that when the stack is updated, the security group is not accidentally replaced if its properties change. The administrator wants to receive a failure if an update would require replacement of the security group. Which CloudFormation feature should the administrator use?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Define a stack policy that denies replacement of the security group resource.. A stack policy can explicitly deny update actions that would replace a resource, such as the security group. By defining a stack policy with a Deny statement for the 'Replace' effect on the security group's logical resource ID, CloudFormation will fail the update if any property change triggers a replacement, preventing accidental deletion and recreation.

Answer

Add a 'DeletionPolicy' attribute set to 'Retain' on the security group resource.

Answer

Add a 'CreationPolicy' attribute to the security group resource.

Answer

Use an 'UpdatePolicy' attribute with 'AutoScalingReplacingUpdate' on the security group.

Question 2

A SysOps administrator needs to deploy a web application stack consisting of an Amazon EC2 instance, an Amazon RDS database, and an Application Load Balancer. The administrator wants to define the infrastructure as code and version control it. Which AWS service should the administrator use?

Accepted Answer

AWS CloudFormation. AWS CloudFormation is the correct choice because it is an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) service that allows you to define and provision AWS resources—such as EC2 instances, RDS databases, and Application Load Balancers—using declarative templates (JSON or YAML). These templates can be version-controlled in a repository like Git, enabling repeatable, auditable deployments. Elastic Beanstalk abstracts infrastructure management but does not give you the same level of granular control over individual resources as CloudFormation.

Answer

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Answer

AWS OpsWorks

Answer

AWS CodeDeploy

Question 3

A SysOps administrator needs to deploy the same AWS CloudFormation template across multiple AWS accounts and Regions in a single operation. The administrator wants to manage the deployment from a single management account. Which AWS service should the administrator use?

Accepted Answer

AWS CloudFormation StackSets. AWS CloudFormation StackSets extends the functionality of CloudFormation by allowing you to deploy the same template across multiple accounts and Regions from a single management account. StackSets uses a self-managed or service-managed permission model to create, update, and delete stacks across target accounts in a single operation, making it the correct choice for this multi-account, multi-Region deployment requirement.

Answer

AWS CodeDeploy

Answer

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Answer

AWS Service Catalog

Question 4

A SysOps administrator uses AWS CloudFormation to deploy a stack that includes an Amazon EC2 instance and a security group. The administrator wants to ensure that when the stack is updated, the security group is not accidentally replaced if its properties change. The administrator wants to receive a failure if an update would require replacement of the security group. Which CloudFormation feature should the administrator use?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

StackPolicy. StackPolicy, is correct because a stack policy is a JSON document that defines which stack resources can be updated or replaced during a stack update. By setting a Deny effect on update actions for the EC2 instance, the administrator can prevent any property change that would cause replacement, causing the update to fail instead of replacing the instance. This directly meets the requirement to block accidental replacement.

Answer

CreationPolicy

Answer

DeletionPolicy

Answer

UpdateReplacePolicy

Question 5

A CloudFormation stack update fails and enters UPDATE_ROLLBACK_FAILED. Which two actions are appropriate next steps? (Choose 2.)

Accepted Answer

Review stack events to identify the resource that blocked rollback.. When a CloudFormation stack update fails and enters UPDATE_ROLLBACK_FAILED, the stack events provide detailed error messages for each resource that failed during rollback. Reviewing these events is essential to identify the specific resource that blocked the rollback, such as a resource that could not be deleted or updated due to permissions, dependencies, or configuration issues. This diagnosis is the first step before attempting a continue-update-rollback operation.

Answer

Delete the CloudFormation service role from IAM.

Answer

Rename the stack to force rollback completion.

Question 6

A company uses AWS CodeDeploy to deploy an application to Amazon EC2 instances. The SysOps administrator wants to implement a deployment strategy that minimizes risk by deploying the new version to a small number of instances first, verifying that the deployment is successful, and then deploying to the remaining instances. If the initial deployment fails, the process should stop and roll back. Which CodeDeploy deployment configuration should be used?

Accepted Answer

CodeDeployDefault.OneAtATime. CodeDeployDefault.OneAtATime, is correct because it deploys the new application revision to one instance at a time, checking for success before proceeding to the next. If any deployment step fails, the process stops and automatically rolls back, minimizing risk by limiting the blast radius of a bad deployment.

Answer

CodeDeployDefault.AllAtOnce

Answer

CodeDeployDefault.HalfAtATime

Answer

CodeDeployDefault.Canary10Percent10Minutes

Question 7

A company runs 200 EC2 Linux instances across three accounts. The security team requires that critical OS patches are applied automatically every Sunday at 2 AM UTC. Currently patches are applied manually and inconsistently. What is the recommended AWS-native solution?

Accepted Answer

Configure a Patch Manager patch baseline and maintenance window scheduled for Sunday 02:00 UTC; associate the Run Patch Baseline task with all EC2 instance targets. AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager, combined with a Maintenance Window, provides a fully AWS-native, automated solution for patching EC2 instances on a schedule. The Patch Manager service uses a patch baseline to define which patches are approved (e.g., critical OS patches), and the Maintenance Window triggers the 'AWS-RunPatchBaseline' SSM document at the specified time (Sunday 02:00 UTC) against all targeted instances. This eliminates manual effort and ensures consistent, auditable patching across multiple accounts and instances.

Answer

Create a cron job on each instance that runs 'yum update -y' every Sunday at 2 AM

Answer

Use AWS Config managed rules to detect unpatched instances and send SNS notifications for manual remediation

Answer

Build a CodePipeline that runs weekly, creates new AMIs with the latest patches, and replaces all instances via an Auto Scaling instance refresh

Question 8

Operators have been making direct changes to AWS resources (security group rules, IAM policy modifications) that were originally created by CloudFormation stacks. The team wants to identify which stacks and specific resources have drifted from their template definitions. What is the correct tool and operation sequence?

Accepted Answer

Run drift detection on each CloudFormation stack; review the results in the Drift status panel to see which resources have MODIFIED or DELETED status. AWS CloudFormation drift detection is the correct tool because it directly compares the current state of resources in a stack (including security group rules and IAM policies) against the stack's template definitions. Running drift detection on each stack and reviewing the Drift status panel reveals which resources have been modified or deleted outside of CloudFormation, providing the exact identification the team needs.

Answer

Enable AWS Config conformance packs that check CloudFormation stack compliance against desired template states

Answer

Re-deploy all stacks with the original templates using CloudFormation update-stack to overwrite any manual changes

Answer

Use AWS Trusted Advisor to identify resources that have been modified outside of their originating CloudFormation stacks

Question 9

A security policy prohibits opening SSH port 22 on any EC2 instance. The operations team needs to run a shell script on 150 Linux instances to collect configuration inventory data. The script output must be captured for review. How should the team execute the script?

Accepted Answer

Use SSM Run Command with the AWS-RunShellScript document targeting all 150 instances; send output to an S3 bucket. SSM Run Command with the AWS-RunShellScript document allows you to execute shell scripts on multiple EC2 instances without opening SSH port 22, as it operates over the AWS Systems Manager agent (SSM Agent) using HTTPS (port 443). The output can be directed to an S3 bucket for centralized review, satisfying both the security policy and the requirement to capture script output.

Answer

Create a bastion host with SSH access and use a for loop to SSH into each instance and run the script

Answer

Use EC2 Instance Connect to establish a temporary SSH session for each instance and run the script

Answer

Terminate all instances and re-launch them from a new AMI that includes the configuration inventory already baked in

Question 10

A CloudFormation stack manages an RDS database, an S3 bucket, and several Lambda functions. During a recent stack update, a property change caused CloudFormation to replace the RDS instance, deleting the database and re-creating it — resulting in data loss. The team wants to prevent any future stack update from replacing or deleting the RDS instance without an explicit override. What CloudFormation feature accomplishes this?

Accepted Answer

Set a stack policy that denies Replace and Delete actions on the RDS resource; require an override policy to be explicitly provided when a replacement is intentional. A CloudFormation stack policy can explicitly deny Update (which includes replacement) and Delete actions on specific resources, such as the RDS instance. To intentionally perform a replacement, the user must provide an override stack policy during the update that allows the action, ensuring that no accidental replacement occurs without explicit consent.

Answer

Enable deletion protection on the RDS instance to prevent CloudFormation from deleting it

Answer

Use CloudFormation change sets to preview the update and manually reject any change set that includes a replacement

Answer

Add a DeletionPolicy: Retain attribute to the RDS resource in the template

Question 11

A containerized API runs on Amazon ECS with an Application Load Balancer. The team wants to deploy new container versions with zero downtime, automatically route traffic to the new version only after health checks pass, and automatically roll back if error rates spike within 10 minutes of the shift. Which deployment strategy and configuration implements all three requirements?

Accepted Answer

Use CodeDeploy with the ECS blue/green deployment type, configure a Canary or Linear traffic shifting strategy, and attach a CloudWatch alarm for error rate as a deployment alarm. CodeDeploy's ECS blue/green deployment type supports canary or linear traffic shifting, which automatically routes traffic to the new version only after health checks pass. By attaching a CloudWatch alarm for error rate as a deployment alarm, CodeDeploy can automatically trigger a rollback if error rates spike within the specified monitoring period (e.g., 10 minutes), meeting all three requirements: zero downtime, health-check-gated traffic shifting, and automatic rollback on error rate spikes.

Answer

Update the ECS service with a rolling update deployment configuration and set the minimum healthy percent to 100

Answer

Create a second ECS service with the new task definition and use Route 53 weighted routing to shift traffic at the DNS level

Answer

Enable ECS circuit breaker on the service to roll back failed deployments automatically

Question 12

Drag and drop the steps to restore an Amazon RDS DB instance from a snapshot into the correct order.

Accepted Answer

Select the snapshot, then configure instance details, then configure security and parameters, then initiate restore.. Restoration starts by selecting the snapshot, then configuring instance details, security, and parameters, then initiating the restore.

Answer

Select the snapshot, then configure security and parameters, then configure instance details, then initiate restore.

Answer

Configure instance details, then select the snapshot, then configure security and parameters, then initiate restore.

Answer

Select the snapshot, then initiate restore, then configure instance details, then configure security and parameters.

Question 13

Drag and drop the steps to troubleshoot high CPU usage on an Amazon EC2 instance into the correct order.

Accepted Answer

Check CloudWatch metrics, then Connect to instance, then Identify high CPU process, then Analyze process behavior, then Take corrective action. The correct order for troubleshooting high CPU usage on an EC2 instance starts with checking CloudWatch metrics to confirm the issue and gain initial insights. Next, connect to the instance using SSH or Systems Manager to access the operating system. Then, identify the process causing high CPU using tools like top or ps. After identification, analyze the process to understand its behavior, such as checking logs or memory usage. Finally, take corrective action, which may include stopping, killing, or optimizing the process, or scaling the instance up. This sequence ensures efficient and accurate troubleshooting.

Answer

Connect to instance, then Check CloudWatch metrics, then Identify high CPU process, then Analyze process behavior, then Take corrective action

Answer

Check CloudWatch metrics, then Identify high CPU process, then Connect to instance, then Analyze process behavior, then Take corrective action

Answer

Check CloudWatch metrics, then Connect to instance, then Analyze process behavior, then Identify high CPU process, then Take corrective action

Question 14

Match each AWS support plan to its key feature.

Accepted Answer

Basic: Access to AWS Support Community and forums. Basic provides community access, Developer provides business hours email, Business provides 24/7 support with 1-hour response, and Enterprise adds a TAM and faster response. Common confusions include swapping Business and Enterprise features.

Answer

Enterprise: 24/7 phone, email, and chat with 1-hour response to impaired production systems

Answer

Developer: 15-minute response to business-critical systems and a Technical Account Manager

Question 15

A DevOps engineer wants to automate the creation of an Amazon EC2 instance with a specific security group and IAM role. Which AWS service should be used to define the infrastructure as code?

Accepted Answer

AWS CloudFormation. AWS CloudFormation is the infrastructure-as-code (IaC) service that allows you to define AWS resources such as EC2 instances, security groups, and IAM roles in declarative JSON or YAML templates. It automates provisioning and management of the entire stack, ensuring consistent and repeatable deployments. This directly matches the requirement to define infrastructure as code.

Answer

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Answer

AWS CodeDeploy

Answer

AWS OpsWorks