SOA-C02 Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation Practice Test 13 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A CloudFormation template launches an EC2 instance with the user data script shown. The instance launches successfully but the web server does not serve PHP pages. What is the MOST likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The script does not install PHP.. Option D is correct because the script installs Apache (httpd) but does not install PHP. The script writes a PHP file but PHP is not installed. Option A is wrong because the script is base64 encoded correctly. Option B is wrong because the script runs as root, so permissions are fine. Option C is wrong because the script exists; the instance launches.

Answer

The script does not have execute permissions.

Answer

The CloudFormation template is missing a DependsOn clause for the instance.

Answer

The user data script is not base64 encoded correctly.

Question 2

A company is using AWS CloudFormation to deploy a web application. The stack creation fails with the error 'Resource creation cancelled' for an EC2 instance. The instance type is t3.micro, and the AMI ID is specified in the template. Which of the following is the most likely cause of the failure?

Accepted Answer

The account has reached the vCPU limit for On-Demand Instances in the region.. The error 'Resource creation cancelled' indicates that the instance launch was aborted, likely due to reaching the vCPU limit (On-Demand Instance limit per region). The t3.micro instance consumes vCPUs; if the account has a standard limit of 5 vCPUs, launching a t3.micro (2 vCPUs) might exceed the limit if other instances are running. Option A is correct because CloudFormation does not automatically request a limit increase. Option B is wrong because the AMI ID is specified, so no default AMI is used. Option C is wrong because t3.micro is supported. Option D is wrong because the instance type is valid.

Answer

The instance type 't3.micro' is not available in the region.

Answer

The instance type is invalid for the specified AMI.

Answer

The AMI ID is not specified for the region.

Question 3

A SysOps administrator is automating the creation of Amazon RDS DB instances using AWS CloudFormation. The template includes a DB instance with a Multi-AZ deployment. During a stack update, the administrator changes the DB instance class from db.t3.small to db.t3.medium. What is the expected behavior during the update?

Accepted Answer

RDS will modify the standby instance first, then fail over to it, and finally modify the original primary, resulting in minimal downtime.. When modifying a DB instance class for a Multi-AZ deployment, AWS RDS performs a rolling upgrade: it modifies the standby first, then triggers a failover to make the standby the new primary, and then modifies the old primary. Option B correctly describes this process with minimal downtime. Option A is wrong because a reboot is required after the modification. Option C is wrong because the modification does not happen without downtime. Option D is wrong because RDS does not create a new instance for a class change.

Answer

RDS will create a new DB instance with the new class and delete the old one.

Answer

RDS will modify both instances simultaneously, causing a brief outage.

Answer

The update will fail because CloudFormation cannot modify a Multi-AZ DB instance class.

Question 4

An organization wants to automate the creation of AWS resources using AWS CloudFormation. They need to ensure that certain resources, such as an Amazon S3 bucket, are not accidentally deleted when the stack is deleted. Which CloudFormation feature should they use?

Accepted Answer

DeletionPolicy attribute with value 'Retain'. The DeletionPolicy attribute with value 'Retain' ensures that the resource is retained even if the stack is deleted. Option D is correct. Option A is wrong because the stack policy controls updates, not deletion. Option B is wrong because 'Protect' is not a valid DeletionPolicy value. Option C is wrong because 'Delete' is the default behavior, which would delete the bucket.

Answer

DeletionPolicy attribute with value 'Protect'

Answer

DeletionPolicy attribute with value 'Delete'

Answer

Stack policy

Question 5

A company uses AWS CodeDeploy to deploy a web application to an Auto Scaling group. The deployment fails with the error 'The overall deployment failed because too many individual instances failed deployment, too few healthy instances are available for deployment, or some instances in your deployment group are experiencing problems.' The deployment group has a minimum of 2 healthy instances. The Auto Scaling group has 4 instances. What should the SysOps administrator check first?

Accepted Answer

Check the Auto Scaling group's health check type and ensure it is set to ELB.. The error indicates that the deployment could not maintain the minimum healthy instances. Checking the Auto Scaling group's health check configuration is the first step because if the health check type is not set to ELB, the instances might be marked healthy even if they are not receiving traffic. Option C is correct. Option A is wrong because the error message does not point to missing hooks. Option B is wrong because the error is about health, not about permissions. Option D is wrong because the deployment configuration is not the primary issue; the error message specifically mentions healthy instances.

Answer

Review the deployment configuration to ensure it allows enough time for deployment.

Answer

Verify that the AppSpec file includes the correct hooks.

Answer

Check the IAM role for CodeDeploy to ensure it has sufficient permissions.

Question 6

A SysOps administrator is using AWS OpsWorks to manage a stack of web servers. The administrator wants to automate the installation of custom software on all new instances that are added to the layer. What is the best approach?

Accepted Answer

Assign a custom Chef recipe to the layer's Setup lifecycle event.. Custom Chef recipes can be assigned to a layer's lifecycle events, such as Setup, to run on new instances. Option A is correct. Option B is wrong because user data is for EC2 instances directly, not OpsWorks. Option C is wrong because custom AMIs require manual management and do not integrate with OpsWorks automation. Option D is wrong because CloudFormation is not part of OpsWorks instance lifecycle.

Answer

Use AWS CloudFormation to install software on new instances.

Answer

Create a custom AMI with the software pre-installed and use that in the layer.

Answer

Use EC2 user data scripts in the layer configuration.

Question 7

A company uses AWS Elastic Beanstalk to deploy a web application. The environment is running low on memory, and the administrator needs to change the instance type from t2.micro to t3.small. What is the correct way to perform this change with minimal downtime?

Accepted Answer

Modify the instance type in the Elastic Beanstalk environment's configuration.. Elastic Beanstalk environments can be updated by changing the instance type in the environment configuration. The environment will perform a rolling update, replacing instances one by one to minimize downtime. Option A is correct. Option B is wrong because terminating and recreating causes downtime. Option C is wrong because modifying Auto Scaling groups directly is not supported by Elastic Beanstalk. Option D is wrong because rolling update is the default behavior.

Answer

Terminate the environment and create a new one with the desired instance type.

Answer

Create a new environment and perform a swap URL.

Answer

Manually modify the Auto Scaling group's launch configuration.

Question 8

A SysOps administrator is deploying a new version of an application using AWS CodeDeploy with an in-place deployment configuration. The deployment group consists of EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The administrator wants to ensure that traffic is gradually shifted to the new version. Which CodeDeploy feature should be used?

Accepted Answer

Configure the load balancer deregistration delay and re-registration in the deployment group.. The load balancer deregistration delay and re-registration are configured in the deployment group settings. By enabling load balancing and setting the deregistration delay, CodeDeploy will deregister instances from the load balancer, deploy the new version, and re-register them after a health check. Option C is correct. Option A is wrong because the deployment configuration sets the speed, not traffic shifting. Option B is wrong because the AppSpec file defines hooks, not traffic shifting. Option D is wrong because a canary deployment is a different deployment type, not a feature of in-place.

Answer

Use a canary deployment instead of in-place.

Answer

Define a BeforeInstall hook to deregister instances.

Answer

Use a linear deployment configuration.

Question 9

An organization uses AWS CloudFormation to manage infrastructure. They have a stack that includes an Amazon RDS DB instance. The administrator wants to update the DB instance's allocated storage without downtime. The DB instance is currently using gp2 storage. Which action should the administrator take?

Accepted Answer

Modify the storage size in the CloudFormation template and update the stack.. RDS allows modifying allocated storage for gp2 volumes. If the modification does not require a reboot (e.g., increasing storage), it can be applied immediately. However, some modifications might require a reboot. To avoid downtime, the administrator should apply the change during the maintenance window. Option D is correct. Option A is wrong because snapshots are not required for storage changes. Option B is wrong because read replicas are not needed for storage modification. Option C is wrong because stopping the DB instance causes downtime.

Answer

Create a read replica with the new storage size and promote it.

Answer

Stop the DB instance, modify the storage, and start it.

Answer

Take a manual snapshot and restore it with the new storage size.

Question 10

A SysOps administrator needs to deploy a microservices application using AWS Elastic Beanstalk. The application consists of multiple services that need to communicate with each other. Which Elastic Beanstalk environment type should the administrator choose?

Accepted Answer

Load-balanced environment. A load-balanced environment provides an ELB for distributing traffic and is suitable for microservices that need to communicate via HTTP/HTTPS. Option C is correct. Option A is wrong because a single-instance environment does not provide load balancing. Option B is wrong because a web server environment is for web applications, but the question is about environment type (single vs load-balanced). Option D is wrong because worker environments are for background tasks.

Answer

Worker environment

Answer

Web server environment

Answer

Single-instance environment

Question 11

A SysOps administrator is automating the deployment of a web application using AWS CloudFormation. The application requires an Application Load Balancer (ALB) and an Auto Scaling group. The administrator wants to ensure that the Auto Scaling group registers instances with the ALB automatically. Which of the following are required? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

A launch template or launch configuration that defines the AMI and instance type.. To automatically register instances with an ALB, the Auto Scaling group must have a target group ARN specified, and the launch template or configuration must use an AMI that supports the ALB's health checks. Option B and D are correct. Option A is wrong because a load balancer is created separately, but the Auto Scaling group needs the target group. Option C is wrong because the health check grace period is optional. Option E is wrong because the security group is not directly related to automatic registration.

Answer

A health check grace period set in the Auto Scaling group.

Answer

A security group that allows traffic from the ALB.

Answer

An Application Load Balancer created in the same stack.

Question 12

A company uses AWS OpsWorks to manage a stack of application servers. The administrator needs to automate the deployment of a new application version. Which of the following are valid methods to trigger a deployment in OpsWorks? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Use OpsWorks lifecycle events like 'Deploy' to run recipes.. OpsWorks supports multiple deployment triggers: using the AWS CLI, using lifecycle events, and using the console. Option A, C, and D are correct. Option B is wrong because CloudWatch Events can trigger deployments via custom events, but SNS topics themselves do not directly trigger deployments unless integrated via custom scripts. Option E is wrong because OpsWorks does not have a direct integration with CodePipeline; it can be done via custom scripts.

Answer

Configure an Amazon SNS topic to trigger the deployment.

Answer

Use AWS CodePipeline to directly deploy to OpsWorks.

Question 13

A SysOps administrator is setting up an AWS Elastic Beanstalk environment for a Node.js application. The administrator wants to ensure that environment variables are set for the application. Which of the following methods can be used to set environment variables in Elastic Beanstalk? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Use the AWS CLI command update-environment.. Environment variables can be set in the Elastic Beanstalk console under Configuration > Software, or via the AWS CLI using the update-environment command. Option A and D are correct. Option B is wrong because the EB CLI does not support setting environment variables directly; it uses configuration files. Option C is wrong because the AppSpec file is for CodeDeploy, not Elastic Beanstalk. Option E is wrong because CloudFormation templates are not used directly in Elastic Beanstalk for environment variables.

Answer

Use a CloudFormation template to set environment variables.

Answer

Include them in the AppSpec file.

Answer

Define them in the EB CLI configuration file.

Question 14

A SysOps administrator is troubleshooting a CodeDeploy deployment that uploads artifacts to an S3 bucket. The deployment fails with an 'AccessDenied' error. The IAM policy for the CodeDeploy service role includes the statement shown in the exhibit. What is the most likely cause of the failure?

Accepted Answer

The upload does not set the ACL to 'bucket-owner-full-control'.. The policy requires that the object's ACL be set to 'bucket-owner-full-control'. If the upload does not specify this ACL, the request fails. Option C is correct. Option A is wrong because the action is allowed. Option B is wrong because the resource includes the bucket. Option D is wrong because the condition is about ACL, not encryption.

Answer

The resource ARN does not include the bucket itself.

Answer

The policy does not allow encryption headers.

Answer

The policy does not allow the s3:PutObject action.

Question 15

A SysOps administrator is creating a CloudFormation stack and receives the error shown in the exhibit. The template snippet for the Auto Scaling group is:

"MyAutoScalingGroup": {
  "Type": "AWS::AutoScaling::AutoScalingGroup",
  "Properties": {
    "MinSize": "1",
    "MaxSize": "5",
    "DesiredCapacity": "2",
    ...
  }
}

Accepted Answer

The MinSize value must be specified as an integer, not a string.. The error states that MinSize must be of type Number, but the template provides a string value '1'. CloudFormation expects integer values for MinSize, MaxSize, and DesiredCapacity. Option B is correct. Option A is wrong because the desired capacity is also a string, but the error specifically mentions MinSize. Option C is wrong because the metric type is not relevant. Option D is wrong because the values are within range.

Answer

The DesiredCapacity value must be less than MinSize.

Answer

The MinSize value exceeds the MaxSize value.

Answer

The Auto Scaling group must have a scaling policy.

SOA-C02 Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation Practice Test 13 — 15 Questions

Exhibit

SOA-C02 Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation Practice Test 13 — 15 Questions

Exhibit