DVA-C02 Development with AWS Services Practice Question
A company has a monolithic application running on an EC2 instance that needs to be migrated to a microservices architecture on AWS. The development team wants to use AWS services to handle service discovery, configuration management, and secrets management. Which combination of AWS services should the team use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store (which can store secrets but lacks automatic rotation and advanced access control) with AWS Secrets Manager, or mistakenly think AWS Config is suitable for application configuration management when it is actually for resource compliance and auditing.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use AWS Cloud Map for service discovery, AWS AppConfig for configuration, and AWS Secrets Manager for secrets.
AWS Cloud Map provides service discovery for microservices by registering service instances and enabling DNS-based or API-based resolution. AWS AppConfig manages application configuration with validation and controlled rollouts, and AWS Secrets Manager handles secrets management with automatic rotation and fine-grained access control. Together, these services meet the specific needs of service discovery, configuration management, and secrets management in a microservices architecture.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use Amazon ECS Service Discovery for service discovery, AWS Config for configuration, and AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store for secrets.
Why it's wrong here
This option is incorrect because Amazon ECS Service Discovery is specifically designed for ECS tasks and is not a general-purpose service discovery solution for monolithic applications running directly on EC2 instances. Additionally, AWS Config is a compliance auditing service that tracks resource configurations, not a tool for managing runtime application configuration. While AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store can store secrets, AWS Secrets Manager offers superior security features like automatic rotation and more robust lifecycle management, making it the preferred choice for sensitive data.
- ✓
Use AWS Cloud Map for service discovery, AWS AppConfig for configuration, and AWS Secrets Manager for secrets.
Why this is correct
This option correctly identifies the purpose-built AWS services for each requirement. AWS Cloud Map provides a unified service registry for all application resources, enabling dynamic discovery for EC2-based applications through DNS or API calls. AWS AppConfig is specifically designed for safe, controlled deployment and management of application configurations, including validation and rollback capabilities. AWS Secrets Manager is the most secure and feature-rich service for storing, rotating, and managing sensitive credentials and API keys.
- ✗
Use AWS Cloud Map for service discovery, AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store for configuration, and AWS Secrets Manager for secrets.
Why it's wrong here
While AWS Cloud Map and AWS Secrets Manager are appropriate choices for service discovery and secrets management, respectively, using AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store for configuration is suboptimal for complex application needs. Parameter Store can store configuration values, but AWS AppConfig offers advanced features like configuration validation, staged deployments, and automatic rollbacks, which are crucial for safely managing application configurations in production environments and minimizing deployment risks.
- ✗
Use AWS Service Discovery for service discovery, EC2 Image Builder for configuration, and AWS Key Management Service (KMS) for secrets.
Why it's wrong here
This option is incorrect because EC2 Image Builder is designed for automating the creation of secure and updated Amazon Machine Images (AMIs), not for managing runtime application configurations or deploying configuration changes to running instances. Furthermore, AWS Key Management Service (KMS) is primarily for managing encryption keys and performing cryptographic operations, not for storing and rotating application secrets like database credentials or API keys, which is the domain of AWS Secrets Manager.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DVA-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the DVA-C02 exam.