DVA-C02 Deployment Practice Question
A team is using AWS CodePipeline with multiple stages: Source, Build, Test, and Deploy. The Deploy stage uses AWS CodeDeploy to deploy to an EC2 Auto Scaling group. The pipeline runs successfully, but the application still serves the old version. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume a successful pipeline run guarantees the new version is live, overlooking that CodeDeploy's deployment group configuration determines which Auto Scaling group receives the update.
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
✓
The CodeDeploy deployment group is associated with a different Auto Scaling group than the one serving traffic.
The most likely cause is that the CodeDeploy deployment group is associated with a different Auto Scaling group than the one actually serving traffic. Even though the pipeline runs successfully, CodeDeploy deploys the new application revision only to instances in the Auto Scaling group linked to its deployment group. If the deployment group targets a different Auto Scaling group (e.g., a staging group) while the live traffic is served by another group (e.g., production), the old version remains on the production instances.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
The CodeDeploy deployment group is associated with a different Auto Scaling group than the one serving traffic.
Why this is correct
This scenario directly explains why the old version is served. If the CodeDeploy deployment group targets an Auto Scaling group that is *not* currently registered with the load balancer or is an old, inactive group, the deployment will succeed on those instances. However, the load balancer will continue routing traffic to the *active* Auto Scaling group, which still hosts the previous application version, making the new deployment invisible to users.
- ✗
The load balancer's target group is not pointing to the correct instances.
Why it's wrong here
If the load balancer's target group is misconfigured or empty, it would fail to route traffic to any healthy instances. This would result in users experiencing application unavailability, typically manifesting as HTTP 503 Service Unavailable errors or connection timeouts. The application would not serve an old version; rather, it would be entirely unreachable, which contradicts the problem statement implying the application is still accessible.
- ✗
The build artifact in the Source stage is corrupted.
Why it's wrong here
A corrupted build artifact originating from the Source stage would likely cause a failure in a subsequent pipeline stage, such as CodeBuild failing to process the malformed source code or CodeDeploy failing to extract and install the application package. The pipeline would halt with an error, preventing any deployment from completing successfully. It would not result in the deployment of an old, working version of the application.
- ✗
The CodeBuild stage failed silently and did not produce a new artifact.
Why it's wrong here
A silent failure in the CodeBuild stage, while generally unlikely in a well-configured CodePipeline, would prevent a new build artifact from being generated and passed to subsequent stages. CodePipeline is designed to stop execution upon stage failure, meaning the CodeDeploy stage would not receive a new artifact to deploy. Therefore, the pipeline would either fail explicitly or stall, rather than successfully deploying an old application version.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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