DVA-C02 Deployment Practice Question
Which TWO actions should a developer take to minimize downtime when deploying a new version of a production application running on Amazon ECS with Fargate?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse 'rolling update' (which can also achieve zero downtime with proper settings) with the specific requirement for 'minimizing downtime' — the question expects you to recognize that blue/green deployments provide the most controlled and safe traffic shift, while the rolling update option (E) is a valid but less optimal choice for minimizing downtime in all scenarios.
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
✓
Configure the ECS service to use a blue/green deployment with CodeDeploy
Blue/green deployments with AWS CodeDeploy allow you to create a new 'green' environment alongside the existing 'blue' environment, route traffic gradually, and instantly roll back if issues arise. This minimizes downtime by ensuring the old version remains fully available until the new version passes health checks and traffic is fully shifted.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Delete the existing service and recreate it with the new task definition
Why it's wrong here
Deleting an existing Amazon ECS service immediately terminates all running tasks associated with it, making the application unavailable to users. Recreating the service, even with the new task definition, requires time for the new tasks to be provisioned, started, and become healthy before they can serve traffic. This process inherently introduces a significant period of downtime, making it unsuitable for minimizing service interruption during deployments.
- ✓
Configure the ECS service to use a blue/green deployment with CodeDeploy
Why this is correct
Configuring the ECS service for blue/green deployment with AWS CodeDeploy is a robust strategy for minimizing downtime. CodeDeploy provisions an entirely new set of tasks (the "green" environment) running the updated application version alongside the existing "blue" environment. Once the new tasks pass health checks, CodeDeploy atomically shifts traffic from the old environment to the new one, ensuring users experience no interruption and providing an easy rollback mechanism if issues arise.
- ✗
Update the target group health check settings to a more lenient threshold
Why it's wrong here
Modifying the target group health check settings to be more lenient, such as increasing the unhealthy threshold or decreasing the healthy threshold, primarily affects how quickly unhealthy tasks are removed or how long new tasks take to be considered healthy. While it might slightly speed up a task's initial readiness or prevent premature termination, it does not fundamentally alter the deployment process itself or prevent downtime if tasks are stopped before new ones are ready to handle traffic. This action doesn't address the core mechanism of minimizing service interruption during an update.
- ✗
Stop all running tasks and then start new tasks with the updated image
Why it's wrong here
Stopping all running tasks before initiating new ones with an updated image guarantees a period of complete service unavailability. During the interval when all old tasks are terminated and before the new tasks are fully provisioned, started, and registered as healthy with the load balancer, no application instances are available to serve user requests. This "stop-all-then-start-new" approach is a high-downtime deployment strategy, directly contradicting the goal of minimizing interruption.
- ✓
Update the ECS service with a new task definition and set minimum healthy percent to 100 and maximum percent to 200
Why this is correct
Updating the ECS service with a new task definition and configuring `minimum healthy percent` to 100 and `maximum percent` to 200 enables a zero-downtime rolling update. With `minimum healthy percent` at 100, the service ensures that at least all current tasks remain healthy and serving traffic while new tasks are launched. `Maximum percent` at 200 allows the service to launch up to double the desired number of tasks, ensuring new tasks are fully operational and healthy before any old tasks are gracefully terminated, maintaining full capacity throughout the deployment.
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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.