DOP-C02 Configuration Management and IaC Practice Question
A company uses AWS Elastic Beanstalk for a web application. The DevOps engineer needs to ensure that environment configuration changes (e.g., instance type, environment variables) are version-controlled and can be rolled back quickly. Which approach should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume AWS CloudFormation is always the best choice for infrastructure version control, but the question specifically tests knowledge of Elastic Beanstalk's native saved configuration feature, which is simpler and more direct for environment-level configuration rollbacks without requiring a separate orchestration service.
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 Elastic Beanstalk saved configurations stored in source control.
Elastic Beanstalk saved configurations allow you to export environment settings (e.g., instance type, environment variables) as a YAML or JSON file that can be stored in a version control system like Git. This enables you to recreate environments with identical settings and roll back to a previous configuration by deploying an older saved configuration file, providing a version-controlled, auditable, and reversible change management process.
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 Elastic Beanstalk saved configurations stored in source control.
Why this is correct
Elastic Beanstalk saved configurations are YAML files that capture the environment's option settings, environment variables, and platform configuration. You can store these files in source control, which gives you versioned, auditable, and reproducible configuration snapshots. When you need to roll back a problematic change, you can apply an older saved configuration via the EB CLI or console, restoring the exact previous runtime settings without re-provisioning infrastructure.
- ✗
Manually update the environment configuration through the Elastic Beanstalk console.
Why it's wrong here
Making changes directly through the Elastic Beanstalk console is quick and convenient, but the console does not create a versioned snapshot of the configuration. The previous settings are overwritten and cannot be recovered from the environment itself, so a rollback requires manually reconstructing the old values from memory or external notes. This approach is error-prone, lacks auditability, and does not support repeatable or traceable configuration management.
- ✗
Use the AWS CLI to apply configuration changes from a script.
Why it's wrong here
The AWS CLI can apply configuration changes via commands like `eb setenv` or `aws elasticbeanstalk update-environment`, and you could store those commands in a script. However, the script is not automatically version-controlled unless you actively manage it with Git or similar, and running the commands mutates the live environment configuration without creating a restore point. To roll back, you must write and maintain custom logic to reapply a previous set of values, unlike saved configurations which are native, first-class versionable artifacts.
- ✗
Use AWS CloudFormation to manage the Elastic Beanstalk environment.
Why it's wrong here
CloudFormation manages the provisioning and lifecycle of the Elastic Beanstalk environment *itself* as an infrastructure stack, not the rapid, granular versioning and rollback of *runtime environment configuration changes* within an existing Beanstalk environment. Updating minor settings via CloudFormation involves a stack update, which is less agile for quick configuration rollbacks than Elastic Beanstalk's native mechanisms. CloudFormation is ideal for defining the initial environment infrastructure consistently and managing its overall lifecycle as code.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DOP-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 DOP-C02 exam.