DOP-C02 Configuration Management and IaC Practice Question

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 custom JSON in the stack settings to specify the file content

  Why it's wrong here

  Custom JSON in the stack settings is parsed by AWS OpsWorks and exposed as node attributes (e.g., node['custom_json'] or under the opsworks namespace) to Chef, but it does not directly create or write files on any instance. To actually place the file content, you must author a Chef recipe that consumes those attributes and uses a 'file' or 'template' resource to write to the desired path. Therefore, custom JSON alone cannot deliver the configuration file; it only supplies parameters that require a recipe to act on them.

• ✓

  Create a custom Chef recipe and assign it to the layer's lifecycle events

  Why this is correct

  Create a custom Chef recipe that uses a 'file' or 'template' resource to generate the configuration content, then assign that recipe to the layer's lifecycle events, typically Setup or Configure. OpsWorks runs the recipe on every instance in the layer at the appropriate stage, making it the standard, lifecycle-aware mechanism for delivering managed configuration files. The recipe is idempotent and runs with full Chef knowledge of the stack, which is why this approach is the correct answer.

• ✗

  Use AWS Systems Manager Run Command to copy the file

  Why it's wrong here

  AWS Systems Manager Run Command is a separate execution service that relies on the SSM Agent, not the OpsWorks agent, so it cannot be hooked into an OpsWorks layer's lifecycle events like Setup or Configure. While you could invoke a command manually or on a schedule, it has no awareness of OpsWorks stack configuration, Chef attributes, or layer membership, and it does not automatically reapply the file when the stack changes. This makes it a bolt-on automation tool that does not integrate with OpsWorks's configuration management lifecycle for delivering a managed file.

• ✗

  Add the file to the instance's user data script

  Why it's wrong here

  User data is passed when the instance is launched and executed by cloud-init only once, during the initial boot, before OpsWorks has fully configured the layer. Existing instances that OpsWorks is already managing will never run this script, and it cannot be retargeted to a new lifecycle event or a layer membership change. Because OpsWorks is responsible for ongoing, convergent configuration management, a launch-only user-data script is the wrong mechanism for ensuring the configuration file exists and stays current across the fleet.

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