DOP-C02 Resilient Cloud Solutions Practice Question
Network Topology
A DevOps engineer ran the above command and saw this output. What is the MOST likely cause of the stack creation failure?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse launch template validation errors with instance-level errors (like missing AMI or key pair), but CloudFormation validates the launch template name at the Auto Scaling group resource level before any EC2 instances are launched.
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 launch template name specified in the CloudFormation template is incorrect or does not exist.
The error message indicates that the launch template name specified in the CloudFormation template does not match any existing launch template in the account and Region. CloudFormation resolves the launch template name at stack creation time; if the name is incorrect or the template does not exist, the Auto Scaling group creation fails with a validation error. This is the most direct cause because the launch template name is a required parameter that must reference a pre-existing resource.
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 key pair specified in the launch template does not exist.
Why it's wrong here
If the launch template specified an invalid key pair, the error from the Auto Scaling API or CloudFormation would cite the key pair name or ID directly (e.g., 'KeyPair does not exist') during instance launch or template validation. The output in this scenario instead refers to the launch template parameter itself, not any of its contents. A missing key pair is an instance-level configuration problem, whereas the error here is about resolving the launch template reference before the Auto Scaling group can even be created.
- ✗
The IAM role does not have permission to create the Auto Scaling group.
Why it's wrong here
An IAM permissions failure would return an 'AccessDenied' or 'is not authorized to perform: autoscaling:CreateAutoScalingGroup' error, not a message about a launch template name being unsupported. CloudFormation first parses and validates the resource properties, including the LaunchTemplateName, before it attempts any IAM-authorized API calls. Even if the executing role lacked permissions, the stack would fail at the API authorization stage with a distinctly different error message, so this option does not match the observed output.
- ✗
The AMI ID specified in the launch template is not available in this Region.
Why it's wrong here
An unavailable or nonexistent AMI produces errors such as 'InvalidAMIID.NotFound' or 'The image id does not exist' when the launch template is used to launch instances. The error message in this question is about the launch template specification itself, not the AMI inside it, and CloudFormation validates that the launch template name resolves before it ever checks the AMI's regional availability. Since the output points to an invalid or missing launch template name, the AMI region/account availability is irrelevant to this failure.
- ✓
The launch template name specified in the CloudFormation template is incorrect or does not exist.
Why this is correct
When you reference a launch template by name in an Auto Scaling group's LaunchTemplateSpecification, CloudFormation and the Auto Scaling API require that the launch template already exists in the same account and Region. If the name is misspelled, or the launch template was created under a different account/Region or never created, the API returns an error indicating the launch template parameter is invalid or not found. The error message in the output is consistent with this cause, as it specifically flags the launch template name reference, not the AMI, key pair, or IAM permissions.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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