ANS-C01 Network Design Practice Question
A company is migrating a legacy application to AWS. The application requires a fixed IP address that must not change. The application will be deployed on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. Which solution meets the requirement for a static IP address?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume an Elastic IP can be attached to any AWS resource, but ALBs are DNS-based and cannot accept Elastic IPs, leading them to incorrectly choose Option A or B without considering Global Accelerator.
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
✓
Place the ALB behind AWS Global Accelerator, which provides static IP addresses.
AWS Global Accelerator provides two static Anycast IP addresses that serve as fixed entry points for traffic. Traffic is then routed over the AWS global network to the Application Load Balancer, preserving the static IP requirement while still allowing the ALB to handle HTTP/HTTPS traffic. This decouples the static IP from the underlying load balancer, ensuring the IP does not change even if the ALB is replaced or recreated.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Assign an Elastic IP address to the Application Load Balancer.
Why it's wrong here
Elastic IPs cannot be assigned to ALBs; they are not supported.
- ✗
Replace the ALB with a Network Load Balancer and assign an Elastic IP to it.
Why it's wrong here
NLB supports static IPs, but the question requires an ALB, and NLB does not provide application-layer features.
- ✓
Place the ALB behind AWS Global Accelerator, which provides static IP addresses.
Why this is correct
Global Accelerator provides two static anycast IPs that route traffic to the ALB.
- ✗
Use an Elastic IP address on each EC2 instance and point a CNAME record to the ALB.
Why it's wrong here
This does not provide a static IP for the ALB, and instance IPs may change.
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on ANS-C01
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company has an application that requires fixed IP addresses for whitelisting by third-party partners. The application is hosted on an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in a VPC. Which solution provides static IP addresses for the ALB?
easy- ✓ A.Place an AWS Global Accelerator in front of the ALB.
- B.Use Amazon CloudFront with the ALB as origin.
- C.Assign an Elastic IP to the ALB.
- D.Replace the ALB with a Network Load Balancer (NLB).
Why A: AWS Global Accelerator provides two static IP addresses that act as fixed entry points for traffic. By placing it in front of an Application Load Balancer (ALB), you can whitelist these static IPs with third-party partners while the ALB itself remains dynamic. Global Accelerator uses the AWS global network to route traffic to the ALB, preserving the ALB's native HTTP/HTTPS features.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This ANS-C01 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 ANS-C01 exam.