SOA-C02 Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation Practice Question
A company is deploying a new web application using AWS Elastic Beanstalk. The application requires a custom Amazon Machine Image (AMI) with specific software pre-installed. The SysOps administrator creates a custom AMI and configures Elastic Beanstalk to use it. However, during deployment, the instances fail to pass the health check. The health check endpoint is a simple 'index.html' file. What is the MOST likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
SOA-C02 often tests the misconception that health check failures are caused by patching, account ownership, or resource ordering, when in fact they almost always stem from the application or web server not responding on the expected port and path.
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 custom AMI does not have a web server installed and configured to serve the application.
Elastic Beanstalk relies on the platform's web server (Apache, Nginx, IIS) to serve the application and respond to the health check endpoint. When you supply a custom AMI, you must ensure it includes the same web server and configuration that the chosen Beanstalk platform expects. If the AMI lacks a running web server on the expected port (e.g., port 80 for the default health check path '/'), the ELB health check will fail and instances will be marked unhealthy.
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 Elastic Beanstalk environment was created before the custom AMI was registered.
Why it's wrong here
The creation order of the environment relative to the AMI registration is irrelevant because AMIs are snapshots referenced at launch time. If the environment was created before the AMI existed, you couldn't have selected it initially; you would have to create a new environment or replace instances using an updated configuration. Once an instance is launched from a particular AMI, the environment's health is determined by that instance's runtime behavior, not by when the AMI was registered.
- ✓
The custom AMI does not have a web server installed and configured to serve the application.
Why this is correct
The health check performed by Elastic Beanstalk is an HTTP request to the environment's health check path (typically / on port 80). If the custom AMI lacks a web server or the web server isn't configured to serve the application, the ELB health check receives a connection refused or non-2xx response, causing the instance to be marked unhealthy. Simply having a running EC2 instance is insufficient; the AMI must include the same web server and configuration as the standard Elastic Beanstalk platform AMI to serve traffic.
- ✗
The custom AMI is not registered with the same account that owns the Elastic Beanstalk environment.
Why it's wrong here
An AMI used for an Elastic Beanstalk environment must be registered in the same AWS account and region as the environment; otherwise, the environment cannot even launch instances from it. If the AMI were truly from another account, you would encounter a launch or authorization failure during instance provisioning, not a post-launch HTTP health check failure. The health check failure described in the scenario indicates the instance is running, so the AMI is accessible and account registration is not the issue.
- ✗
The custom AMI does not have the latest patches, causing the instance to fail the EC2 status checks.
Why it's wrong here
EC2 status checks are low-level tests for hardware, network connectivity, and system state; they do not perform HTTP-level application validation. Missing patches might introduce security vulnerabilities or application bugs, but they cannot cause EC2 status checks to fail because status checks don't inspect installed software. The unhealthy status in Elastic Beanstalk is driven by the ELB health check receiving no valid HTTP response from the web server, which is a completely separate layer from EC2 status checks.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
This SOA-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 SOA-C02 exam.