SOA-C02 Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation Practice Question
A company uses AWS CodeDeploy to deploy a new version of an application to EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer. The company requires zero downtime during the deployment. Which deployment configuration should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse the predefined deployment configurations (like AllAtOnce or OneAtATime) with the blue/green deployment method, not realizing that blue/green is a separate deployment type configured in the deployment group settings, not a predefined configuration name.
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
✓
Create a blue/green deployment by configuring CodeDeploy to launch new instances and shift traffic after validation.
A blue/green deployment with CodeDeploy, where new instances are launched and traffic is shifted only after validation, ensures zero downtime by keeping the old environment (blue) fully serving traffic until the new environment (green) is verified healthy. This approach avoids any in-place updates that could temporarily reduce capacity or cause service disruption, meeting the requirement for zero downtime during deployment.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
CodeDeployDefault.AllAtOnce
Why it's wrong here
CodeDeployDefault.AllAtOnce is an in-place deployment configuration that updates every instance in the fleet simultaneously. This means all instances are taken out of service at the same time, and if the new revision fails health checks, the entire application becomes unavailable, causing downtime. It does not involve provisioning a separate fleet or using load balancer traffic shifting, so it cannot provide zero-downtime deployments.
- ✗
CodeDeployDefault.OneAtATime
Why it's wrong here
CodeDeployDefault.OneAtATime is an in-place deployment configuration that updates one instance at a time, which limits the blast radius of a failure but does not guarantee zero downtime. Without configuring ALB connection draining or health check grace periods, the load balancer may still route traffic to an instance while its deployment is in progress, causing dropped connections. Additionally, because it uses the original instances rather than a new fleet, there is no automatic rollback capability or traffic shift to a healthy set of instances.
- ✗
CodeDeployDefault.EC2/OnPremises: BlueGreenDeployment
Why it's wrong here
This is not a valid CodeDeploy deployment configuration name. CodeDeploy deployment configurations such as AllAtOnce, OneAtATime, and HalfAtATime are only used for in-place deployments. For blue/green deployments, you must select the 'blue/green' deployment style when creating the deployment group and then configure traffic shifting using an Application Load Balancer or Network Load Balancer; there is no deployment configuration named 'EC2/OnPremises: BlueGreenDeployment'.
- ✓
Create a blue/green deployment by configuring CodeDeploy to launch new instances and shift traffic after validation.
Why this is correct
A blue/green deployment with CodeDeploy provisions a new, separate fleet of EC2 instances (green) and installs the new revision on them while the original fleet (blue) continues to serve traffic. After validation of the green instances—through health checks, tests, or a manual approval—you can shift traffic from the blue fleet to the green fleet using an Application Load Balancer. This approach isolates the new version from production traffic until it is verified, and if a problem arises you can instantly reroute traffic back to the blue fleet, ensuring zero downtime.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.