A company uses AWS CodeDeploy to deploy an application to an Auto Scaling group. The deployment strategy is set to CodeDeployDefault.HalfAtATime. The lifecycle hooks for the Auto Scaling group include a test hook that runs during instance launch. During a recent deployment, the deployment failed because the new instances failed the test hook and were not marked as healthy. The SysOps administrator needs to ensure that failed instances are automatically terminated and replaced with new ones from the Auto Scaling group. Which configuration change should the administrator make?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
Best answer
Modify the Auto Scaling group's health check type to ELB
When the health check type is set to ELB, the Auto Scaling group uses the Application Load Balancer's health checks. If the test hook fails, the instance will be marked unhealthy by the ALB, and the Auto Scaling group will terminate and replace it, ensuring only healthy instances remain.
Distractor review
Modify the CodeDeploy deployment configuration to use an increased minimum healthy instance count
Increasing the minimum healthy instance count affects how many instances must remain healthy during the deployment, but it does not automatically replace instances that fail the test hook. It may cause the deployment to wait longer but does not trigger replacement.
Distractor review
Modify the Auto Scaling group's health check grace period to a lower value
The grace period defines how long after an instance launches before health checks start. Lowering it could cause earlier evaluation but does not address the fact that the test hook failure is not being detected by the current health check type.
Distractor review
Modify the CodeDeploy deployment to ignore the lifecycle hook failure
Ignoring the lifecycle hook failure would allow the instance to be marked healthy despite failing the test, which contradicts the requirement to replace failed instances. This does not solve the problem of ensuring only healthy instances remain.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
Related practice questions
Related SOA-C02 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A company uses Amazon CloudFront to deliver content to a global audience. The origin is an Application Load Balancer in us-east-1. The SysOps administrator wants to reduce costs by minimizing the number of requests that reach the origin server. Which action should the administrator take?
Question 2
A company runs a batch processing application on Amazon EC2 that runs for 2 hours every night. The workload can tolerate interruptions. Which EC2 purchasing option provides the lowest cost for this use case?
Question 3
A SysOps administrator needs to monitor the CPU utilization of an Amazon RDS DB instance and receive an alarm when CPU utilization exceeds 80% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which AWS service should be used to create this alarm?
Question 4
A company runs a critical web application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application uses session stickiness (sticky sessions) to maintain user sessions. The SysOps administrator notices that when instances are replaced during a scale-in or failure event, users lose their session data. The administrator needs to preserve session data across instance failures without losing stickiness benefits. What should the administrator do?
Question 5
A company runs a production web application on a single Amazon EC2 instance. The application experiences a predictable and steady workload 24/7. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize compute costs for this instance while ensuring it remains available during the expected workload. Which EC2 purchasing option should the administrator use?
Question 6
A company has a VPC with public and private subnets. The private subnets host application servers that need to make outbound HTTPS connections to the internet. The SysOps administrator must implement a solution that provides outbound internet connectivity while preventing inbound connections from the internet. Additionally, the solution must allow the company to control which domains the application servers can access. Which solution should the administrator implement?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SOA-C02 question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Modify the Auto Scaling group's health check type to ELB — Setting the Auto Scaling group's health check type to ELB ensures that the group uses the load balancer's health checks to determine instance health. If the test hook fails, the ALB health check will fail, and the Auto Scaling group will terminate the unhealthy instance and launch a new one automatically. This is the simplest way to ensure replacement of instances that fail custom health checks.
What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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