SOA-C02 Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation Practice Question
A company uses AWS OpsWorks for configuration management. The SysOps administrator needs to deploy a new application version to existing EC2 instances managed by OpsWorks. Which OpsWorks lifecycle event should the administrator trigger to install the new application?
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
✓
Deploy
The 'Deploy' lifecycle event is specifically designed for deploying applications. Option B (Deploy) is correct because it triggers the deploy recipes to install the new application version. Option A (Configure) is incorrect because it runs when instances come online or leave the stack, not for application deployment. Option C (Shutdown) is incorrect because it runs when an instance is terminated. Option D (Setup) is incorrect because it runs only once when the instance is first booted, not for ongoing deployments.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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Configure
Why it's wrong here
Configure is a lifecycle event that runs when instances enter the online state or whenever the stack's configuration changes, such as when layers are added or Chef recipes are updated. Its purpose is to reconcile the instance's system configuration to the current stack definition, not to push new application code. Because it does not execute application deployment recipes, selecting Configure would not carry out the intended deployment of the application.
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Deploy
Why this is correct
Deploy is the OpsWorks lifecycle event explicitly designed for deploying applications. When you deploy, OpsWorks runs the Deploy recipes on specified instances, which typically perform tasks like pulling source code from a repository, running database migrations, and restarting application services. This is the correct event to use whenever you need to roll out a new version of an application to existing instances.
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Shutdown
Why it's wrong here
Shutdown is a lifecycle event that runs only just before an instance is stopped or terminated, and its associated recipes are intended for cleanup tasks such as backing up logs, deregistering from a load balancer, or removing temporary files. It is not a deployment event and cannot be manually triggered for deploying code to running instances. Invoking Shutdown would shut down the instance rather than deploying the application.
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Setup
Why it's wrong here
Setup is a lifecycle event that runs exactly once, immediately after an instance is first booted and registered with the stack. Its recipes handle initial provisioning, such as installing system packages, configuring the base OS, and mounting storage. Since Setup does not re-run on subsequent deployments, it cannot be used to deploy application code updates; it only prepares the instance for its role in the stack.
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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.