SOA-C02 Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation Practice Question
A SysOps administrator wants to deploy a new version of an application to an existing Auto Scaling group of Amazon EC2 instances. The deployment must minimize disruption by launching new instances, performing health checks, and shifting traffic to the new instances before terminating the old ones. Which AWS CodeDeploy deployment configuration should the administrator choose?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse 'rolling' with 'blue/green' because both involve gradual updates, but rolling updates modify the existing Auto Scaling group in-place without creating a separate environment or shifting traffic before termination.
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
✓
Blue/green
The blue/green deployment configuration in AWS CodeDeploy is designed to minimize disruption by provisioning a new set of instances (green environment), performing health checks against them, and then shifting traffic from the old instances (blue environment) to the new ones before terminating the old instances. This matches the requirement of launching new instances, health-checking, and shifting traffic before termination, which is not possible with in-place deployment types like rolling or all-at-once.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Blue/green
Why this is correct
Blue/green in CodeDeploy for EC2 Auto Scaling groups provisions a separate, temporary 'green' replacement fleet alongside the original 'blue' fleet. After the green instances pass the configured health checks and tests, the load balancer or target group shifts production traffic from blue to green, enabling an immediate, nearly zero-downtime release. Because the blue fleet remains untouched until deployment completion, rollback is trivial: just flip traffic back and terminate green. This is the only option that both eliminates downtime and provides a built-in instant rollback path.
- ✗
Rolling
Why it's wrong here
Rolling in CodeDeploy updates an EC2 Auto Scaling group in a series of batches (for example, 25% at a time). Each old instance is terminated and a new instance is launched and registered before moving to the next batch, so service capacity is maintained but the process is time-consuming and offers no instant rollback—if the new version fails after several batches, you must manually redeploy the old version. During each batch there is a transient period where the newly launched instance must pass health checks before receiving traffic, which can cause brief registration delays or uneven load on remaining old instances. Unlike blue/green, the old environment is destroyed as you progress, so rolling does not preserve a clean, untouched rollback target.
- ✗
AllAtOnce
Why it's wrong here
AllAtOnce in CodeDeploy replaces the entire Auto Scaling group's instances at the same time: all old instances are terminated and an equal number of new instances are launched concurrently. The application experiences a complete outage window from the moment the old instances are gone until the new instances pass health checks and are registered with the load balancer; if any new instance fails, the whole fleet is unavailable and rollback means rebuilding the entire previous fleet from scratch. This deployment type is chosen only when downtime is acceptable and the application can tolerate a cold start across all capacity simultaneously. It differs from blue/green because there is no pre-provisioned healthy environment standing by to receive traffic, and from rolling because there is no staged transition.
- ✗
Canary
Why it's wrong here
Canary deployments are typically used for AWS Lambda functions, where a small percentage of traffic is shifted to the new version; this is not a standard deployment configuration for EC2 Auto Scaling groups in CodeDeploy.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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