CV0-004 Operations and Support Practice Question
A cloud engineer is responsible for a fleet of Amazon EC2 instances running a stateless web application. The engineer needs to ensure that if an instance fails a status check, it is automatically replaced without manual intervention. Which AWS feature should be used to meet this requirement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse EC2 Auto Recovery, which recovers an existing instance onto new hardware, with Auto Scaling, which replaces the instance entirely.
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
✓
EC2 Auto Scaling group with health checks set to EC2 and a launch template
The requirement is to automatically replace instances that fail status checks. An EC2 Auto Scaling group with EC2 health checks monitors instance status and replaces unhealthy instances. The launch template defines the instance configuration. This is the standard AWS pattern for self-healing fleets of stateless instances.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS OpsWorks for Chef Automate with auto-healing policies
Why it's wrong here
OpsWorks can manage instances and apply auto-healing, but it is a configuration management service that requires additional setup and is not as tightly integrated with EC2 status checks as Auto Scaling. It is also being deprecated for new customers. This would add complexity and may not provide the immediate replacement needed.
- ✗
EC2 Auto Recovery feature enabled on each instance
Why it's wrong here
EC2 Auto Recovery recovers an instance by moving it to a new host when it becomes impaired, but it does not replace the instance. It is limited to certain instance types and does not work for all failure scenarios. It also does not maintain a desired capacity or launch a new instance, so it does not meet the requirement for automatic replacement.
- ✓
EC2 Auto Scaling group with health checks set to EC2 and a launch template
Why this is correct
An Auto Scaling group can be configured to use EC2 status checks as health checks. When an instance fails a status check, the Auto Scaling group terminates it and launches a new instance from the launch template. This provides automatic replacement and maintains the desired capacity, meeting the requirement for unattended recovery.
- ✗
AWS Elastic Beanstalk with rolling updates and immutable deployments
Why it's wrong here
Elastic Beanstalk manages application deployment and can perform rolling updates, but it does not automatically replace instances that fail EC2 status checks. It is designed for application lifecycle management, not for reacting to low-level instance health failures. This would not provide the automatic replacement required.
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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 CompTIA exam blueprint
This CV0-004 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA 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 CV0-004 exam.