PMP Process — Managing Technical Aspects Practice Question
Exhibit
Refer to the exhibit.
```
Error: Terraform apply failed
Error: Error creating EC2 Instance: VPCIdNotSpecified: No default VPC found
status code: 400, request id: ...
on main.tf line 10, in resource "aws_instance" "web":
10: resource "aws_instance" "web" {
```A project team is using a deployment tool to release an application. The deployment failed with an error indicating that a required component is missing from the target environment. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often assume the error is due to invalid credentials or an incorrect resource identifier, but the specific error about a missing environmental component points directly to an incomplete or missing configuration.
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
✓
A necessary environment configuration is missing or not specified in the deployment settings.
The error indicates a missing prerequisite in the deployment environment. This most commonly occurs when the environment's required configuration (such as a default resource or connectivity setup) is either absent or not explicitly specified in the deployment settings, causing the tool to fail.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The deployment environment is not compatible with the selected resource type.
Why it's wrong here
If the deployment environment were incompatible with the selected resource type, the error would typically relate to limitations of the chosen instance type, such as insufficient capacity in an Availability Zone, an unsupported instance family for the region, or a conflict with other specified resource attributes. The exhibited error, however, specifically points to the absence of a "default VPC" and the need for a "VPC ID," which is a fundamental networking configuration issue, not an incompatibility with the EC2 instance type itself. The instance type could be perfectly valid if a VPC were available.
- ✓
A necessary environment configuration is missing or not specified in the deployment settings.
Why this is correct
The error message, "No default VPC for this user in this region," directly indicates that the AWS account in the specified region lacks a default Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), which is a prerequisite for launching EC2 instances without explicitly specifying a VPC ID. Since the Terraform configuration likely did not provide a specific VPC ID, the deployment failed because a fundamental network environment configuration was absent. This necessitates either creating a default VPC or explicitly defining a VPC ID within the Terraform resource block to proceed with the deployment.
- ✗
The access credentials for the environment are invalid.
Why it's wrong here
If access credentials were invalid, the error message would typically indicate an authentication failure, such as "Access Denied," "InvalidClientTokenId," or "SignatureDoesNotMatch," preventing any API calls from being made successfully. The exhibited error, however, specifically references a "default VPC" and the inability to find a "VPC ID," which clearly points to a resource configuration issue within the AWS environment rather than a problem with the identity used to access it. This type of error suggests successful authentication but a subsequent failure during resource provisioning.
- ✗
The specified resource identifier is incorrect.
Why it's wrong here
An incorrect resource identifier error would typically manifest if a specific ID, such as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) ID, security group ID, or subnet ID, was provided but could not be found or was malformed. The error message in the exhibit, "No default VPC for this user in this region," explicitly states that a default VPC is missing and implies that no specific VPC ID was provided in the Terraform configuration. Therefore, the issue is not about an incorrect *provided* identifier, but rather the *absence* of a necessary configuration or the inability to find a default one.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PMP practice question is part of Courseiva's free PMI 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 PMP exam.