Deployment Study Guide — DVA-C02

AWS DVA-C02: Deployment Domain Study Guide (24%)

This domain tests your ability to select and configure AWS CI/CD services, manage infrastructure as code, and deploy containerized and serverless applications. Expect scenario-based questions requiring you to choose the right deployment strategy, fix broken pipeline configurations, or identify the correct file format for a given tool.

AWS CodeCommit

CodeCommit is a managed Git service. Exam questions focus on access control (IAM policies vs. Git credentials vs. SSH keys), branching strategies, and trigger integration with Lambda or SNS.

• HTTPS Git credentials and SSH keys are per-IAM-user; you cannot attach them to roles
• Repository triggers fire on push events; use them to invoke Lambda or notify SNS
• Trap: CodeCommit does not natively integrate with GitHub Actions; use CodePipeline for orchestration

AWS CodeBuild

CodeBuild executes builds defined in buildspec.yml, which must live in the source root (or be specified explicitly in the project). Know the four phases: install, pre_build, build, post_build.

• Environment variables: set in the project config or directly in buildspec.yml; use Parameter Store or Secrets Manager references to avoid plaintext secrets (parameter-store and secrets-manager keys under env)
• Artifacts are uploaded to S3; specify files, base-directory, and discard-paths carefully
• Build cache (S3 or local) speeds up dependency installation — common optimization question
• Trap: post_build runs even if build fails; don't assume it only runs on success

AWS CodeDeploy

CodeDeploy handles deployments to EC2, on-premises servers, Lambda, and ECS. The AppSpec file format differs by compute type:

• In-place: rolling replacement on existing instances; no new infrastructure
• Blue/green: new instances/tasks provisioned, traffic shifted, old environment terminated after configurable wait
• Deployment groups define which instances/services are targeted (by tag or ASG)
• Trap: rollbacks require enabling them explicitly or configuring CloudWatch alarm triggers; they are not automatic by default

AWS CodePipeline

CodePipeline orchestrates CI/CD as a series of stages containing actions. Actions have categories: Source, Build, Test, Deploy, Approval, Invoke.

• Manual approval action sends an SNS notification; pipeline pauses until approved or rejected via console/CLI/API
• Cross-region actions require an S3 artifact bucket in each target region
• Pipeline execution is triggered by source changes (CodeCommit, S3, ECR) or on a schedule via CloudWatch Events
• Trap: you cannot skip stages; actions within a stage can run in parallel (by setting runOrder to the same value), but stages are always sequential

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Beanstalk abstracts infrastructure but exposes configuration through .ebextensions (YAML/JSON files in a .ebextensions/ directory in your source bundle) and Procfile (for multi-process apps).

Deployment policies — know the tradeoffs: