AWS DVA-C02 Drill: Elastic Beanstalk Deployment Strategies - Zero-Downtime Traffic Shifting

Jeff’s Note

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Unlike generic exam dumps, ADH analyzes this scenario through the lens of a Real-World Lead Developer.

For DVA-C02 candidates, the confusion often lies in selecting the right deployment method that supports gradual traffic shifting without downtime. In production, this is about knowing exactly how Elastic Beanstalk handles routing and version evaluation during updates. Let’s drill down.

The Certification Drill (Simulated Question)

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Scenario

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NimbusTech, a cloud-first startup, is running a critical customer-facing web service on AWS Elastic Beanstalk. They need to roll out an updated application version but cannot afford any downtime that could disrupt user experience. Additionally, NimbusTech wants to validate the new version by forwarding a controlled percentage of live user traffic to it during an evaluation phase before full cutover.

The Requirement:

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Identify the Elastic Beanstalk deployment type that lets the company deploy updates with zero-downtime and forward a specified percentage of client requests to the new application version during a testing period.

The Options

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• A) Rolling
• B) Traffic-splitting
• C) In-place
• D) Immutable

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leave a comment:

Correct Answer

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B) Traffic-splitting

Quick Insight: The DVA Imperative

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• Deployments that require gradual traffic shifting to a new version rely on Elastic Beanstalk’s traffic-splitting deployments, leveraging weighted routing in the underlying Application Load Balancer.
• Other methods either replace instances directly or create new environments but cannot split traffic during an evaluation window.

Content Locked: The Expert Analysis

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You’ve identified the answer. But do you know the implementation details that separate a Junior from a Senior?

The Expert’s Analysis

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Correct Answer

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Option B) Traffic-splitting

The Winning Logic

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Elastic Beanstalk’s traffic-splitting deployment uses weighted routing to direct a defined percentage of incoming traffic to the new application version, while the rest goes to the current stable environment. This enables a smooth, zero-downtime update and controlled evaluation — exactly matching NimbusTech’s requirement. The traffic split is managed at the Application Load Balancer (ALB) level, adjusting weights dynamically without interrupting existing sessions.

• The deployment type leverages features in Elastic Beanstalk and ALB to forward a configurable percentage of client requests while monitoring health.
• It helps detect issues early in production by observing metrics and logs for the new version before full-cutover.
• It’s ideal for testing new versions with live traffic and implementing safe rollbacks if needed.

The Trap (Distractor Analysis):

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• Why not A) Rolling?
  Rolling deployments replace instances in batches and do not support splitting traffic. During instance replacements, some requests might fail or experience downtime due to termination and replacement timing.

• Why not C) In-place?
  In-place deployments simply update the software on existing instances without traffic shifting. This risks downtime if any deployment step fails and cannot gradually route traffic between versions.

• Why not D) Immutable?
  Immutable deployments launch a parallel environment and replace the old environment only after full health checks. Although safe, they do not allow gradual traffic shift during an evaluation period — traffic is cut over all at once.

The Technical Blueprint

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B) For Developer (Code/CLI Snippet):

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Example AWS CLI command starting a traffic-splitting deployment on Elastic Beanstalk:

aws elasticbeanstalk update-environment \
  --environment-name NimbusTech-Prod \
  --version-label v2.0.0 \
  --deployment-preference '{"Type":"TrafficSplit", "TrafficRoutingConfig": {"Type": "Weighted", "Weights": {"currentVersion": 70, "newVersion": 30}} }'

This command updates the environment to a new version, specifying 30% of traffic to be routed to the new version during the evaluation window.

The Comparative Analysis

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Real-World Application (Practitioner Insight)

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Exam Rule

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“For the exam, always choose Traffic-splitting when the scenario requires forwarding a percentage of live traffic during deployment.”

Real World

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“In practice, teams may use Canary deployments or Blue/Green deployments with tools like CodeDeploy or service meshes for advanced traffic control, but Elastic Beanstalk’s built-in traffic splitting is a straightforward solution for many apps.”

(CTA) Stop Guessing, Start Mastering

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Disclaimer

This is a study note based on simulated scenarios for the DVA-C02 exam.