SAP-C02 Question 169
Select 3A financial services company uses an AWS CloudFormation template to manage its infrastructure across multiple accounts and regions. The DevOps team has recently identified a need to update the template to include a new Amazon RDS instance. To ensure this change doesn't disrupt production workloads, what steps should the team take as part of their change management process?
- A
Use a CloudFormation change set to review the impact of the changes before applying them.
- B
Update the CloudFormation template directly in the production environment to minimize deployment time.
- C
Test the updated CloudFormation template in a staging environment before applying it to production.
- D
Enable AWS CloudTrail to monitor the changes applied to the environment and revert if necessary.
- E
Implement Stack Policies on the production stack to prevent unintended deletions during the update.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answers: A, C, E
Explanation
Change management processes in AWS should always emphasize minimizing risks to production environments. Using CloudFormation change sets provides visibility into the impact of proposed changes. Testing updates in a staging environment ensures the changes are validated in a safe setting before being applied to production. Additionally, applying Stack Policies to the production stack safeguards critical resources. Together, these steps align with AWS best practices for managing changes in a controlled and secure manner.
- A. Correct.
Using a CloudFormation change set allows the team to preview how the proposed changes will impact the existing stack, ensuring they understand the changes before applying them.
- B. Incorrect.
Updating the CloudFormation template directly in the production environment is risky and does not align with best practices for change management, which prioritize testing and validation.
- C. Correct.
Testing the updated CloudFormation template in a staging environment ensures that the changes are validated in an isolated environment before impacting production workloads.
- D. Incorrect.
While AWS CloudTrail is useful for auditing and monitoring changes, it does not directly prevent issues or allow rollback during CloudFormation stack updates.
- E. Correct.
Stack Policies can be used to protect critical resources within the production stack, ensuring that unintended deletions or modifications do not occur during updates.