Which AWS Service Automates Deployment to EC2 and On-Premises Instances?
A company wants an AWS service that can automate software deployment in Amazon EC2 instances and on-premises instances. Which AWS service will meet this requirement?
Community Votes
100% of anonymous learners picked answer C. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.
Community Insight
The question tests knowledge of the AWS developer/deployment tool family, and the trap is picking CodePipeline because it sounds like the 'overall deployment' service, when only CodeDeploy actually installs revisions on EC2 and on-premises hosts.
AWS CodeDeploy is the fully managed service that automates software deployments to Amazon EC2 instances and to on-premises instances, whether they run in a hybrid environment or a single target group. This page confirms C as the correct choice and explains why the other AWS Code* services each cover a different stage of the delivery lifecycle.
Option D (AWS CodePipeline) is the most tempting wrong pick because its name suggests it 'deploys' the application; in reality CodePipeline only orchestrates build, test, and release stages and must hand off the actual deployment step to CodeDeploy.
Community Discussion (3 comments)
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Expert Analysis
Why the Answer Is Correct
AWS CodeDeploy is explicitly defined as a fully managed deployment service that automates software deployment to any compute service, including Amazon EC2 instances, Lambda functions, and — critically for this question — instances running on premises. It installs the application revision, runs deployment lifecycle hooks such as BeforeInstall and AfterInstall, and supports blue/green as well as in-place deployment types across hybrid fleets. Because the requirement names both EC2 instances and on-premises instances as deployment targets, CodeDeploy is the only option designed to perform the deployment action on those hosts. All three community contributors independently selected option C, and the vote distribution was unanimous at 100% for C.Why the Other Options Are Wrong
AWS CodeCommit (A) is a source control service that hosts private Git repositories, so it stores code rather than deploying it to instances. AWS CodeBuild (B) compiles source code, runs unit tests, and produces build artifacts, but it never installs those artifacts onto EC2 or on-premises hosts. AWS CodePipeline (D) is a continuous delivery orchestration service that models the release workflow stages, yet it deploys nothing by itself — it invokes CodeDeploy as the deployment action, which is why as its_tima noted CodeDeploy is the component that 'automates code deployments to any instance.'Community Comment Notes
alokdixit2006 captured the exact exam phrasing, stating that CodeDeploy 'Automates code deployments to any instance, including EC2 instances and instances running on premises.' its_tima reinforced the same conclusion by separating all four services, describing CodeCommit as 'a fully managed source control service that hosts private Git repositories.' d00b229 simply concluded 'C. AWS CodeDeploy.' All commentary aligns with the analysis, with no dissenting option raised.Official Reference
Exam Strategy
On CLF-C02, memorize the four Code* services as a pipeline: CodeCommit stores, CodeBuild compiles and tests, CodeDeploy installs onto targets, CodePipeline orchestrates the stages. When a question names EC2 or on-premises hosts as the deployment destination, CodeDeploy is the answer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why isn't AWS CodePipeline the answer if it controls the release process?
CodePipeline only orchestrates stages such as source, build, and deploy; it performs no installation itself and must call CodeDeploy to push revisions to EC2 or on-premises hosts.
How do CodeBuild and CodeDeploy differ for this EC2 deployment scenario?
CodeBuild compiles source code and runs tests to produce artifacts, while CodeDeploy takes that artifact and installs it on the target EC2 or on-premises instances.
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