Which Elastic Beanstalk deployment policy minimizes impact and maximizes availability?

DVA-C02 By islever Editorial Last updated Aug 5, 2026

Short answer

B Use an immutable deployment policy to deploy to Amazon EC2 instances.

Question

A gaming company has deployed a web portal on AWS Elastic Beanstalk. The company sometimes needs to deploy new versions three or four times in a day. The company needs to deploy new features for all users as quickly as possible. The solution must minimize performance impact and must maximize availability. What solution will meet these requirements?

Use a rolling deployment policy to deploy to Amazon EC2 instances.
Use an immutable deployment policy to deploy to Amazon EC2 instances. Correct Answer
Use an all-at-once deployment policy to deploy to Amazon EC2 instances.
Use a-canary deployment strategy to deploy changes to Amazon EC2 instances.

Key Takeaways

This question tests the ability to select the correct Elastic Beanstalk deployment policy based on the dual requirements of minimal performance impact and maximum availability during frequent deployments.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk offers several deployment policies; for rapid, frequent deployments that minimize performance impact and maximize availability, the immutable deployment policy is the recommended choice.

Common mistake: Many candidates choose the canary deployment strategy (Option D) because it limits risk by deploying to a small subset first, but canary deployments do not minimize overall deployment duration or maximize availability as effectively as immutable deployments.

Expert Analysis

The correct answer is B. Use an immutable deployment policy to deploy to Amazon EC2 instances.

An immutable deployment in AWS Elastic Beanstalk launches a completely new set of instances with the updated application version in a separate Auto Scaling group. Once the new instances pass health checks, the load balancer is updated to route traffic to them, and the old instances are terminated. This approach ensures zero downtime during the deployment process, which directly satisfies the requirement to maximize availability. Additionally, because the old instances continue to serve traffic until the new ones are fully validated, there is minimal performance impact on the running application.

Let's examine why the other options are incorrect:

Option A (Rolling deployment): This policy updates instances in batches, meaning some instances run the old version while others run the new version simultaneously. This can lead to downtime or degraded performance during the transition, failing to maximize availability.
Option C (All-at-once deployment): This policy updates all instances simultaneously, which results in complete downtime during the deployment. This is the opposite of maximizing availability.
Option D (Canary deployment): While canary deployments are excellent for testing new features on a limited scale and reducing risk, they do not minimize the overall deployment duration. The gradual rollout process takes longer, which conflicts with the requirement to deploy new features as quickly as possible. As noted by community members, canary deployments prioritize risk mitigation over speed and availability.

The immutable deployment policy strikes the perfect balance for this scenario: it ensures high availability, minimizes performance impact, and allows for rapid deployment of new features to all users.

Official Reference

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/using-features.rollingupdates.html

This link opens the official vendor documentation in a new tab.

Exam Strategy

When a question emphasizes both minimizing performance impact and maximizing availability, look for deployment strategies that involve launching new resources in parallel (like immutable deployments) rather than gradually updating existing ones (like canary or rolling).

Community Votes

80%

20%

80% of anonymous learners picked answer B. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.

Discussion 3 contributions

Compiled from public community threads and reader submissions, lightly edited for clarity. Handles and vote tallies are shown as recorded, and comments reflect the views of individual contributors.

From public community threads 3

lht 👍 2 Answered B

Immutable deployment creates a new set of instances with the updated version of the application. Once the new instances are verified as healthy, they replace the old instances. This strategy ensures high availability and minimizes the risk of performance impact since the old instances remain untouched until the new instances are validated.
Arad 👍 2 Answered B

B is the correct answer. D is wrong because though it's useful for testing new features on a limited scale, it does not minimize the overall deployment duration and availability as effectively as immutable deployments.
YUICH 👍 1 Answered D

A canary deployment is a strategy where a new version of an application is deployed to a small subset of instances first. Once it has been validated as stable, it is gradually rolled out to the remaining instances. This approach provides the following benefits: Minimal performance impact: Issues with the new version can be identified early before it affects all users. Maximum availability: Problems can be quickly rolled back, minimizing downtime or service interruptions. Fast delivery of features: By deploying incrementally, new features reach all users promptly after initial validation.

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