Question #664
A company operates a database application on Amazon EC2 instances using a custom Amazon Machine Image (AMI). They utilize AWS CloudFormation for deployment in the eu-west-1 Region and need to expand to ap-southeast-1. Creating the CloudFormation stack in ap-southeast-1 fails due to a missing AMI ID. The DevOps team must resolve this with minimal operational effort. Which solution should they choose?
Modify the AWS CloudFormation templates for eu-west-1 and ap-southeast-1 to use an AWS-provided AMI. Redeploy the stacks in both Regions.
Copy the custom AMI from eu-west-1 to ap-southeast-1. Update the AWS CloudFormation template for ap-southeast-1 to reference the copied AMI ID. Redeploy the stack.
Recreate the custom AMI in ap-southeast-1. Develop a new AWS CloudFormation template for ap-southeast-1 with the new AMI ID and deploy it.
Manually configure and deploy the application in ap-southeast-1 without using AWS CloudFormation.
Explanation
Answer B is correct because AWS AMIs are region-specific, meaning a custom AMI created in one region (eu-west-1) is not automatically available in another (ap-southeast-1). Copying the AMI to the target region ensures the same configuration is available there. Updating the CloudFormation template to reference the copied AMI ID allows seamless redeployment. Other options are less efficient: Option A would require rebuilding configurations using an AWS-provided AMI, Option C involves redundant work to recreate the AMI, and Option D bypasses CloudFormation, increasing operational overhead. Key takeaway: Always copy custom AMIs to new regions and update templates when expanding multi-region deployments.
Answer
The correct answer is: B