DVA-C02 · Question #545
A company has an application that runs on Amazon EC2 instances. The application needs to use dynamic feature flags that will be shared with other applications. The application must poll on an interval
The correct answer is C. Store the feature flag values in AWS AppConfig. Configure AWS AppConfig Agent on the EC2. AWS AppConfig with its agent is purpose-built for dynamic feature flags, providing built-in polling, local caching, and deployment validation with minimal operational overhead.
Question
A company has an application that runs on Amazon EC2 instances. The application needs to use dynamic feature flags that will be shared with other applications. The application must poll on an interval for new feature flag values. The values must be cached when they are retrieved. Which solution will meet these requirements in the MOST operationally efficient way?
Options
- AStore the feature flag values in AWS Secrets Manager. Configure an Amazon ElastiCache node
- BStore the feature flag values in an Amazon DynamoDB table. Configure DynamoDB Accelerator
- CStore the feature flag values in AWS AppConfig. Configure AWS AppConfig Agent on the EC2
- DStore the feature flag values in AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store. Configure the
How the community answered
(27 responses)- A7% (2)
- B11% (3)
- C78% (21)
- D4% (1)
Why each option
AWS AppConfig with its agent is purpose-built for dynamic feature flags, providing built-in polling, local caching, and deployment validation with minimal operational overhead.
Secrets Manager is designed for secret rotation and storage, not feature flag management; pairing it with ElastiCache adds unnecessary infrastructure complexity and operational overhead.
DynamoDB with DAX is a general-purpose database solution that requires custom polling logic and does not have native feature flag semantics or a built-in caching agent.
AWS AppConfig is designed specifically for application configuration and feature flag management. The AWS AppConfig Agent runs as a local process on the EC2 instance, handles polling for configuration updates on a configurable interval, and caches retrieved values locally, eliminating the need to build or manage these capabilities separately.
Parameter Store requires custom code to implement polling intervals and client-side caching, adding operational complexity compared to the AppConfig Agent's built-in capabilities.
Concept tested: AWS AppConfig for dynamic feature flag management
Source: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/appconfig/latest/userguide/appconfig-agent-ec2.html
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