AWS Certified Developer – Associate (DVA-C02) — Question 337

A developer is deploying an application in the AWS Cloud by using AWS CloudFormation. The application will connect to an existing Amazon RDS database. The hostname of the RDS database is stored in AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store as a plaintext value. The developer needs to incorporate the database hostname into the CloudFormation template to initialize the application when the stack is created.

How should the developer reference the parameter that contains the database hostname?

Answer options

• A. Use the ssm dynamic reference.
• B. Use the Ref intrinsic function.
• C. Use the Fn::ImportValue intrinsic function.
• D. Use the ssm-secure dynamic reference.

Correct answer: A

Explanation

To retrieve a plaintext value stored in AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store directly within an AWS CloudFormation template, the ssm dynamic reference must be used. The ssm-secure dynamic reference is intended only for encrypted SecureString parameters, while Ref and Fn::ImportValue are used for template-defined parameters and cross-stack outputs respectively.