Google Cloud Professional Cloud Developer — Question 101

You are developing an application that will be launched on Compute Engine instances into multiple distinct projects, each corresponding to the environments in your software development process (development, QA, staging, and production). The instances in each project have the same application code but a different configuration. During deployment, each instance should receive the application's configuration based on the environment it serves. You want to minimize the number of steps to configure this flow. What should you do?

Answer options

• A. When creating your instances, configure a startup script using the gcloud command to determine the project name that indicates the correct environment.
• B. In each project, configure a metadata key ג€environmentג€ whose value is the environment it serves. Use your deployment tool to query the instance metadata and configure the application based on the ג€environmentג€ value.
• C. Deploy your chosen deployment tool on an instance in each project. Use a deployment job to retrieve the appropriate configuration file from your version control system, and apply the configuration when deploying the application on each instance.
• D. During each instance launch, configure an instance custom-metadata key named ג€environmentג€ whose value is the environment the instance serves. Use your deployment tool to query the instance metadata, and configure the application based on the ג€environmentג€ value.

Correct answer: B

Explanation

Option B is correct because it allows you to set a project-specific metadata key that directly associates each instance with its environment, facilitating straightforward access during deployment. Options A and D suggest using startup scripts or custom-metadata keys but do not provide as streamlined a solution as using the existing instance metadata with a clear key-value mapping. Option C, while functional, introduces unnecessary complexity by requiring additional deployment jobs and version control interactions, thus increasing the number of steps involved.