AWS DevOps Engineer Professional Practice Test 2025 - Free DevOps Practice Questions and Certification Study Guide

The most effective methods for installing security updates on instances managed by AWS OpsWorks include creating new instances and using the Update Dependencies stack command.

Creating new instances and then deleting the old ones allows for a clean update process where the new instances can be prepared with the latest security patches and configurations. This method ensures that the updates do not disrupt the existing services because the old instances can continue to run until the new instances are fully deployed and verified.

On the other hand, running the Update Dependencies stack command specifically for Linux instances is a powerful feature of OpsWorks that enables the system to install the latest updates and dependencies directly on existing instances. This method is convenient as it can be executed without necessitating the creation of new resources, which can save time and resources.

Combining these two methods offers flexibility depending on the specific needs for maintenance and downtime tolerance. Hence, both strategies are recognized practices within the OpsWorks service for ensuring that security updates are effectively applied to managed instances.