The charter-desk assistant has a new registered model version that passed evaluation and the team wants production traffic to start hitting it without changing any application code that references the endpoint's model reference. Which mechanism supports this?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
You can promote the validated model without changing callers by using a mutable alias such as 'champion.' Point the alias to the new version, and serving configuration that references it can send production traffic to that version while the application keeps its existing model reference.
Full Explanation
Unity Catalog model aliases, such as 'champion' or 'challenger', are mutable pointers to specific model versions. When the serving configuration and application reference an alias rather than a fixed version number, moving that alias to the newly validated version redirects production traffic without changing application code; this supports safe, code-free promotion. Hardcoding the new version number in the request payload can select that version, but requires changing the application whenever a version is promoted, contrary to the requirement. Removing the prior registered version is destructive, eliminates a rollback option, and does not make an existing fixed version reference automatically resolve to the newest version; it could also disrupt an endpoint serving that version. Creating a new endpoint for each version is unnecessary, breaks integrations that depend on the existing URL, and gives up a stable serving interface. For the exam, distinguish alias-based promotion from traffic splitting, which sends percentages of traffic to multiple versions at once. As a practical check, confirm that the serving configuration references the alias and that the alias points to the intended validated version before directing production traffic to it.