EX294 Practice Test 16 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Drag and drop the steps to configure SELinux to allow Apache to read a custom web directory in the correct order.

Question 2

Which TWO filters are used to transform data types in Ansible?

Accepted Answer

bool. In Ansible, the `bool` and `int` filters are specifically designed to convert input values into boolean and integer data types, respectively. These are part of Ansible's Jinja2 filter set for explicit type coercion, enabling tasks to handle variables with the correct data type for conditional logic or arithmetic operations.

Answer

list

Answer

float

Answer

string

Question 3

An Ansible playbook needs to extract the first line from a multi-line string variable 'output' and store it in a new variable 'first_line'. Which filter should be used?

Accepted Answer

{{ output | split('
') | first }}. Option B is correct because the `split('
')` filter splits the multi-line string into a list of lines, and the `first` filter extracts the first element. This is the standard Ansible approach to isolate the first line from a string variable.

Answer

Answer

Answer

Question 4

A system administrator wants to publish a custom Ansible collection to a private Automation Hub. What is the correct command to build the collection before publishing?

Accepted Answer

ansible-galaxy collection build. Option D is correct because `ansible-galaxy collection build` is the command that compiles the collection directory into a distributable tarball (e.g., `mycollection-1.0.0.tar.gz`), which is the required artifact for publishing to a private Automation Hub. Without this build step, there is no archive to upload.

Answer

ansible-galaxy collection init mycollection

Answer

ansible-galaxy collection publish ./mycollection-1.0.0.tar.gz

Answer

ansible-galaxy collection install .

Question 5

An automation team is designing a content collection to distribute internal Ansible modules across the organization. The collection should be installed from a private Galaxy server. To minimize namespace conflicts and ensure discoverability, which naming convention should be used for the collection?

Accepted Answer

namespace.collection_name. In Ansible, collections are distributed using a fully qualified collection name (FQCN) in the format `namespace.collection_name`. This naming convention is required by the Ansible Galaxy server and the `ansible-galaxy collection install` command to uniquely identify and install collections, minimizing namespace conflicts and ensuring discoverability across the organization.

Answer

collection_name.namespace

Answer

namespace_collection_name

Answer

namespace-collection_name

Question 6

A playbook uses the 'block' and 'rescue' keywords to handle errors. The block contains three tasks. The first task fails. What happens next?

Accepted Answer

The rescue section runs immediately after the failure.. In Ansible, when a task inside a `block` fails, the `rescue` section is executed immediately after the failure, without running any remaining tasks in the block. This is analogous to a try-catch mechanism in programming: the block is the 'try', and the rescue is the 'catch'. Option B correctly describes this behavior.

Answer

The rescue section runs and retries the failed task.

Answer

The playbook fails with an error message.

Answer

The remaining tasks in the block run, then the rescue section runs.

Question 7

An administrator needs to securely pass a database password to a playbook without exposing it in logs or the command line. Which approach is the most secure?

Accepted Answer

Store the password in an Ansible Vault-encrypted variable file and include it.. Option A is correct because Ansible Vault encrypts the variable file at rest, and including it via `vars_files` or `include_vars` decrypts it only in memory during playbook execution. This prevents the password from appearing in logs, the command line, or the process table, meeting the security requirement.

Answer

Set the password in a variable and use 'no_log: true' on tasks that use it.

Answer

Store the password in a host_vars file with restricted file permissions.

Answer

Prompt for the password and pass it as an extra variable using -e.

Question 8

A system administrator wants to run a playbook on all hosts in the 'webservers' group, but only if the host is currently online. Which approach should be used?

Accepted Answer

Use 'wait_for_connection' as a pre-task to ensure connectivity.. Option D is correct because the `wait_for_connection` module is specifically designed to pause the playbook execution until a remote host becomes reachable over SSH or WinRM. By placing it as a pre-task, the playbook will only proceed to subsequent tasks for hosts that are currently online, effectively filtering out offline hosts. This directly meets the requirement to run the playbook only on hosts in the 'webservers' group that are online.

Answer

Set 'gather_facts: no' to skip fact collection.

Answer

Use 'throttle: 1' to limit concurrent connections.

Answer

Set 'serial: 1' to run on one host at a time.

Question 9

Which THREE of the following are valid uses of the 'ansible.builtin.include_role' module?

Accepted Answer

Pass variables to the included role using the 'vars' keyword.. Option A is correct because the 'ansible.builtin.include_role' module supports the 'vars' keyword to pass variables directly to the included role. This allows you to override or supply role variables at the point of inclusion, which is a common pattern for reusing roles with different configurations.

Answer

Dynamically set the role name using a variable without the 'name' parameter.

Answer

Apply tags to all tasks within the included role.

Question 10

A playbook uses the 'include_tasks' module to dynamically include tasks based on a variable. The playbook runs successfully on some hosts but fails on others with a 'template error' message. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The variable used in the 'include_tasks' path has a Jinja2 template error.. The 'include_tasks' module dynamically resolves the path to a task file using a variable. If that variable contains a Jinja2 template error (e.g., undefined variable, syntax mistake, or filter misuse), Ansible will fail with a 'template error' message during the variable expansion phase, before the task file is even loaded. This explains why the error occurs only on hosts where the variable's value or context triggers the template failure.

Answer

The included task file does not exist on the control node.

Answer

The included task file has incorrect permissions.

Answer

The included tasks contain a syntax error.

Question 11

A company uses Ansible to manage rolling updates of a web server fleet. During a deployment, the playbook fails on one host due to a transient network error, and the rest of the fleet is left in an inconsistent state. Which strategy would best minimize the risk of inconsistency in future rolling updates?

Accepted Answer

Set max_fail_percentage to 0 in the serial block to abort the rollout on any failure.. Option D is correct because setting `max_fail_percentage: 0` in a rolling update (using `serial`) tells Ansible to abort the entire playbook run if any single host fails. This prevents the rest of the fleet from being updated, avoiding an inconsistent state where some hosts have the new deployment and others do not. It directly addresses the risk of partial rollouts caused by transient errors.

Answer

Add retries to each task so transient errors are automatically retried.

Answer

Use a larger serial batch size to complete the rollout faster.

Answer

Set ignore_errors: yes on all tasks to continue despite failures.

Question 12

An Ansible playbook fails intermittently when deploying web servers. The error message indicates that a required package is not available in the repository. Which approach would best ensure that the required packages are consistently available before the playbook runs?

Accepted Answer

Add a pre_task to run 'dnf update' or 'apt update' before the package installation.. Option C is correct because the intermittent failure is caused by the package metadata cache being stale or missing. Running 'dnf update' (RHEL/CentOS) or 'apt update' (Debian/Ubuntu) as a pre_task refreshes the repository index, ensuring that the package manager has the latest list of available packages before attempting installation. This directly resolves the 'package not available' error by synchronizing the local cache with the remote repository.

Answer

Set 'ignore_errors: yes' on the package installation task and handle the failure later.

Answer

Add retries and delay to the package installation task.

Answer

Use the 'get_url' module to download the package from an external source and install it manually.

Question 13

Which TWO of the following are advantages of using 'ansible-pull' over 'ansible-playbook'?

Accepted Answer

It can be used in environments where a central control node is not desired.. Option A is correct because ansible-pull operates in a pull-based model where each managed node independently retrieves and executes playbooks from a central repository (e.g., a Git server). This eliminates the need for a persistent central control node, making it ideal for environments where a dedicated Ansible control node is not desired or feasible, such as in large-scale or decentralized deployments.

Answer

It eliminates the need for an inventory file.

Answer

It supports a different syntax for playbooks that is more efficient.

Answer

It reduces load on the control node because it runs locally on each node.

Question 14

An administrator wants to reuse a set of tasks that configure a firewall across multiple playbooks. Which Ansible feature should be used to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Create a role for firewall configuration.. A role is the correct Ansible feature for reusing a set of tasks across multiple playbooks. Roles provide a structured, self-contained directory layout for tasks, handlers, variables, templates, and files, allowing the firewall configuration logic to be packaged once and referenced in any playbook via the `roles:` directive or `import_role`/`include_role` modules.

Answer

Add the tasks to the inventory file under a group.

Answer

Define the tasks in a vars file and include it.

Answer

Define the tasks as handlers and notify them.

Question 15

Match each Linux command to its function.