EX294 Implement advanced Ansible automation — 10 Questions

Question 1

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.

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

Question 2

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.

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Define the tasks as handlers and notify them.

Question 3

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.

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The included task file has incorrect permissions.

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The included tasks contain a syntax error.

Question 4

An Ansible playbook is designed to run on a group of database servers. The administrator wants to ensure that a task runs only on the primary database server, which is defined in the inventory with a variable 'primary: true'. Which conditional should be used?

Accepted Answer

when: primary. Option B is correct because the `when` conditional in Ansible evaluates a Jinja2 expression to determine whether a task should execute. By using `when: primary`, the task will run only on hosts where the inventory variable `primary` is defined and evaluates to `true` (a truthy value). This directly meets the requirement to target the primary database server.

Answer

ignore_errors: yes

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run_once: true

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delegate_to: "{{ primary }}"

Question 5

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 6

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 7

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.

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Use 'throttle: 1' to limit concurrent connections.

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

Question 8

An Ansible playbook includes a role that defines default variables in 'defaults/main.yml' and role variables in 'vars/main.yml'. A playbook sets the same variable in the play's 'vars' section. Which variable value takes precedence?

Accepted Answer

Play vars. In Ansible, variable precedence is hierarchical, and play vars (set directly in the play's `vars` section) have a higher priority than role defaults and role vars. Specifically, play vars override role vars, which in turn override role defaults. Therefore, when the same variable is defined in all three locations, the play vars value takes precedence.

Answer

Role defaults

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Inventory group vars

Answer

Role vars

Question 9

Which TWO statements about Ansible collections are correct?

Accepted Answer

Collections provide a way to package and distribute Ansible content.. Ansible collections are a distribution format for Ansible content that allows packaging and distributing playbooks, roles, modules, and plugins. They enable users to bundle related automation content into a single, versioned package that can be shared via Ansible Galaxy or Automation Hub. This makes option B correct because collections are explicitly designed for packaging and distribution.

Answer

Collections cannot be versioned.

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Collections replace the need for inventory files.

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Collections can only contain modules and roles.

Question 10

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.