EX294 Deploy Ansible Automation Platform — Timed 20 Questions

Question 1

An organization wants to deploy Ansible Automation Platform 2.x in a highly available configuration. Which component must be deployed in an active-active cluster to ensure controller failover?

Accepted Answer

Automation controller. The automation controller is the component that provides the web UI, REST API, and job execution management in Ansible Automation Platform 2.x. For high availability, multiple controller nodes must be deployed in an active-active cluster behind a load balancer, ensuring that if one controller fails, another can immediately take over without service interruption.

Answer

PostgreSQL database

Answer

Private Automation Hub

Answer

Automation mesh

Question 2

A DevOps engineer is troubleshooting an Ansible Automation Platform deployment where ansible-navigator fails to run a playbook, showing the error 'Error: Unable to pull execution environment image'. The ansible-navigator configuration file is shown in the exhibit. Which change should the engineer make to resolve the issue?

Accepted Answer

Change 'pull policy' from 'missing' to 'always'. Option C is correct because the error 'Unable to pull execution environment image' indicates that the image specified in the ansible-navigator configuration cannot be retrieved from the registry. Setting the 'pull policy' to 'always' forces ansible-navigator to attempt a fresh pull of the execution environment image every time, which can resolve transient network issues, authentication problems, or stale local image caches that cause the pull to fail when the policy is 'missing'.

Answer

Set 'mode' to 'interactive' instead of 'stdout'

Answer

Change the execution-environment image to 'registry.redhat.io/ansible-automation-platform-24/ee-minimal-rhel8:latest'

Answer

Set 'playbook-artifact enable' to 'true'

Question 3

Which TWO statements are true about deploying Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform using the automation mesh?

Accepted Answer

Execution nodes can be located in different geographic regions.. Option A is correct because the automation mesh is designed to support distributed topologies where execution nodes can be located in different geographic regions. The mesh uses peer-to-peer connections over standard TCP ports, allowing nodes to communicate across network boundaries without requiring a centralized controller in each region.

Answer

Existing Ansible Tower nodes can be added to the mesh without modification.

Answer

Automation mesh requires two separate ports for control and data plane traffic.

Answer

All execution nodes must have direct network access to the automation controller.

Question 4

A systems administrator is deploying Ansible Automation Platform 2.4 using the provided setup script. The installation fails with the error shown in the exhibit. Based on the exhibit, what is the most likely cause of the failure?

Accepted Answer

The PostgreSQL service is not running on the database server.. The error exhibit indicates that the installer cannot connect to the PostgreSQL database. The most common cause of this failure is that the PostgreSQL service is not running on the database server, preventing the Ansible Automation Platform setup script from establishing a connection. Without the database service active, the installer cannot proceed with the deployment.

Answer

The installer requires a local PostgreSQL database; using a remote database is not supported.

Answer

The database password specified in setup.sh does not match the actual PostgreSQL password.

Answer

SELinux is blocking the ansible-navigator process from reaching the database.

Question 5

A company is deploying Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.3 in a hybrid cloud environment. The automation controller is installed on a RHEL 8 server in the on-premises data center. Execution nodes are distributed: four in the same data center, two in a remote branch office connected via VPN, and three in AWS EC2 instances. The VPN connection to the branch office is low-bandwidth and high-latency. The AWS nodes use a direct connect with stable bandwidth. During initial testing, playbooks running on the branch office execution nodes frequently timeout or hang, while on-premises and AWS nodes work fine. The automation mesh topology is configured with all nodes as direct children of the controller. The team wants to minimize latency and ensure reliable execution for the branch office nodes. Which course of action should the administrator take?

Accepted Answer

Deploy an additional automation mesh node in the branch office and make the branch office execution nodes children of that node.. Option A is correct because deploying an additional automation mesh node in the branch office creates a local parent for the branch office execution nodes, reducing the number of high-latency, low-bandwidth VPN hops between the controller and those nodes. In the automation mesh, parent-child relationships allow execution nodes to connect through a closer intermediary, minimizing timeouts and improving reliability by keeping control-plane traffic local.

Answer

Configure the controller to use the AWS execution nodes for all branch office jobs via a proxy.

Answer

Increase the `ansible_timeout` setting in the controller configuration to 120 seconds.

Answer

Reduce the forks value for branch office execution nodes to 1.

Question 6

Which TWO statements are true regarding the deployment of Ansible Automation Platform in a highly available configuration?

Accepted Answer

The automation controller requires a PostgreSQL database that must be configured with replication for high availability.. Option C is correct because the automation controller in Ansible Automation Platform requires a PostgreSQL database, and for high availability (HA), that database must be configured with replication (e.g., streaming replication or Patroni) to ensure failover and data durability. Without database replication, a single database instance becomes a single point of failure, defeating the purpose of an HA deployment.

Answer

The automation hub requires an external PostgreSQL database to store collections and execution environments.

Answer

Execution nodes must have direct network access to the automation controller database.

Answer

The automation controller can use an embedded SQLite database for production deployments.

Question 7

You are deploying Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform in a restricted network environment where the automation controller, automation hub, and execution nodes cannot access the internet. You have successfully installed the automation controller and automation hub on separate RHEL 8 servers using a local repository. The automation hub is configured to sync collections from a local mirror. After deployment, you attempt to create a new job template that uses a collection from automation hub, but the job template creation fails with the error: 'Failed to find collection' for a collection that exists in automation hub. The execution nodes are subscribed to the same local repository. The automation controller is configured with the automation hub as the default collections server. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The automation controller is configured with the default cloud.redhat.com as the collections server instead of the local automation hub URL.. Option D is correct because the automation controller must be explicitly configured to use the local automation hub as the default collections server. If it defaults to cloud.redhat.com, the controller will attempt to download collections from the internet, which fails in a restricted network environment. The error 'Failed to find collection' indicates the controller cannot reach the configured collections server, not that the collection is missing from the local hub.

Answer

The local repository does not contain the required Ansible Automation Platform packages for the execution nodes.

Answer

The automation controller cannot communicate with the execution nodes due to network restrictions.

Answer

The execution nodes are not registered with the automation controller.

Question 8

Drag and drop the steps to configure an Ansible control node for managing remote hosts into the correct order.

Question 9

Drag and drop the steps to configure a basic NFS server to export a directory in the correct order.

Question 10

Match each Ansible module to its primary function.

Question 11

Match each Ansible inventory parameter to its meaning.

Question 12

An organization is deploying Automation Platform for the first time. The security team requires that all SSH private keys used for automation be stored securely with access controls. Which AAP feature should be used to meet this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Create a Machine credential type and upload the SSH private key.. Option D is correct because the Machine credential type in Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) is specifically designed to securely store SSH private keys. When you upload the private key via the AAP web UI or API, it is encrypted at rest in the AAP database and access is controlled through role-based access control (RBAC). This meets the security team's requirement for secure storage and access controls without exposing the key in plain text.

Answer

Store the private key in plain text within the inventory file.

Answer

Use Ansible Vault to encrypt the private key file.

Answer

Set the SSH key as an environment variable on the controller.

Question 13

A job template consistently fails with 'Authentication failed' for a managed host. The admin has verified that the username/password in the credential is correct and that the host is reachable. What is the most likely remaining cause?

Accepted Answer

The credential is not linked to the job template.. The most likely remaining cause is that the credential is not linked to the job template. Even if the credential contains correct authentication data, the job template will not use it unless the credential is explicitly associated. Without this link, Ansible Tower/AWX cannot authenticate to the managed host, resulting in an 'Authentication failed' error.

Answer

The SSH private key has not been added to the credential.

Answer

The username in the credential is misspelled.

Answer

The host is not reachable on the network.

Question 14

An admin is configuring a project in Automation Platform to pull playbooks from a Git repository. Which source control type should be selected?

Accepted Answer

SCM. Option C (SCM) is correct because Ansible Automation Platform uses Source Control Management (SCM) to integrate with Git repositories. When configuring a project, selecting 'SCM' allows the platform to pull playbooks, roles, and inventories directly from a remote Git repository, enabling version control and automated sync.

Answer

Local

Answer

Manual

Answer

Red Hat Insights

Question 15

An organization is designing a high-availability Automation Platform deployment. Which TWO practices are essential for achieving high availability?

Accepted Answer

Deploy multiple automation controllers behind a load balancer.. Option C is correct because deploying multiple automation controllers behind a load balancer distributes workload and provides failover: if one controller fails, the load balancer redirects traffic to healthy nodes, ensuring continuous job execution and API availability. This is a core high-availability pattern for Ansible Automation Platform, as the controllers are stateless and can share the same database and project storage.

Answer

Use a single instance of PostgreSQL on the controller node.

Answer

Installation on a single powerful node.

Answer

Store all secrets in the Automation Platform vault.

Question 16

Which THREE of the following are core components of Automation Platform that are installed by default in a standard setup?

Accepted Answer

Automation controller. Option B is correct because Automation controller (formerly Ansible Tower) is the web-based UI and REST API platform that provides role-based access control, job scheduling, and inventory management for Ansible automation. It is installed by default as part of a standard Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform setup to serve as the central control plane.

Answer

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Answer

Ansible Core

Question 17

A job template has failed. Which TWO logs should be examined first to diagnose the issue?

Accepted Answer

/var/log/tower/tower.log. Option A is correct because `/var/log/tower/tower.log` is the primary log file for the Ansible Tower/Automation Controller service itself, capturing all controller-level events, errors, and system messages. When a job template fails, this log is the first place to check for underlying service issues, authentication failures, or configuration problems that prevented the job from starting or completing. Option B is correct because `/var/log/tower/job_callback.log` specifically records callback data from job runs, including the final status and any errors returned by the Ansible playbook execution, making it essential for diagnosing job-specific failures.

Answer

Automation controller job stdout

Answer

/var/log/messages

Answer

/var/log/nginx/access.log

Question 18

An admin checks the job details and sees this error from the API. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The callback plugin is not installed on the controller node.. The error from the API indicates that the callback plugin is missing on the controller node. In Ansible Automation Platform, callback plugins must be installed on the controller node (or execution node) where `ansible-runner` processes job events. If the plugin is not present there, the API will report a failure when the job attempts to use it, even if the execution environment contains the plugin.

Answer

The job template is using an execution environment that lacks the plugin.

Answer

The callback plugin name is misspelled in the project.

Answer

The machine credential is invalid.

Question 19

An admin attempts to run this playbook as a job template in AAP. The job fails with 'ERROR! 'now' is not a valid attribute for a task'. What is the issue?

Accepted Answer

The 'now' attribute does not exist; it may be a typo for 'notify' or should be removed.. Option D is correct because the error message 'ERROR! 'now' is not a valid attribute for a task' indicates that Ansible does not recognize 'now' as a valid task attribute. The 'now' keyword is not a standard Ansible directive; it is likely a typo for 'notify' (used with handlers) or should be removed entirely. Ansible validates task attributes against a strict schema, and any unknown attribute causes a parsing failure.

Answer

The template task is missing quotes around the file paths.

Answer

The playbook has an incorrect indentation in the tasks block.

Answer

The 'become' directive is placed incorrectly at the play level.

Question 20

An admin imports this inventory into AAP and assigns a machine credential that uses SSH key authentication. The job fails with 'Authentication failed'. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The credential's SSH key is not being used because the inventory variable ansible_ssh_private_key_file conflicts.. Option B is correct because AAP does not use inventory variables for authentication; it uses credentials. The variable 'ansible_ssh_private_key_file' is ignored by AAP, and the credential must be used. Option A is incorrect because the credential is present. Option C is incorrect because the key path is not used. Option D is incorrect because the become method is not relevant to this failure.

Answer

The private key file path in the inventory does not exist on the controller.

Answer

The machine credential does not contain an SSH private key.

Answer

The 'ansible_become' variable is missing from the inventory.