EX294 Manage task execution and roles Practice Test 2 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Match each systemd unit type to its description.

Accepted Answer

service: Manages a system service (daemon). Common systemd unit types include service (manages daemons), socket (manages IPC/network sockets), timer (schedules events), and mount (controls mount points). Be careful not to confuse timer with service.

Answer

service: Triggers activation of other units based on time

Answer

timer: Manages a system service

Question 2

An Ansible playbook includes multiple roles. The administrator wants to ensure that a specific role's tasks are executed before any other roles, even if the roles are listed in a different order in the playbook. Which approach should be used?

Accepted Answer

Use the 'pre_tasks' section in the playbook to call the role.. The 'pre_tasks' section in an Ansible playbook runs before any roles listed in the 'roles' section, regardless of the order in which roles are defined. This allows the administrator to execute a specific role's tasks first by calling it within 'pre_tasks', ensuring it runs before all other roles.

Answer

Use the 'any_errors_fatal' setting.

Answer

Use role dependencies with 'allow_duplicates: no'.

Answer

Set the 'order' parameter in the role definition.

Question 3

A developer wants to reuse a set of tasks that conditionally include other task files based on variables defined per host. Which method should be used to ensure the included tasks are evaluated per host at runtime?

Accepted Answer

include_tasks. Include_tasks, because it dynamically loads and evaluates task files at runtime, allowing conditional logic and per-host variables to be resolved when the tasks are executed. This is essential for reusing a set of tasks that conditionally include other task files based on variables defined per host, as include_tasks processes the included file fresh each time it is encountered, respecting any host-specific variable context.

Answer

include_role

Answer

import_role

Answer

import_tasks

Question 4

In an Ansible playbook, the 'strategy' parameter is set to 'free'. What behavior does this strategy produce?

Accepted Answer

Each host runs through the playbook independently of other hosts.. The 'free' strategy in Ansible allows each host to run through the playbook independently, without waiting for other hosts to finish the current task. This means a faster host can proceed to subsequent tasks while slower hosts are still working on earlier tasks, maximizing parallelism and reducing overall execution time.

Answer

Playbook runs tasks on hosts in batches of 1.

Answer

Strategy is deprecated and replaced by 'linear'.

Answer

All hosts run the same task at the same time, then move to the next task.

Question 5

A playbook uses roles with default variables. The administrator needs to override a default variable for a specific role only when that role is used. Which method should be used?

Accepted Answer

Pass the variable as a parameter to the role in the playbook.. When you need to override a default variable for a specific role only when that role is used, the correct method is to pass the variable as a parameter to the role in the playbook using the `vars` keyword within the role declaration. This ensures the override applies exclusively to that role invocation, without affecting other roles or the global playbook scope.

Answer

Set the variable in the inventory host_vars.

Answer

Set the variable in the role's vars/main.yml.

Answer

Set the variable in the playbook's vars section.

Question 6

An Ansible playbook fails intermittently due to a service not starting in time. The administrator wants to configure a task to retry until the service confirms it is running. Which Ansible feature should be used?

Accepted Answer

Until loop with retries and delay.. (Until loop with retries and delay) is correct. The 'until' loop in Ansible allows a task to be retried until a condition is met, with configurable retries and delay. Option B (failed_when) defines when a task is considered failed but does not provide retry functionality. Option C (block/rescue) is used for error handling but does not retry the original task. Option D (async with poll) is for running tasks asynchronously and polling for completion, but it does not inherently retry on failure.

Answer

Failed_when with conditional retry.

Answer

Block and rescue to catch failure.

Answer

Async with poll interval.

Question 7

Which directive in an Ansible playbook ensures that a task runs only on the first host in a batch, and results are applied to all hosts?

Accepted Answer

run_once. Option A (run_once) is correct. The `run_once` directive ensures that a task is executed only once for the entire batch, typically on the first host, and the results are then applied to all hosts in the play. Option B (any_errors_fatal) is incorrect; it causes the play to abort if any task fails on any host, unrelated to running a task once. Option C (throttle) is incorrect; it limits the number of hosts that execute the task concurrently but does not ensure single execution. Option D (delegate_to: localhost) is incorrect; it delegates execution to the localhost but still runs on every host in the batch unless combined with `run_once`.

Answer

any_errors_fatal

Answer

throttle

Answer

delegate_to: localhost

Question 8

An administrator wants to use an Ansible role from Ansible Galaxy but the role has a dependency on another role that is already installed. What should be done to avoid conflicts?

Accepted Answer

Set 'allow_duplicates: false' in the parent role's meta/main.yml.. (set allow_duplicates: false) is correct to prevent the dependency from running twice. Option B (force install) overwrites but doesn't prevent duplicate execution. Option C (collection) is a different concept. Option D (no action) would cause the role to run twice by default.

Answer

Define the dependency as a collection.

Answer

Use 'galaxy install --force' to overwrite.

Answer

No action needed; Ansible handles duplicates automatically.

Question 9

A playbook includes a long-running task that should not block the rest of the playbook. The administrator wants to start the task and later check its status. Which method should be used?

Accepted Answer

Use the 'async' keyword with 'poll: 0' and then use async_status module.. Setting `poll: 0` with the `async` keyword launches the task in the background without waiting for it to complete, and the `async_status` module can then be used later to check the task's status by referencing its job ID. This allows the playbook to continue executing other tasks while the long-running task runs asynchronously.

Answer

Use 'delegate_to: localhost' and 'run_once'.

Answer

Use a separate playbook invoked with 'ansible-playbook' via command module.

Answer

Use 'throttle' to limit execution.

Question 10

Which ansible.cfg setting controls the number of parallel forks for task execution?

Accepted Answer

forks. The `forks` setting in `ansible.cfg` (or the `ANSIBLE_FORKS` environment variable) controls the maximum number of parallel processes Ansible uses when executing tasks on remote hosts. By default, this value is 5, meaning Ansible will manage up to 5 hosts concurrently per playbook run. Increasing this value allows Ansible to operate on more hosts simultaneously, improving throughput in larger environments.

Answer

parallel

Answer

max_parallel

Answer

threads

Question 11

Which two statements are true regarding Ansible roles? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

A role can have a meta/main.yml file to define dependencies.. The meta/main.yml file within a role is specifically designed to declare role dependencies. When Ansible encounters this file, it automatically resolves and executes the listed dependent roles before the current role, ensuring required tasks, variables, or handlers are available. This is a core feature for modularizing and reusing automation logic across playbooks.

Answer

Role handlers are shared across all roles in the play.

Answer

Role variables in vars/main.yml can be overridden by playbook vars.

Answer

Roles can only be used in a playbook's roles section.

Question 12

An administrator is debugging a playbook that uses multiple roles and wants to limit execution to a specific set of tasks. Which three methods can be used to filter task execution? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Use the '--tags' command-line option.. The '--tags' command-line option allows you to specify a subset of tasks to execute based on tags assigned to tasks or roles. When you run ansible-playbook with '--tags', only tasks that have a matching tag (or are tagged with 'always') will run, effectively filtering execution to a specific set of tasks.

Answer

Use the '--check' command-line option.

Answer

Use the '--step' command-line option.

Question 13

An Ansible playbook uses the 'block' and 'rescue' directives. Which two statements are true about this construct? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

A rescue section executes only if the block tasks fail.. The 'rescue' section in an Ansible block is specifically designed to execute only when a task within the 'block' fails. This allows you to define error recovery or rollback steps that run only on hosts where the block encountered a failure, ensuring that successful hosts are not affected by rescue logic.

Answer

Rescue tasks are executed on all hosts in the play.

Answer

Blocks cannot be nested.

Answer

A block can have multiple rescue sections.

Question 14

Refer to the exhibit. The administrator observes the output and is concerned because the 'Check on async job' task shows 'finished: 0'. What does this indicate?

Accepted Answer

The async job is still running.. In the context of ansible async jobs, 'finished: 0' indicates that the job has not completed yet and is still running. A value of '1' would mean the job finished. Therefore, the administrator's concern that the job shows 'finished: 0' is correct because it means the task is still in progress.

Answer

The async job was not started.

Answer

The async job failed.

Answer

The async job has completed successfully.

Question 15

Refer to the exhibit. A playbook already includes the 'common' role in its roles list. The current role depends on 'common' with 'allow_duplicates: false'. How many times will the 'common' role run?

Accepted Answer

Once.. The 'common' role is already listed in the playbook's roles list, and the current role declares a dependency on 'common' with 'allow_duplicates: false'. In Ansible, when a role dependency is defined with 'allow_duplicates: false', Ansible checks if the role has already been executed in the current play. Since 'common' is already in the roles list, it will not run again, resulting in a single execution.

Answer

Not at all.

Answer

Depends on the order of roles.

Answer

Twice.