EX294 Manage task execution and roles Practice Test 3 — 15 Questions

Question 1

An administrator wants to ensure a role's tasks are executed only on certain hosts. Which approach should they use?

Accepted Answer

Use a 'when' condition in the role's tasks. Ansible's 'when' clause allows conditional execution of tasks based on variables such as inventory hostname, group membership, or custom facts. By using a 'when' condition that checks the target host's identity (e.g., 'ansible_hostname' or 'inventory_hostname'), the administrator can ensure that the role's tasks run only on specific hosts, without modifying inventory structure or using separate variable files.

Answer

Set host_vars for each target host

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Set group_vars for the target group

Answer

Use tags on the role

Question 2

A playbook includes multiple roles. The administrator wants to skip a specific role during execution. Which technique should they use?

Accepted Answer

Use tags on the role and run with --skip-tags. Ansible roles support tagging, and the `--skip-tags` option allows you to exclude all tasks within a role that share a specific tag. By assigning a unique tag to the role (e.g., `tags: skip_me`) and running the playbook with `--skip-tags skip_me`, the entire role is skipped without modifying individual tasks or hosts.

Answer

Add a condition to each task in the role

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Use the '--limit' option to exclude hosts

Answer

Use tags on the role and run with --tags

Question 3

What is the purpose of the 'meta: flush_handlers' task?

Accepted Answer

Force handlers to run immediately. The 'meta: flush_handlers' task in Ansible is used to force any pending handler notifications to run immediately at that point in the play, rather than waiting until the end of the play. This is correct because it ensures that handlers triggered by earlier tasks execute right away, which is essential when subsequent tasks depend on the state changes those handlers make (e.g., restarting a service before configuring it further).

Answer

Restart services immediately

Answer

Clear the handler queue

Answer

Wait for handlers to complete

Question 4

A playbook uses a loop to create multiple users. The administrator notices that if one user creation fails, the entire playbook stops. Which directive should be used to continue executing remaining iterations?

Accepted Answer

ignore_errors. `ignore_errors` is a directive that, when set to `yes` on a task, allows Ansible to continue executing subsequent iterations of a loop even if that specific task fails. This ensures that a failure in creating one user does not halt the entire playbook, as Ansible will record the failure but proceed with the remaining items in the loop.

Answer

max_fail_percentage

Answer

any_errors_fatal

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failed_when

Question 5

An Ansible role has a complex dependency tree. The administrator wants to ensure that dependencies are installed before the main role tasks. Which file should be used to define dependencies?

Accepted Answer

meta/main.yml. In Ansible, role dependencies are defined in the `meta/main.yml` file using the `dependencies` key. This ensures that any listed roles are executed before the main role's tasks, providing a controlled execution order. The `meta/main.yml` file is specifically designed for metadata such as dependencies, author information, and supported platforms.

Answer

defaults/main.yml

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tasks/main.yml

Answer

vars/main.yml

Question 6

An administrator wants to run a playbook that executes tasks in parallel across multiple hosts but wants to limit the number of simultaneous hosts to 5. Which directive should be set?

Accepted Answer

serial. The `serial` directive in Ansible controls the number of hosts that execute a play at a time, allowing you to limit concurrency. Setting `serial: 5` ensures that only 5 hosts run tasks simultaneously, with the playbook completing in batches of 5 until all hosts are processed.

Answer

poll

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throttle

Answer

forks

Question 7

A playbook uses ansible.builtin.import_playbook to include other playbooks. The administrator needs to pass variables to the imported playbook. Which approach is valid?

Accepted Answer

Add a 'vars' block to the import_playbook statement. `ansible.builtin.import_playbook` supports a `vars` keyword directly in the import statement, allowing you to pass variables to the imported playbook at the time of import. This is the only built-in method that passes variables into the imported playbook's scope without relying on external files or facts.

Answer

Use ansible.builtin.include_vars inside the imported playbook

Answer

Set variables using set_fact before the import

Answer

Use group_vars or host_vars

Question 8

An administrator is designing a role that needs to execute a set of tasks conditionally based on whether a package is installed. Which approach is best practice?

Accepted Answer

Use the package_facts module. The `package_facts` module is the best practice for gathering package installation status in Ansible. It populates the `ansible_facts.packages` variable with structured data about installed packages, allowing you to conditionally execute tasks using `when` statements without relying on external commands or file checks. This approach is idempotent, efficient, and aligns with Ansible's declarative philosophy.

Answer

Use the stat module to check package file existence

Answer

Use the command module to check package status

Answer

Use ansible_facts.packages

Question 9

A team has developed several roles that share common variables. They want to organize these variables in a central file. Where should they place this file so it is automatically loaded by all roles?

Accepted Answer

In the playbook directory as group_vars/all.yml. Placing a file in the playbook directory as group_vars/all.yml makes it automatically loaded by all roles. Ansible automatically includes any YAML files in the group_vars directory that match group names, and the special group 'all' applies to every host. This centralizes shared variables without requiring explicit imports in each role.

Answer

In the inventory directory as host_vars/localhost.yml

Answer

In a common role's vars/main.yml

Answer

In a common role's defaults/main.yml

Question 10

Which TWO elements can be used to include external task files in a playbook?

Accepted Answer

import_tasks. Both `import_tasks` and `include_tasks` are Ansible directives used to incorporate external task files into a playbook. `import_tasks` statically loads and parses the tasks at playbook parse time, meaning all tasks are treated as if they were written directly in the playbook. `include_tasks` dynamically loads tasks at runtime, allowing for conditional includes and loops that are evaluated when the task is executed.

Answer

include_vars

Answer

add_host

Answer

include_role

Question 11

Which THREE directives can be used to modify loop behavior in Ansible?

Accepted Answer

ignore_errors. A is correct because `ignore_errors` is a directive that modifies loop behavior by allowing the task to continue processing subsequent items in the loop even if one iteration fails. This is commonly used when you want to gather information from multiple hosts or resources and don't want a single failure to halt the entire loop execution.

Answer

rescue

Answer

always

Question 12

Which TWO statements about Ansible role defaults are true?

Accepted Answer

Defaults are loaded from the defaults/main.yml file.. Ansible role defaults are defined in the defaults/main.yml file within the role directory structure. These defaults provide the most basic variable values that can be easily overridden by any other variable source, ensuring flexibility in role usage.

Answer

Defaults are only loaded if no vars are defined.

Answer

Defaults have higher priority than variables defined in the playbook.

Answer

Defaults cannot be overridden.

Question 13

What is the purpose of the 'vars' keyword under the httpd role inclusion?

Accepted Answer

Override default variables for that role. The 'vars' keyword under a role inclusion in Ansible allows you to override the default variables defined within that specific role. This is done at the point of inclusion, providing role-specific variable overrides without affecting other roles or the playbook's global variable scope.

Answer

Set variables for the common role

Answer

Define new variables for the playbook

Answer

Set variables for all roles in the play

Question 14

An administrator sees this output during a playbook run. What can they conclude?

Accepted Answer

The task had ignore_errors set to yes. When a task fails in Ansible but the playbook continues execution and shows a 'changed' or 'ok' status instead of 'failed', it indicates that the task has `ignore_errors: yes` set. This directive tells Ansible to treat any failure as a success, allowing the play to proceed without interruption.

Answer

The playbook was run with the --ignore-errors command-line flag

Answer

The task was part of a block with rescue

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The playbook was run with the --check flag

Question 15

An administrator wants to define role dependencies. In which file should they place the dependencies declaration?

Accepted Answer

meta/main.yml. Role dependencies in Ansible are declared in the `meta/main.yml` file using the `dependencies` key. This allows you to specify other roles that must be executed before the current role, ensuring prerequisite tasks are run automatically.

Answer

vars/main.yml

Answer

defaults/main.yml

Answer

tasks/main.yml