EX294 Timed Practice Test 1 — 10 Questions

Question 1

You are building an execution environment for a large enterprise that requires several collections from both Red Hat Automation Hub and an internal GitLab repository. Your execution-environment.yml file includes both sources. However, the build process consistently fails during the 'adding collections' step with an error indicating that a specific collection from the internal Git repository cannot be found. You have confirmed that the Git repository URL and branch are correct, and that the repository is accessible from the build host. The collection's galaxy.yml file exists and is valid. What is the most likely reason for the failure?

10 minute time limit — choose an answer to begin.

Accepted Answer

The ansible-builder process does not have the necessary Git credentials configured.. The ansible-builder process requires Git credentials to clone collections from private Git repositories. Even if the URL and branch are correct and the repository is accessible from the build host, the builder itself may not have the necessary SSH keys or HTTPS credentials configured. This is a common oversight when using internal GitLab repositories, as the builder runs in a containerized environment that does not inherit the host's credentials by default.

Answer

The base image does not have Git installed.

Answer

The collection's Galaxy namespace conflicts with a collection from Automation Hub.

Answer

The 'requirements.yml' file for the internal collection is missing.

Question 2

Which TWO options are valid methods for including collections in an execution environment?

Accepted Answer

List collections under 'collections' in execution-environment.yml.. The `execution-environment.yml` file is the primary configuration file for building an Ansible execution environment, and it supports a `collections` key where you can list collections to be included. This is the standard method for specifying collections that should be installed during the build process, ensuring they are available in the final execution environment.

Answer

Use ansible-galaxy collection install command in a pre-build script.

Answer

Use a 'galaxy.yml' file in the build context.

Answer

Include collections in the base image directly.

Question 3

What is the most likely cause of the failure?

Accepted Answer

The credential type is incorrect; it should be a Source Control credential, not Machine.. The credential type must match the service. A Machine credential is used for SSH/WinRM access, not for source control authentication. When using an SCM project to source inventory, the credential should be a Source Control credential (e.g., for Git) to authenticate to the repository. Option A is incorrect because inventory type 'scm' is valid for sourcing from a project; the failure is credential-related, not inventory type. Option B is incorrect because source_path can point to either a file or a directory within the project. Option C is incorrect because source_project can accept either the project name or ID. Option D is incorrect because update_cache_timeout=0 is a valid value that disables caching.

Answer

The inventory must be of type 'file' rather than 'scm'.

Answer

The source_path is incorrect because it should be a directory, not a file.

Answer

The source_project should reference the project ID, not name.

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The update_cache_timeout should be a positive integer.

Question 4

An Ansible rolling update playbook includes 'max_fail_percentage: 20'. If more than 20% of hosts fail during any batch, what happens?

Accepted Answer

The play aborts immediately. The `max_fail_percentage` parameter in Ansible's rolling update strategy defines the maximum percentage of hosts that can fail in a single batch before the playbook aborts entirely. When the failure rate exceeds this threshold, Ansible stops execution immediately to prevent cascading failures or inconsistent state across the remaining hosts.

Answer

The play pauses and waits for user input

Answer

The failed hosts are removed from inventory

Answer

The play retries failed hosts

Answer

The play continues with remaining hosts

Question 5

A systems administrator is installing Ansible Automation Platform on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 server. They download the installer tarball and run `./setup.sh`. The installation fails with an error indicating that the database password is incorrect. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The `bootstrap.yml` file has an incorrect value for `pg_password`.. The `pg_password` variable in the `bootstrap.yml` inventory file (or equivalent) sets the PostgreSQL database password. If this value is incorrect or mismatched with the actual database password, the installer will fail during the database connection check with a 'database password is incorrect' error.

Answer

The `admin_password` variable in the inventory file does not match the PostgreSQL password.

Answer

The PostgreSQL server is not listening on the expected port.

Answer

The license file has not been placed in the installer directory.

Question 6

A senior engineer needs to debug an Ansible playbook that uses lookups. Which TWO plugins can be used to retrieve data from a file on the control node? (Select exactly two.)

Accepted Answer

file. The `file` lookup plugin reads the content of a file from the control node's filesystem and returns it as a string. This is the standard way to retrieve file data directly from the Ansible control node without transferring the file to the managed host.

Answer

ini

Answer

password

Answer

csvfile

Question 7

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.. 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 8

After rotating the Ansible Vault password in the automation controller, several job templates that use vault credentials start failing with 'decryption failed'. The vault credential has been updated with the new password. What is the most likely cause of the failure?

Accepted Answer

The vault file in the project repository still uses the old vault password and needs to be re-encrypted with the new password.. The vault file itself is encrypted with a specific password. When the vault password is rotated in the automation controller, the vault file stored in the project repository is still encrypted with the old password. The job template uses the vault credential to decrypt the file, but since the credential now holds the new password, decryption fails. The vault file must be re-encrypted with the new password using `ansible-vault rekey` or by decrypting and re-encrypting it.

Answer

The automation controller needs a restart to apply the new vault credential.

Answer

The vault credential is not linked to the job template correctly.

Answer

The vault credential type requires the old password to be stored separately.

Question 9

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 10

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