200-901 Infrastructure and Automation Practice Question
An engineer uses Ansible to push a configuration change to 100 switches. The playbook fails on 5 switches. What is the most efficient way to apply the change only to those 5?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the distinction between host-level filtering (`--limit`) and task-level filtering (`--tags`/`--skip-tags`), leading candidates to confuse `--skip-tags` as a way to skip hosts instead of tasks.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use Ansible's --limit with the retry file
Ansible generates a retry file by default when a playbook fails on some hosts. Using `--limit @<retry-file>` re-runs the playbook only against the failed hosts, avoiding unnecessary execution on the 95 successful switches. This is the most efficient method because it targets only the problematic devices without manual intervention or full re-runs.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use Ansible's --limit with the retry file
Why this is correct
This targets only the failed hosts.
- ✗
Use --skip-tags on successful hosts
Why it's wrong here
Not designed for this purpose.
- ✗
Re-run the playbook on all switches
Why it's wrong here
Wastes time on already successful switches.
- ✗
Manually configure the 5 switches
Why it's wrong here
Not automated and error-prone.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 200-901 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 200-901 exam.