EX294 Deploy Ansible Automation Platform Practice Question
An administrator is deploying Ansible Automation Platform 2.4 on a RHEL 9 server. They have downloaded the bundled installer tarball and extracted it. Which file must be edited to specify the PostgreSQL admin password, the automation controller admin password, and the receptor connection settings before running the setup script?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming Ansible runtime configuration files such as ansible.cfg supply installer credentials, when the bundled installer actually reads them from its inventory file.
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
✓
inventory
The AAP bundled installer reads all deployment variables, including database and admin passwords plus receptor settings, from the inventory file. Editing that file before executing setup.sh is the supported method. Configuration files like ansible.cfg and legacy paths are not consulted for these values, and altering the installer script itself is unsupported.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
setup.sh
Why it's wrong here
setup.sh is the executable script that launches the installation; it sources variables from the inventory file rather than containing the credentials. Modifying setup.sh is unsupported and would be overwritten on upgrade, and it is not the documented location for pg_password or admin_password.
- ✗
ansible.cfg
Why it's wrong here
ansible.cfg controls Ansible runtime behavior such as inventory location, remote_user, and callback plugins, but it is not where the automation controller's PostgreSQL or admin passwords are declared. The installer does not read these credentials from ansible.cfg, so editing it would not affect the AAP deployment.
- ✓
inventory
Why this is correct
The bundled installer uses an INI-style inventory file where variables such as admin_password, pg_password, and receptor parameters are defined under the [automationcontroller] and [all:vars] sections. Editing this file is the documented step before running setup.sh, making it the correct place to set these deployment-wide credentials and connection details.
- ✗
/etc/tower/conf.d/credentials.py
Why it's wrong here
This path belongs to legacy standalone Tower installations and is not part of the AAP 2.x bundled installer workflow. The installer generates configuration from the inventory file, so placing credentials here would not be consumed during deployment and would likely be overwritten.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Red Hat exam blueprint
This EX294 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Red Hat 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 EX294 exam.