- A
The play pauses for manual intervention
Why wrong: No pause; immediate abort.
- B
The play retries the failed host
Why wrong: No retry logic is configured.
- C
The play aborts immediately
Any failure with max_fail_percentage: 0 aborts the entire play.
- D
The play continues with the remaining 4 hosts
Why wrong: max_fail_percentage: 0 aborts on any failure.
- E
The play marks the host as unreachable and continues
Why wrong: Failure triggers abort, not ignore.
Question 258 of 528
How to Abort an Ansible Rolling Update on Any Failure
This EX294 practice question tests your understanding of coordinate rolling updates. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
An Ansible rolling update playbook has 'serial: 1' and 'max_fail_percentage: 0'. During the update of a 5-host group, the first host fails. What is the outcome?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue:
"first"Why it matters: Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.
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
✓
The play aborts immediately
With 'serial: 1', Ansible updates one host at a time. 'max_fail_percentage: 0' means that if any host fails (0% failure tolerance), the entire playbook run is aborted immediately. When the first host fails, Ansible stops further execution because the failure percentage exceeds the threshold, and no retries or continuation occur.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The play pauses for manual intervention
Why it's wrong here
No pause; immediate abort.
- ✗
The play retries the failed host
Why it's wrong here
No retry logic is configured.
- ✓
The play aborts immediately
Why this is correct
Any failure with max_fail_percentage: 0 aborts the entire play.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "first" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
The play continues with the remaining 4 hosts
Why it's wrong here
max_fail_percentage: 0 aborts on any failure.
- ✗
The play marks the host as unreachable and continues
Why it's wrong here
Failure triggers abort, not ignore.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often assume 'serial: 1' means the play will skip the failed host and continue with the next, but 'max_fail_percentage: 0' overrides that by aborting on any failure.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, Ansible evaluates 'max_fail_percentage' after each serial batch completes. With 'serial: 1', each batch is a single host. If that host fails, the failure count (1) divided by total hosts (5) equals 20%, which exceeds 0%, so Ansible immediately aborts the entire play. This is critical in production to prevent cascading failures; for example, if a critical service update fails on the first node, aborting avoids corrupting the entire cluster.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A practitioner preparing for the EX294 exam encounters this exact type of scenario on the job. The correct answer here is not the most general option — it is the best answer for the specific constraint described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Real exam questions reward reading the full scenario before eliminating options, because the constraint defines which answer fits.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
- →
Coordinate rolling updates — study guide chapter
Learn the concepts, then practise the questions
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Coordinate rolling updates practice questions
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this EX294 question test?
Coordinate rolling updates — This question tests Coordinate rolling updates — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: The play aborts immediately — With 'serial: 1', Ansible updates one host at a time. 'max_fail_percentage: 0' means that if any host fails (0% failure tolerance), the entire playbook run is aborted immediately. When the first host fails, Ansible stops further execution because the failure percentage exceeds the threshold, and no retries or continuation occur.
What should I do if I get this EX294 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "first". Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
3 more ways this is tested on EX294
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company uses Ansible to manage rolling updates of a web server fleet. During a deployment, the playbook fails on one host due to a transient network error, and the rest of the fleet is left in an inconsistent state. Which strategy would best minimize the risk of inconsistency in future rolling updates?
medium- A.Add retries to each task so transient errors are automatically retried.
- B.Use a larger serial batch size to complete the rollout faster.
- C.Set ignore_errors: yes on all tasks to continue despite failures.
- ✓ D.Set max_fail_percentage to 0 in the serial block to abort the rollout on any failure.
Why D: Option D is correct because setting `max_fail_percentage: 0` in a rolling update (using `serial`) tells Ansible to abort the entire playbook run if any single host fails. This prevents the rest of the fleet from being updated, avoiding an inconsistent state where some hosts have the new deployment and others do not. It directly addresses the risk of partial rollouts caused by transient errors.
Variation 2. An Ansible rolling update playbook includes 'max_fail_percentage: 20'. If more than 20% of hosts fail during any batch, what happens?
medium- A.The play pauses and waits for user input
- B.The failed hosts are removed from inventory
- C.The play retries failed hosts
- ✓ D.The play aborts immediately
- E.The play continues with remaining hosts
Why D: Option D is correct because 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.
Variation 3. Which TWO Ansible playbook parameters directly control the number of host failures allowed before aborting a rolling update?
hard- ✓ A.max_fail_percentage
- ✓ B.any_errors_fatal
- C.throttle
- D.serial
- E.ignore_errors
Why A: Option A is correct because `max_fail_percentage` directly specifies the maximum percentage of hosts that can fail during a rolling update before Ansible aborts the entire batch. Option B is correct because `any_errors_fatal` causes the playbook to stop immediately if any host in the current batch fails, effectively limiting failures to zero before aborting the rolling update.
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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