EX294 Manage inventories and credentials Practice Question
An automation engineer manages two data centers with Ansible Automation Platform 2.4. The production inventory file is located at /etc/ansible/prod_inventory.ini and the staging inventory at /etc/ansible/stage_inventory.ini. The engineer wants to run a playbook against both inventories in a single ansible-playbook command, but the host groups must remain separate so that group_vars/prod and group_vars/stage apply correctly. Which command should the engineer use?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that a comma-separated list of files can be passed to a single -i option, when in fact -i must be repeated for each inventory source.
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
✓
ansible-playbook -i /etc/ansible/prod_inventory.ini -i /etc/ansible/stage_inventory.ini site.yml
Ansible supports multiple inventory sources by repeating the -i option. Each source is parsed separately and merged, preserving distinct group names so that group_vars directories are applied based on group membership. Using a single -i with a comma-separated list or additional positional arguments does not achieve the same result and will cause errors.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
ansible-playbook --inventory=/etc/ansible/prod_inventory.ini --inventory=/etc/ansible/stage_inventory.ini site.yml
Why it's wrong here
The long option --inventory does not exist; the correct long form is --inventory-file or --inventory, but in Ansible the accepted long option is --inventory-file (or just -i). Using --inventory causes the command to fail with an unrecognized option. Even if the option were valid, the short -i flag is the standard way to specify multiple sources.
- ✗
ansible-playbook -i /etc/ansible/prod_inventory.ini,/etc/ansible/stage_inventory.ini site.yml
Why it's wrong here
A comma-separated string passed to a single -i is treated as one inventory source, not as two files. Ansible will look for a file literally named 'prod_inventory.ini,/etc/ansible/stage_inventory.ini', which does not exist, and the run will fail with a parsing error. This syntax is used for inline host lists, not for multiple inventory files.
- ✗
ansible-playbook -i /etc/ansible/prod_inventory.ini /etc/ansible/stage_inventory.ini site.yml
Why it's wrong here
The second path is interpreted as the playbook argument, and site.yml becomes an extra positional argument. Ansible will attempt to execute the inventory file as a playbook, resulting in an error. Only one inventory source is provided via -i, so the staging hosts would not be included even if the argument order were corrected.
- ✓
ansible-playbook -i /etc/ansible/prod_inventory.ini -i /etc/ansible/stage_inventory.ini site.yml
Why this is correct
Multiple -i flags are supported by ansible-playbook; each inventory source is parsed independently and merged into a single inventory. Groups with the same name are combined, but distinct groups like prod and stage remain separate, so group_vars directories are applied correctly. This command meets the requirement without altering the inventory files.
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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
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