Transform data with filters and plugins

Consider the task: `- debug: msg={{ item | upper }}` with `loop: "{{ ['a','b'] }}"`. What will be the output?

An administrator needs to combine two dictionaries, `base_config` and `user_config`, where keys in `user_config` should override keys in `base_config`, and nested dictionaries should be merged recursively. Which filter syntax achieves this?

When using the 'uri' module to interact with a REST API in Ansible, which TWO of the following statements about error handling and response parsing are correct?

You have a list `my_list` containing `[0, 1, 2, '', 'hello']`. You want to extract the first truthy element that exists. Which chain achieves this?

A custom filter plugin named `custom_filter` is stored in `./filter_plugins/` relative to the playbook. The playbook runs on a control node where the `ansible.cfg` sets `filter_plugins = /opt/ansible/filters`. Which location will Ansible search for the plugin first?

A team is migrating from static inventory to dynamic inventory using a custom script. The script returns JSON with a group 'webservers' containing hosts. However, the playbook targeting 'webservers' fails with 'no hosts matched'. Which filter or plugin issue is most likely?

An Ansible playbook needs to extract the domain name from a list of email addresses stored in variable `emails`. The domain appears after the '@' symbol. Which filter should be used?

An Ansible role uses a variable "server_list" which is a list of dictionaries. Each dictionary has a key "ports" which should be a list of integers. However, due to inconsistent input, "ports" could be a comma-separated string (e.g., "80,443") or already a list of integers (e.g., [80,443]). The engineer wants to normalize "ports" to always be a list of integers for further processing. Which of the following tasks correctly normalizes the "ports" field?

A playbook needs to generate a default value for a variable if it is undefined or empty. Which filter with a default value should be used?

An Ansible task uses the variable `{{ my_var | default(required=true) }}`. What happens if `my_var` is undefined?

An Ansible playbook needs to convert a list of server names into a comma-separated string for an API call. Which filter should be applied to the list variable 'server_list'?

You are maintaining an Ansible automation for a large Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployment. The playbook configures NTP servers on all managed nodes. It uses a variable 'ntp_servers' defined in group_vars/all.yml as a list: ['0.rhel.pool.ntp.org', '1.rhel.pool.ntp.org', '2.rhel.pool.ntp.org']. The playbook task uses the 'uri' module to test connectivity to each server, but only if the server is reachable. The task currently uses: ``` - name: Test NTP server reachability uri: url: "http://{{ item }}:123" timeout: 5 register: result loop: "{{ ntp_servers }}" until: result.status == 200 retries: 3 delay: 2 ``` However, the playbook fails because the NTP servers do not respond to HTTP on port 123. You need to change the approach to test ICMP reachability using the 'ping' module, but the 'ping' module does not support a custom destination port. You also want to continue using a loop and register the success/failure per server. Which of the following is the best course of action?

Which lookup plugin is used to retrieve values from an AWS SSM Parameter Store?

An Ansible playbook needs to generate a list of IP addresses from a range 192.168.1.10 to 192.168.1.20. Which filter should be used in a Jinja2 template?

Which THREE features are provided by Ansible's filter plugins? (Select exactly three.)

An Ansible role is designed to work on both RHEL 7 and RHEL 8 systems. The role uses the 'redhat_subscription' module. However, on RHEL 8, the module requires a different parameter name. The developer wants to use a conditional parameter based on the OS version. Which filter allows checking the operating system version from 'ansible_facts'?

Which TWO filters are commonly used to transform strings in Ansible? (Select exactly two.)

What is the effect of the `filter_plugins` setting in `ansible.cfg`?

You are managing a fleet of 200 RHEL 8 servers with Ansible Tower. A playbook uses the 'seboolean' module to enable httpd_can_network_connect for a web application. Recently, the playbook has been failing on 10 servers with the error: 'Failed to set SELinux boolean: Unable to communicate with SELinux policy'. Other servers succeed. The playbook runs as the 'ansible' user with passwordless sudo. The failing servers have identical SELinux configuration (enforcing mode, targeted policy) and the same package versions as working servers. You suspect the issue is related to the 'python3-libselinux' package. Which of the following is the most likely cause and the correct fix?

Given a list of dictionaries `users` with keys `name` and `role`, a playbook needs to create a list of names where role is 'admin'. Which expression achieves this?

What is the output of the following playbook task? ```yaml - name: Example task debug: msg: "{{ ['apple', 'banana'] | map('upper') | first }}" ```

An Ansible playbook needs to dynamically include a set of variables based on the environment (dev/staging/prod). The developer wants to use a variable from a lookup plugin that returns a YAML file path. Which lookup plugin is most appropriate for fetching a file’s contents?

Match each SELinux context component to its meaning.

An Ansible playbook needs to extract the first line from a multi-line string variable 'output' and store it in a new variable 'first_line'. Which filter should be used?

Which TWO filters can be used to combine two lists into one? (Select exactly two.)

A junior admin is tasked with creating a playbook that sets a variable 'app_status' to 'starting' if a service file exists, otherwise sets it to 'stopped'. Which filter should be used to test if a file exists from Ansible facts?

A senior automation engineer is optimizing a playbook that processes large amounts of data. The playbook uses the "json_query" filter to filter and extract specific fields from a complex JSON structure returned by an API. The engineer notices that the playbook runs very slowly and consumes a lot of memory. They suspect the json_query filter is inefficient for this use case. The engineer wants to replace json_query with a combination of built-in Ansible filters to improve performance. The JSON structure is as follows: { "servers": [ {"name": "web01", "status": "active", "role": "web"}, {"name": "web02", "status": "active", "role": "web"}, {"name": "db01", "status": "active", "role": "db"} ] } The engineer needs to extract a list of server names where the status is "active" and the role is "web". The current code using json_query is: server_names: "{{ api_result | json_query(\"servers[?status=='active' && role=='web'].name\") }}" Which of the following alternatives uses only Ansible built-in filters (not json_query) and is likely to be more efficient?

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.)

Which TWO filters are commonly used to manipulate JSON data in Ansible? (Select exactly two.)

An administrator must parse an inventory file where hostnames are stored in YAML format under a list 'nodes'. The task needs to extract only hostnames that contain 'prod' in the name, then sort them in reverse order. Which combination of filters in a single Ansible expression achieves this?

An Ansible automation is used to manage firewall rules on a set of Linux servers. The playbook defines a variable "allow_rules" as: allow_rules: - proto: tcp dport: 80 comment: HTTP - proto: tcp dport: 443 comment: HTTPS The engineer needs to use the "iptables" module to create rules. The module expects "chain" to be specified, and the engineer wants to dynamically set the chain based on the port: ports 80 and 443 go to "INPUT" chain, while others go to "FORWARD". The engineer writes a loop: - name: Add iptables rules iptables: chain: "{{ item.dport | map('some_filter') }}" protocol: "{{ item.proto }}" destination_port: "{{ item.dport }}" comment: "{{ item.comment }}" loop: "{{ allow_rules }}" But this fails because the chain field expects a string, not a list. The engineer realizes the map filter returns a list. Which of the following modifications correctly sets the chain based on port number?

Refer to the exhibit. After running the playbook, the 'content' field contains an HTML page. The team wants to extract the text inside the <h1> tags using Ansible filters. Which of the following tasks correctly extracts the content of the <h1> element?

What does the `| quote` filter do in an Ansible task?

An Ansible automation engineer is writing a playbook to configure network devices. They need to extract specific data from a JSON structure returned by an API call. Which two filters from the `ansible.utils` collection can be used to manipulate the data?

The debug output shows 'changed' even when the firewall rule already existed. Which filter issue could cause this?

Refer to the exhibit. What is the output of the debug task?

A large-scale Ansible deployment processes a list of thousands of network devices. Using the `subelements` filter to iterate over interfaces is causing very slow playbook execution. Which approach can significantly improve performance?

Which TWO filters are commonly used for list manipulation in Ansible? (Select exactly two.)

An Ansible playbook retrieves a list of dictionaries from an API. Each dictionary has keys 'name', 'status', and 'zone'. The playbook needs to filter out entries where 'status' is 'inactive' and then extract only the 'name' values. Which THREE of the following combinations of filters and loops would achieve this?

A company manages a large infrastructure of 10,000 servers using Ansible. The Ansible control node runs on a powerful machine with 32 cores and 64GB RAM. Recently, a playbook that processes server facts and generates a compliance report has become extremely slow, taking over 6 hours to complete. The playbook uses several `set_fact` tasks with complex jinja2 filters including `selectattr`, `map`, `json_query`, and `combine`. The inventory is stored in a dynamic inventory script that returns JSON. The team suspects that the filter operations are causing performance bottlenecks, especially when creating large data structures. A junior engineer suggests splitting the playbook into multiple plays and using `delegate_to` to distribute processing across managed nodes. Another suggests using the `ansible.builtin` module instead of filters. The senior architect recommends converting the heavy filter logic into a custom action plugin. What is the most effective approach to significantly reduce the execution time while maintaining functionality?

A company uses Ansible Tower and has defined a custom inventory script. The inventory returns JSON with nested groups. The playbook needs to list all hosts from a specific group 'webservers' that are not in the 'drain' subgroup. Which combination of filters correctly extracts these hosts?

Which TWO filters can be used to conditionally select elements from a list based on a test? (Select exactly two.)

A playbook uses the 'debug' module to print a variable 'myvar' which is a list of dictionaries. The output shows 'VARIABLE IS UNDEFINED' despite the variable being defined earlier. Which filter issue is most likely?

A playbook uses the 'uri' module to query an API and registers the result. The API returns a JSON with a nested field 'data.users[0].name'. Which expression correctly extracts that name?

Which THREE of the following are valid Ansible lookup plugins? (Select exactly three.)

Refer to the exhibit. Assuming the managed node is RHEL 7.9, what is the output of the debug task?

A security team requires that all passwords in an Ansible vault be encrypted with a different key from the host variables. They want to use a custom lookup plugin that fetches secrets from an external API. Which plugin type should be developed?

An Ansible playbook is used to generate configuration files for network devices. The variables are defined in a vars file like: --- interfaces: - name: GigabitEthernet1 ip: 192.168.1.1/24 - name: GigabitEthernet2 ip: 10.0.0.1/24 The playbook uses a Jinja2 template to render the config. The template iterates over interfaces and writes "ip address" lines. However, the designer wants to support an additional field "secondary_ips" which is a list of IP addresses (e.g., ["192.168.2.1/24", "192.168.3.1/24"]). In the template, they want to generate multiple "ip address" lines for each interface, one for the primary IP and one for each secondary IP. The following template fragment is used: {% for iface in interfaces %} interface {{ iface.name }} ip address {{ iface.ip }} {% for sec in iface.secondary_ips|default([]) %} ip address {{ sec }} {% endfor %} {% endfor %} This works when secondary_ips is defined. However, some interfaces have secondary_ips defined as a string (e.g., "192.168.2.1/24") instead of a list. The playbook fails because the inner loop tries to iterate over a string. The engineer wants to normalize the data in the playbook before passing to the template, so that secondary_ips is always a list. Which of the following set_fact tasks will correctly transform the interfaces list to ensure secondary_ips is always a list (even if missing or a string)?

A playbook has a dictionary `config` that maps service names to ports. The team wants to iterate over both keys and values in a task. Which filter should be used to convert the dictionary into a list of key-value pairs?

Refer to the exhibit. After running the playbook, what is the value of 'clean_list'?

A DevOps team uses Ansible to manage a large fleet of web servers. They have a custom filter plugin, `custom_encrypt`, stored in `/opt/ansible/filter_plugins/custom_encrypt.py`. This filter works correctly in Ansible 2.9. After upgrading the control node to Ansible 2.14 (ansible-core 2.14), the filter is no longer found. The `ansible.cfg` includes `filter_plugins = /opt/ansible/filter_plugins` and the file permissions are 644. The team verified the Python file is valid and contains the correct `FilterModule` class with a `filters()` method. Which of the following is the most likely cause of the issue?

What is the most likely cause of this error?

A playbook needs to set a fact 'total_memory' by summing the 'memory_mb' values from a list of servers. Which filter should be used?

Given `{{ ['1', '2', '3'] | map('int') | list }}`, what is the result?

The playbook uses the community.general.parse_csv filter. Assuming the collection is installed, what is the type and structure of the 'parsed' variable?

Which filter converts a string like 'hello' into a list of characters ['h','e','l','l','o']?

A playbook uses the 'debug' module to print a variable 'my_var' but the output is 'VARIABLE IS UNDEFINED'. The variable is defined in group_vars/all.yml. Which filter could be used to provide a default value and avoid this error?

Which THREE plugins are used for data transformation in Ansible?

You have two dictionaries: `dict1: {a: 1, b: 2}` and `dict2: {b: 3, c: 4}`. You want a new dict that combines both, with `dict2` values taking precedence for overlapping keys. Which filter chain achieves this?

A developer wrote a custom filter plugin in a Python file `my_filters.py` and placed it in the directory `./filter_plugins/`. The playbook fails with 'ERROR! no filter named 'my_custom_filter''. The playbook is located in `/home/user/project/playbook.yml`. The `ansible.cfg` file in the same directory does not set `filter_plugins`. Which is the most likely cause?

Which THREE are valid uses of lookup plugins in Ansible? (Select exactly three.)

You run a playbook with `msg: "{{ 'mypassword' | password_hash('sha512') }}"`. What is the output?

Drag and drop the steps to set up a cron job that runs a script every day at 2 AM in the correct order.

Your organization manages a fleet of 500 web servers running RHEL 8. Each server has a custom fact file /etc/ansible/facts.d/web.fact containing: [web] docroot=/var/www/html port=80 admin=admin@example.com You have a playbook that needs to configure the firewall to allow traffic on the port defined in the custom fact for each server. The playbook uses the 'ansible_local' variable to access these facts. However, some servers have the custom fact file missing or malformed. The task to open the firewall port fails on those servers with 'VARIABLE IS UNDEFINED'. You need to implement a solution that handles missing custom facts gracefully, setting a default port of 8080 if the fact is not defined, and still log a warning. Which approach should you take?

An Ansible playbook needs to parse a JSON output from a REST API and extract the value of a nested key "data.settings.timeout". The output is stored in the variable "api_result". Which filter should be used to safely extract the value, with a default of 30 if the key is missing or the JSON is malformed?

An administrator is writing a playbook to manage multiple web servers. The playbook uses a variable "server_facts" which is a list of dictionaries with keys "hostname", "ip", and "status". The administrator needs to extract a list of all hostnames where status is "online". The administrator writes: - name: Get online hosts set_fact: online_hosts: "{{ server_facts | selectattr('status', '==', 'online') | map(attribute='hostname') | list }}" However, when running the playbook, the "selectattr" filter fails with an error: "Invalid data passed to filter". The administrator checks the structure of "server_facts" and confirms it is a list of dicts with the expected keys. What is the most likely cause of the error?

An Ansible playbook uses the "community.general" collection to manage firewall rules. The engineer wants to use a lookup plugin to fetch the current IPv4 address of a host to include in a dynamic inventory script. Which TWO of the following options correctly describe the usage of lookup plugins in Ansible?

A playbook fails with an error when evaluating `{{ mylist | select('match') }}`. What is the most likely cause?

An Ansible playbook retrieves a JSON response from an API and stores it in the variable `api_response`. The JSON structure is a list of objects, each with keys `name`, `status`, and `id`. The team needs to create a list of names for objects where status is 'active'. Which filter should be used?

A playbook uses `{{ my_var | default('fallback') }}`. What is the effect?