EX294 Manage task execution and roles Practice Question
Which ansible.cfg setting controls the number of parallel forks for task execution?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse Ansible's `forks` with generic terms like `parallel` or `threads`, or with similar settings from other configuration management tools, leading them to select a plausible-sounding but incorrect option.
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
✓
forks
The `forks` setting in `ansible.cfg` (or the `ANSIBLE_FORKS` environment variable) controls the maximum number of parallel processes Ansible uses when executing tasks on remote hosts. By default, this value is 5, meaning Ansible will manage up to 5 hosts concurrently per playbook run. Increasing this value allows Ansible to operate on more hosts simultaneously, improving throughput in larger environments.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
parallel
Why it's wrong here
Ansible has no parallel directive in ansible.cfg; the setting is forks, so this key is ignored and task execution remains serialised at the default. It is tempting because the word describes exactly what the requirement asks for, and a similarly named setting would be the correct choice in tools that expose parallelism through a generic concurrency parameter.
- ✗
max_parallel
Why it's wrong here
The forks setting in the [defaults] section of ansible.cfg controls the number of parallel processes Ansible uses for task execution, and max_parallel is not a recognised configuration directive; Ansible would ignore it and fall back to the default of five forks. A name like max_parallel is tempting because it describes the concept accurately in plain English, but Ansible's actual directive is named forks.
- ✓
forks
Why this is correct
The forks directive in the [defaults] section sets how many hosts Ansible configures concurrently, each fork being a separate worker process. Raising it increases parallelism across the inventory; leaving it at the default of five limits throughput on large host counts.
- ✗
threads
Why it's wrong here
Ansible reads the forks directive in ansible.cfg; threads is not a recognised configuration key and is silently ignored, so parallelism stays at the default. It is tempting because thread counts are the conventional tuning knob in other automation and build tools, and would be the right setting if Ansible worker execution were thread-based rather than process-based.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.