EX294 Manage inventories and credentials Practice Question
Which TWO of the following are valid methods to supply a credential password in Ansible Automation Controller?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse environment variable injection (common in standalone Ansible playbooks) with the controller's credential system, or mistakenly think plain text storage is acceptable because the controller encrypts data at rest, but the controller never allows plain text passwords in credential definitions.
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
✓
Prompt on launch (ask for credential on job run)
Ansible Automation Controller allows credentials to be prompted on launch, meaning the user is asked to enter the password at runtime rather than storing it. This is a secure method for sensitive values that should not be persisted in the controller's database or any configuration file.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Prompt on launch (ask for credential on job run)
Why this is correct
This allows manual entry at runtime.
- ✗
Set the password via an environment variable in the job template
Why it's wrong here
Environment variables are not used to supply credential passwords; they are for injecting into playbooks.
- ✗
Include the password in a file in the project repository
Why it's wrong here
This is insecure and not a supported method.
- ✗
Store the password in plain text in the credential definition
Why it's wrong here
Automation Controller encrypts credential secrets, but does not allow plain text storage.
- ✓
Use a Vault credential to decrypt vault-encoded password
Why this is correct
The vault credential provides the vault password to decrypt the actual password stored in a vault file.
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JA
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.