Mixed Deck — All Ansible Automation Topics Flashcards

A business analyst wants to understand the difference between Ansible ad-hoc commands and playbooks when presenting automation options to leadership. What is the key distinction?

Answer: Ad-hoc commands handle quick one-time tasks; playbooks define repeatable, documented automation workflows

Ad-hoc commands are for immediate, one-off tasks while playbooks provide reusable, version-controlled automation suitable for recurring processes.

How do Ansible Automation professionals maintain digital competency?

Answer: Through ongoing training, practice with new tools, and staying current with technological advances

This is fundamental to Ansible Automation practice. Through ongoing training, practice with new tools, and staying current with technological advances represents the professional standard for technology in the Ansible Automation certification framework.

What keyword in a playbook task definition allows you to run a task only when a specific condition is true?

Answer: when

The 'when' keyword evaluates a Jinja2 expression and only runs the task if it evaluates to true.

What is the importance of data security in Ansible Automation digital applications?

Answer: Protecting sensitive information from unauthorized access, breaches, and loss is essential

This is fundamental to Ansible Automation practice. Protecting sensitive information from unauthorized access, breaches, and loss is essential represents the professional standard for technology in the Ansible Automation certification framework.

Which directive in a play limits execution to a subset of hosts defined in the inventory?

Answer: limit

The `limit` directive (or `--limit` CLI flag) restricts playbook execution to a subset of the matched hosts.

What command creates a new encrypted Ansible Vault file?

Answer: ansible-vault create secrets.yml

'ansible-vault create' opens an editor to create a new file that is encrypted on save.

How do Ansible Automation professionals evaluate research quality?

Answer: By assessing methodology, sample size, peer review status, and relevance to practice

This is fundamental to Ansible Automation practice. By assessing methodology, sample size, peer review status, and relevance to practice represents the professional standard for research in the Ansible Automation certification framework.

What file format is used to define a list of roles and collections to install from Galaxy?

Answer: requirements.yml

requirements.yml lists roles and collections with optional version pins that ansible-galaxy install -r processes.

How has digital technology transformed Ansible Automation practice?

Answer: It has enhanced data collection, analysis, communication, and operational efficiency

This is fundamental to Ansible Automation practice. It has enhanced data collection, analysis, communication, and operational efficiency represents the professional standard for technology in the Ansible Automation certification framework.

A professional Ansible practitioner discovers that a playbook works but produces unnecessary 'changed' results on every run. What should they do?

Answer: Refactor tasks to be truly idempotent, using appropriate modules and conditions

Unnecessary changed results obscure real changes and indicate tasks are not properly idempotent, which should be fixed by refactoring.

What is the purpose of 'Credentials' in Ansible Tower/AWX?

Answer: They securely store secrets (SSH keys, passwords, API tokens) that are injected into jobs at runtime without exposing them to users

Tower Credentials provide a secure credential store where secrets are write-only—users can use credentials without ever seeing the actual values.

A DevOps team wants to communicate automation status to stakeholders who don't have AAP access. Which integration approach is most practical?

Answer: Configure AAP to post job results to a collaboration tool like Slack or Microsoft Teams

AAP's notification integrations push job summaries to collaboration tools, giving stakeholders visibility without requiring direct platform access.

What REST API method would you use to launch a Job Template in Ansible Tower/AWX programmatically?

Answer: POST to /api/v2/job_templates/{id}/launch/

Tower/AWX uses a RESTful API where launching a Job Template requires a POST request to the template's launch endpoint.

What is the role of professional journals in Ansible Automation practice?

Answer: They disseminate current research, best practices, and professional developments

This is fundamental to Ansible Automation practice. They disseminate current research, best practices, and professional developments represents the professional standard for research in the Ansible Automation certification framework.

In a playbook, what does `gather_subset: ['network']` control?

Answer: Limits fact gathering to network-related facts only

`gather_subset` restricts `setup` module output to specific fact categories, reducing overhead.

What is the scope of handler visibility when working with Ansible roles?

Answer: Handlers defined in a role are globally available to all roles in the play, which can cause naming conflicts

Role handlers are globally scoped within a play, meaning any task in any role can notify them, but this also risks naming conflicts between roles.

How do Ansible Automation professionals build trust with clients or stakeholders?

Answer: Through consistent competence, transparency, reliability, and ethical behavior

This is fundamental to Ansible Automation practice. Through consistent competence, transparency, reliability, and ethical behavior represents the professional standard for communication in the Ansible Automation certification framework.

How do you define a handler in an Ansible playbook that restarts the 'httpd' service?

Answer: handlers:\n - name: Restart Apache\n service:\n name: httpd\n state: restarted

Handlers use the same syntax as tasks (name + module + args) but are placed in the 'handlers' section.

In Ansible Tower/AWX, what is the 'Inventory' object and what types does Tower support?

Answer: Inventories define the hosts Tower manages; types include static (manually entered), dynamic (cloud provider sync), and smart (filter-based)

Tower supports static inventories, dynamic inventories that sync from cloud providers or other sources, and smart inventories that filter hosts from existing inventories.

Which order does the Ansible Playbook execute?

Answer: Playbook->Play->Tasks->Task

An Ansible playbook is the highest-level organizational unit. A playbook contains one or more 'plays', each targeting a specific group of hosts. Within each play, there is a list of 'tasks', which are individual actions to be performed. Each 'task' then calls an Ansible module to execute a specific operation on the target host(s).