Red Hat Certified Specialist in Ansible (EX407) Practice Exam

The Red Hat Certified Ansible Specialist Exam (EX407) is a practical test that covers a series of objectives pertaining to the operational use of Ansible. This Learning Activity is meant to provide students with a sample test to assist them in preparing for the official Red Hat exam. The activity covers key objectives tested in the certification exam and is designed to run for around the same time as the official certification exam. Please note this activity may take up to 4 hours to accomplish as with the official exam.

*This course is not approved or sponsored by Red Hat.*

Learning Objectives

Successfully complete this lab by achieving the following learning objectives:

Configure Ansible to use the inventory stored in */etc/ansible/exam_inv/* by default. (perform on control1)

Edit /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg and add the following line:
inventory = /etc/ansible/exam_inv/

Note the inventory contained in */etc/ansible/exam_inv/inv.py* does not work correctly. Diagnose and fix the issue. (perform on control1) NOTE: you should be able to fix the issues without modifying the contents of the file!

sudo chmod u+x /etc/ansible/exam_inv/inv.py

Create an Ansible host group in the file */etc/ansible/exam_inv/group* called *testservers* that only contains *node2*. (perform on control1)

Create a file named /etc/ansible/exam_inv/group with the following content:

[testservers]
node2

Increase the default timeout to 60 seconds by default for Ansible. (perform on control1)

Edit the Ansible configuration file:

vim /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg

Add the following line:

timeout = 60

Configure Ansible to run 10 threads by default. (perform on control1)

Edit /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg and add the following line:

forks  = 10

Edit the file */home/ansible/exam/ad-hoc.sh* and fix the syntax errors within the file. Note: use the comments as hints

The contents of ad-hoc.sh should be as follows:

!/bin/sh

## This script should run without error completing the documented tasks before completing the exam.

# Create the user john on labservers
ansible labservers -b -m user -a "name=john"

# Copy the file demo to /home/ansible/demo on node1
ansible node1 -m copy -a "src=/home/ansible/files/demo dest=/home/ansible/demo"

# Install elinks on labservers
ansible labservers -b -m yum -a "name=elinks state=latest"

Create an encrypted vault file containing the text “secret: bluebird” and stored it in the file */home/ansible/exam/secure* on the ansible control node *control1*. Make a note of the password used so you may access the file contents later.

Create the a simple text filled called /home/ansible/exam/secure with the following contents:
```
secret: bluebird
```
Run ansible-vault encrypt /home/ansible/exam/secure providing a password you keep noted.

Create and run a playbook in */home/ansible/exam/security.yml* on *control1* that uses the previously created vault */home/ansible/exam/secure*. The playbook will print the value of “secret” in a file called */mnt/classified* on localhost *control1*.

Create a playbook with the following contents:

--- 
- hosts: localhost
  vars_files:
    - /home/ansible/exam/secure
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: create classified directory
      file:
        state: touch
        name: /mnt/classified
    - name: insert secret text into file
      lineinfile:
        path: /mnt/classified
        line: "{{ secret }}

Edit the shell script in */home/ansible/exam/ad-hoc-2.sh* on the Ansible control node *control1* and add Ansible `ad-hoc` commands that will complete the tasks described in the file contents.

Edit the file /home/ansible/exam/ad-hoc-2.sh to contain the following:

!/bin/sh

## Write Ansible ad-hoc commands below

# Create new file called /opt/test.sh
# Set owner of the file to ansible
# Set mode to 0755
ansible localhost -b -m file -a 'state=touch name=/opt/test.sh mode=0755 owner=ansible'

# Add content to the file:
# #!/bin/sh
# echo hi there

ansible -b localhost -m lineinfile -a 'line="#!/bin/shnecho hi there" path=/opt/test.sh'

Create a playbook in */home/ansible/exam/fact.yml* on *control1* that prints the following information “specific to each host” in */var/www/html/facts.htm* for each of the servers in the web group: :

Note: this solution assumes httpd is installed (this will be done in a later task).
The file output will resemble the following:

CentOS: 10.0.1.221 02:7c:ef:0a:2b:4c

Create a file called /home/ansible/exam/facts.yml and add the following contents to it:

---
- hosts: web
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: create file
      file:
        state: touch
        name: /var/www/html/facts.htm
    - name: add line to file containing facts
      lineinfile:
        path: /var/www/html/facts.htm
        line: "{{ ansible_distribution }}: {{ ansible_default_ipv4['address'] }} {{ ansible_default_ipv4['macaddress'] }} "

Create a role in */home/ansible/exam/roles/httpdServer* on *control1* that installs the package *httpd*, starts the service, and enables the service on boot. The role should have a handler called “restart httpd” that restarts the httpd service as well.

Run ansible-galaxy init /home/ansible/exam/roles/httpdServer to create a frame for the role.

Edit /home/ansible/exam/roles/httpdServer/tasks/main.yml to contain the following:

---
# tasks file for /home/ansible/exam/roles/httpdServer

- yum:
    state: latest
    name: httpd

- service:
    name: httpd
    state: started
    enabled: yes

Edit /home/ansible/exam/roles/httpdServer/handlers/main.yml to contain the following:

---
# handlers file for /home/ansible/exam/roles/httpdServer

- name: restart httpd
  service:
    name: httpd
    state: restarted
  listen: restart httpd

Create a playbook in */home/ansible/exam/webserver.yml* on *control1* that applies the *httpdServer* role to the *web* group. It should also complete the task noted in the description (click the “?” icon next to the task).

Deploy a file to /var/www/html/index.html containing the hostname of the host where it is deployed.
Change LogLevel to error in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf.
Restart httpd only on httpd.conf file change.

Solution:

Create a file called /home/ansible/exam/webserver.yml containing the following:

    ---
    - hosts: web
      become: yes
      roles:
        - /home/ansible/exam/roles/httpdServer
      tasks:
        - name: create index file with hostname
          copy:
            content: "{{ ansible_hostname }}"
            dest: /var/www/html/index.html
        - name: update log level
          replace:
            path: /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
            regexp: "LogLevel.*$"
            replace: "LogLevel error"
          notify: "restart httpd"

Create a playbook in /home/ansible/exam/install_role.yml that installs a role of your choosing using ansible-galaxy to /home/ansible/exam/roles/ on the ansible control host

Create a file called /home/ansible/exam/install_role.yml containing similar content (actual role used my vary):

---
- hosts: localhost
  tasks:
    - name: install role
      shell: "ansible-galaxy -p /home/ansible/exam/roles/ install MindPointGroup.RHEL7-STIG"

View the file *http://files.example.com/user_list.yml* from *control1*. Create a playbook in */home/ansible/exam/users.yml* that follows the instructions provided in the file.

Create the file /home/ansible/exam/users.yml containing the following:

---
- hosts: localhost
  tasks:
  - name: download user_list.yml
    get_url:
      url: http://files.example.com/user_list.yml
      dest: /home/ansible/files/user_list.yml

- hosts: node1
  become: yes
  vars_files:
    - /home/ansible/files/user_list.yml
  tasks:
  - name: create groups from file
    group: 
      name: "{{ item }}"
    with_items:
      - "{{ user_groups }}"
  - name: create users for each group in staff
    user:
      name: "{{ item }}"
      group: staff
    with_items:
      - "{{ staff }}"
  - name: create users for each group in students
    user:
      name: "{{ item }}"
      group: students
    with_items:
      - "{{ students }}"
  - name: create users for each group in faculty
    user:
      name: "{{ item }}"
      group: faculty
    with_items:
      - "{{ faculty }}"

Create a playbook in */home/ansible/exam/unarchive.yml* that downloads *http://files.example.com/files.tgz* and unarchives the tarball into */mnt/* on the Ansible control node.

Create a file called /home/ansible/exam/unarchive.yml that contains the following text:

---
- hosts: localhost
  become: yes
  tasks:
  - name: download files.tgz
    get_url:
      url: http://files.example.com/files.tgz
      dest: /mnt/files.tgz
  - name: unarchive files.tgz
    unarchive:
      src: /mnt/files.tgz
      dest: /mnt/

Create a playbook in */home/ansible/exam/make_secret.yml* that tries to create a file in */mnt/secret* on *control1* using a block group: don’t create a directory. If the task fails, the message “Unable to create secret file” should be output in STDOUT.

Create a file called /home/ansible/exam/make_secret.yml containing the following text:

---
- hosts: localhost
  become: yes
  tasks:
  - name: create file
    block:
      - file:
          name: /mnt/secret/newfile
          state: touch
    rescue:
      - name: output error message
        debug:
          msg: "Unable to create secret file"

Create a playbook in */home/ansible/exam/break.yml* on *control1* that tries to install a package called *fluffy* on *node2*. The playbook continues running if the package install fails and will output the message “Attempted fluffy install!” in STDOUT.

Create a file called /home/ansible/exam/break.yml that contains the following text:

---
- hosts: node2
  become: yes
  ignore_errors: yes
  tasks:
  - name: install fluffy
    yum:
      name: fluffy
      state: latest
  - debug:
      msg: "Attempted fluffy install!"

Red Hat Certified Specialist in Ansible (EX407) Practice Exam

About this Hands-on Lab

Learning Objectives

!/bin/sh

!/bin/sh

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