35+ Ansible Interview Questions

35+ Ansible Interview Questions

Ansible is a widely-used open-source automation tool that simplifies complex IT tasks by automating configuration management, application deployment, and orchestration. If you’re preparing for an interview then Ansible Interview Questions would be a Great Help to you, it’s crucial to have a solid understanding of the tool’s basics and advanced features.

This Article will cover some of the most common Ansible interview questions and provide in-depth answers to help you prepare for your interview. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced Ansible user, this post will provide you with valuable insights into the tool’s capabilities and how it can be used to automate various IT processes.

Q.1 What is Ansible, and how does it work?

Ansible, an open-source configuration management and automation tool, helps IT teams automate repetitive activities, manage infrastructure, and deploy applications. Developers, system administrators, and DevOps engineers use it.

Ansible describes the desired system or application state in a declarative language. Users only need to indicate how they want the system to look, and Ansible will handle the rest.

Ansible runs tasks on distant systems using SSH or WinRM. The Ansible control node coordinates tasks across numerous machines in a client-server architecture.

Ansible playbooks coordinate tasks to achieve a purpose. Playbooks can manage configuration, deploy applications, and orchestrate infrastructure.

Ansible streamlines IT task automation, making teams more productive and decreasing errors and downtime.

Q.2 What are the advantages of using Ansible?

There are several advantages to using Ansible for automation and configuration management:

  1. Easy to use: Ansible uses a simple and easy-to-understand declarative language, making it accessible to both developers and system administrators.
  2. Agentless: Ansible does not require any software to be installed on the remote servers, reducing the overhead of managing multiple agents.
  3. Scalable: Ansible can manage a large number of servers simultaneously, making it easy to automate repetitive tasks across entire infrastructures.
  4. Flexible: Ansible can be used to automate a wide range of tasks, from basic system administration to complex application deployment and orchestration.
  5. Community-driven: Ansible has a large and active community of developers and users who contribute to its development, documentation, and support.
  6. Open-source: Ansible is an open-source tool, meaning that it is free to use and can be customized and extended to meet specific needs.
  7. Secure: Ansible uses SSH and WinRM protocols for communication with remote servers, ensuring that data is encrypted and secure.

Q.3 Can you explain the difference between Ansible and other configuration management tools?

Despite many commonalities, configuration management tools differ. Ansible differs from other popular configuration management solutions in these ways:

  • Agentless vs. Agent-based: Ansible manages remote servers without installing software. Puppet, Chef, and others require server agents.
  • Declarative vs. Imperative: Ansible employs declarative configuration management, where users express the intended system state. Other solutions like SaltStack and PowerShell DSC use an imperative approach, where users define the steps to attain the desired state.
  • YAML vs. DSL: Ansible uses YAML, a simple, human-readable syntax. Puppet and Chef’s DSLs require additional experience and training.
  • Ansible is straightforward to use and has a low learning curve, making it accessible to developers and system administrators of all levels. Some tools demand greater technical knowledge or training.
  • Speed: Ansible manages massive infrastructures quickly. Large infrastructures may cause other tools to lag.

Q.4 How do you install Ansible?

Ansible can be installed on a variety of operating systems, including Linux, macOS, and Windows. Here are the general steps for installing Ansible:

  1. Install Python: Ansible requires Python 3 to be installed on the control node. If you don’t have Python 3 installed, you can download it from the official website or install it using your operating system’s package manager.
  2. Install Ansible: Once you have Python 3 installed, you can install Ansible using the package manager of your operating system. For example, on Ubuntu or Debian, you can use the following command to install Ansible: 
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install ansible

On CentOS or RHEL, you can use the following command:

$ sudo yum install ansible

If you’re using macOS, you can install Ansible using Homebrew:

$ brew install ansible

3. Verify the installation: Once Ansible is installed, you can verify the installation by running the following command:

$ ansible --version

Q.5 How do you manage inventory in Ansible?

Inventory is a key component of Ansible, as it defines the servers and devices that Ansible will manage. Here are the general steps for managing inventory in Ansible:

  1. Create an inventory file: Ansible utilises an inventory file to define the servers and devices it manages. Web servers, database servers, and other hosts are listed in the inventory file, which is usually a text file. The inventory file defaults to /etc/ansible/hosts, but you can change it in the ansible.cfg configuration file.
  2. Specify the hosts: The inventory file lists the hosts Ansible will manage and their IP addresses or domain names. To define a host with IP address 192.168.1.100, add the following line to the inventory file
192.168.1.100

You can also define hosts using domain names or aliases, as well as using variables to specify additional information about the hosts.

3. Group hosts: In the inventory file, assign hosts to categories. Add the following lines to the inventory file to group hosts into a “web servers” category:

[web_servers]
192.168.1.100
192.168.1.101

This creates a group called “web_servers” and adds the two hosts with the specified IP addresses to the group.

4. Define variables: The inventory file lets you define variables for each host or set of hosts. Add the following line to the inventory file to define a variable called “ansible user” for the “web servers” group:

[web_servers]
192.168.1.100 ansible_user=ubuntu
192.168.1.101 ansible_user=ec2-user

This sets the “ansible_user” variable to “ubuntu” for the host with the IP address of 192.168.1.100 and sets it to “ec2-user” for the host with the IP address of 192.168.1.101.

Q.6 What is a playbook, and how do you create one in Ansible?

Ansible playbooks define tasks to be done on one or more hosts. YAML playbooks automate configuration management, application deployment, and infrastructure orchestration.

Here are the general steps for creating a playbook in Ansible:

  1. Create a YAML file: Playbooks are written in YAML format, so the first step is to create a new file with a .yml extension. You can create the file using a text editor, such as Vim or Emacs.
  2. Hosts: Define the task hosts in the playbook file. The hosts keyword followed by the host or group name does this. e.g. 
---
- hosts: web_servers
  tasks:
  - name: Install Apache
    apt:
      name: apache2
      state: present

This playbook specifies that the tasks should be executed on the hosts in the “web_servers” group.

3. Tasks: You can specify host tasks in the playbook file. Tasks are defined using the tasks keyword and a list of tasks. Each task is specified by a module, a pre-built piece of code that performs a certain operation. Example:

---
- hosts: web_servers
  tasks:
  - name: Install Apache
    apt:
      name: apache2
      state: present
  - name: Start Apache
    service:
      name: apache2
      state: started

This playbook defines two tasks: installing the Apache package using the apt module, and starting the Apache service using the service module.

4. Save the file: Once you have defined the hosts and tasks in the playbook file, you can save the file to a location on the control node.

5. Run the playbook: To execute the tasks defined in the playbook, you can use the ansible-playbook command followed by the name of the playbook file. For example:

$ ansible-playbook webserver-playbook.yml

This will execute the tasks defined in the webserver-playbook.yml file on the hosts specified in the playbook.

Q.7 What is a role in Ansible, and how do you create one?

Ansible roles group tasks, files, templates, and variables. Roles modularize automation, allowing code reuse across playbooks and projects.

Here are the general steps for creating a role in Ansible:

  1. Create a role directory structure: Ansible roles contain tasks, files, templates, and variables in a specified directory structure. Use the ansible-galaxy command to establish a skeletal role structure or manually create the directory structure. The directory structure should look like this. 
my_role/
├── tasks/
│   └── main.yml
├── files/
├── templates/
├── vars/
├── defaults/
├── meta/
│   └── main.yml
└── README.md

2. Define the tasks: In the tasks/main.yml file, you can define the tasks that the role should perform. Tasks are defined using modules, which are pre-built pieces of code that perform specific actions. For example:

---
# tasks file for my_role
- name: Install package
  apt:
    name: my_package
    state: present

This task installs the my_package package using the apt module.

3. Define the variables: In the vars/main.yml file, you can define variables that are used by the role. For example:

---
# vars file for my_role
my_variable: "my_value"

This variable can then be used in the tasks defined in the tasks/main.yml file.

4. Define the meta information: In the meta/main.yml file, you can define metadata for the role, such as the role name, description, author, and dependencies. For example:

---
# meta file for my_role
galaxy_info:
  author: My Name
  description: My role description
  license: MIT
  min_ansible_version: 2.10
  platforms:
    - name: Ubuntu
      versions:
        - xenial
  galaxy_tags:
    - my_tag
dependencies:
  - role: my_dependency

5. Save the role: Once you have defined the tasks, variables, and metadata for the role, you can save the role directory to a location on the control node.

6. Use the role: To use the role in a playbook, you can include it using the roles keyword, followed by the name of the role. For example:

---
- hosts: web_servers
  roles:
    - my_role

This playbook includes the my_role role, which will execute the tasks defined in the tasks/main.yml file on the hosts specified in the playbook.

Q.8 What is Ansible Galaxy, and how do you use it?

Ansible Galaxy provides roles, collections, and modules to facilitate infrastructure automation. Ansible Galaxy makes building and maintaining automation workflows easier by centralising content sharing and download.

Here are the general steps for using Ansible Galaxy:

  1. Install the ansible-galaxy command: The ansible-galaxy command is used to interact with Ansible Galaxy from the command line. You can install it using the following command:
$ pip install ansible-galaxy

2. Search for a role: You can search for a role on Ansible Galaxy using the ansible-galaxy search command, followed by the name of the role. For example:

$ ansible-galaxy search nginx

This will display a list of roles related to the search term “nginx”.

3. Download a role: You can download a role from Ansible Galaxy using the ansible-galaxy install command, followed by the name of the role. For example:

$ ansible-galaxy install geerlingguy.nginx

This will download the geerlingguy.nginx role to your local machine.

4. Use a role in a playbook: To use a role in a playbook, you can include it using the roles keyword, followed by the name of the role. For example:

---
- hosts: web_servers
  roles:
    - geerlingguy.nginx

This playbook includes the geerlingguy.nginx role, which will execute the tasks defined in the role on the hosts specified in the playbook.

  1. Create and share a role: You can create and share a role on Ansible Galaxy by creating a directory structure for the role, including the tasks, files, templates, and variables for the role, and then publishing it to Ansible Galaxy using the ansible-galaxy command.

Q.9 How do you secure Ansible communications?

To safeguard sensitive data, prevent illegal access, and maintain data integrity, Ansible communications must be secured. Secure Ansible communication:

  • Utilize SSH for communication: Ansible’s control node and managed nodes communicate over SSH, a secure and encrypted route.
  • Authenticate managed nodes with SSH keys: Ansible can utilise SSH keys instead of passwords. SSH keys are harder to obtain than passwords, making this a safer authentication mechanism.
  • Encrypt sensitive variables with ansible-vault: This prevents inventory or playbook files from storing sensitive data like passwords or API keys.
  • Utilize HTTPS to communicate with external resources: Ansible playbooks that interface with APIs or web services should use HTTPS.
  • Only approved IP addresses or networks can connect to the control node and managed nodes using firewalls.
  • Utilize Ansible Tower or AWX: These enterprise automation solutions offer multi-factor authentication, RBAC, and audit trails.

Q.10 Can you give an example of how you have used Ansible in a previous project?

We had a vast infrastructure with many servers running different apps in a previous project. We had to automate the deployment and configuration of these applications across servers while guaranteeing consistency and security.

We deployed and configured applications with Ansible. Playbooks described the tasks needed to deploy and configure each application, while roles organised and packaged the code.

We utilised Ansible to manage servers, including user management, software upgrades, and firewall setup.

We reduced infrastructure management time and effort by adopting Ansible, which also ensured server consistency and security. Ansible’s versatility enables us to modify our automation workflows and reuse code across projects.

Q.11 How do you handle errors in Ansible?

Handling failures with Ansible is crucial to executing tasks successfully and identifying and fixing issues promptly. Ansible error management:

Use the ignore errors flag to ignore errors and continue tasks. This can be useful when you wish to execute a series of activities regardless of earlier failures. This signal can hide issues that need to be addressed, so use it with caution.

Use the failed when statement: You can use the failed when statement to establish a condition that indicates a task failed. This statement can be used to construct a condition that fails a task if a command’s output does not fulfil specified criteria.

Utilize the block and rescue keywords: Use the block keyword to group tasks and the rescue keyword to describe a series of tasks to run if any of the tasks in the block fail. This is useful if you want to clean up after an error.

Use the notify keyword to describe a task that should be run if a preceding task fails. If an error occurs, you may utilise this to run a series of remediation operations.

Use the debug module to display debugging information on the console. This can help you diagnose faults and troubleshoot.

Q.12 How do you debug Ansible playbooks?

Debugging Ansible playbooks is an important skill for troubleshooting issues and identifying errors in automation workflows. Here are some ways to debug Ansible playbooks:

  1. Use the vvv flag: You can use the vvv flag with the ansible-playbook command to increase the verbosity of output. This can be useful for identifying issues and understanding what is happening during playbook execution.
  2. Use the debug module: You can use the debug module to print variables and other information to the console. This can be useful for troubleshooting issues and understanding the state of the system during playbook execution.
  3. Use the register keyword: You can use the register keyword to store the output of a task in a variable. This can be useful for debugging issues and understanding the output of tasks during playbook execution.
  4. Use the ansible-playbook --check option: You can use the -check option with the ansible-playbook command to perform a dry run of the playbook, without actually executing any tasks. This can be useful for identifying potential issues and understanding the impact of the playbook on the system.
  5. Use the -step option: You can use the -step option with the ansible-playbook command to execute tasks one at a time, prompting you for confirmation before executing each task. This can be useful for identifying issues and ensuring that tasks are executed correctly.
  6. Use the -start-at-task option: You can use the -start-at-task option with the ansible-playbook command to start execution at a specific task. This can be useful for identifying issues and isolating the execution of a specific task.

Q.13 How do you handle secrets and sensitive data in Ansible?

Secrets and sensitive data must be handled in Ansible to keep them secure. Ansible may handle secrets and sensitive data in several ways:

Employ encrypted variables: Ansible’s ansible-vault command encrypts sensitive variables. This prevents passwords and API keys from being stored in plain text in inventory or playbook files. Encrypted variables can be decrypted during playbook execution with the correct password.

To prompt for the vault password during playbook execution, use the —ask-vault-pass option with the ansible-playbook command. This prevents sensitive data from being stored in plain text and only decrypted when needed.

Employ external key management systems to store secrets and sensitive data, such as HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager. These systems can be interacted with via Ansible modules to securely retrieve and store sensitive data during playbook execution.

Utilize Ansible Tower or AWX: Enterprise automation solutions like Ansible Tower and AWX offer multi-factor authentication, RBAC, and audit trails. They securely store and manage sensitive data like passwords and API credentials.

Utilize environment variables: You can save sensitive information in environment variables and transmit it to tasks during playbook execution. It’s crucial to keep environment variables out of plain text and only utilise them when needed.

Q.14 Can you explain how Ansible integrates with Docker and Kubernetes?

Yes, Ansible can integrate with both Docker and Kubernetes to automate the deployment and management of container-based applications. Here’s how Ansible integrates with Docker and Kubernetes:

  1. Ansible and Docker: Ansible can be used to automate the deployment and management of Docker containers on a host or a group of hosts. Ansible provides modules, such as docker_container and docker_image, to interact with Docker and perform tasks such as building images, running containers, and managing networks and volumes. Ansible can also be used to automate the configuration of Docker Swarm, which is Docker’s native clustering and orchestration solution. Ansible provides modules, such as docker_swarm, to manage the creation and management of Docker Swarm clusters, including nodes, services, and networks.
  2. Ansible and Kubernetes: Ansible can be used to automate the deployment and management of Kubernetes clusters and applications. Ansible provides modules, such as k8s and k8s_scale, to interact with Kubernetes and perform tasks such as creating and managing pods, services, and deployments. Ansible can also be used to automate the configuration of Kubernetes clusters, including node configuration, networking, and security. Ansible provides modules, such as k8s_auth, to manage authentication and authorization in Kubernetes, and k8s_info to gather information about Kubernetes clusters. Additionally, Ansible provides a Kubernetes module called k8s_raw, which allows you to run any Kubernetes API command using the kubectl command. This module can be used to perform advanced configuration and management tasks in Kubernetes that are not covered by other Ansible Kubernetes modules.

Q.15 How do you scale Ansible to manage large infrastructures?

To provide effective, dependable, and scalable automation operations, scaling Ansible for big infrastructures involves careful planning and implementation. Scaling Ansible for large infrastructures:

Employ dynamic inventory to automatically discover and manage hosts by hostname, IP address, or metadata. You may simply add or remove hosts from your infrastructure without updating your inventory file.

Utilize roles and playbooks to organise and package automation code for reuse across projects. This reduces code duplication and makes automating tasks easier.

Task batching: Execute tasks on numerous hosts at once to speed up huge infrastructures. Task batching might strain your network and infrastructure, so utilise it cautiously.

Parallelism: Execute tasks on several hosts simultaneously to reduce task execution time across big infrastructures. Forks configures parallelism in Ansible.

Utilize Ansible Tower or AWX: These enterprise-level automation solutions offer job scheduling, task caching, and job slicing for scalability. These features let you manage Ansible automation and grow automation workflows across huge infrastructures.

Reduce verbosity and optimise modules to increase automation process performance and scalability.

Q.16 What is Ansible Tower, and how does it differ from Ansible Core?

Ansible Tower, an enterprise-level automation platform, adds functionalities to Ansible Core. Ansible Tower adds a graphical user interface, role-based access control, job scheduling, inventory management, and auditing to Ansible Core. Key differences between Ansible Tower and Core:

Ansible Tower’s web-based GUI lets you control and automate your infrastructure using point-and-click. This simplifies infrastructure management and automation for non-technical users.

  • Role-based access control: Ansible Tower lets you control automation process access based on user roles and permissions. This restricts access to critical data and automated procedures.
  • Work scheduling: Ansible Tower lets you schedule automation workflows. This ensures that automation workflows run automatically.
  • Inventory management: Ansible Tower lets you manage hosts, groups, and variables in your infrastructure inventory. This simplifies managing and automating complicated infrastructures.
  • Auditing: Ansible Tower audits automation workflows and infrastructure modifications. This helps track changes, solve difficulties, and comply with security and regulatory standards.

Q.17 How do you automate application deployments with Ansible?

Ansible playbooks and modules and roles automate application deployments. Ansible application deployment steps:

App deployment workflow: Install dependencies, configure the environment, and deploy your application code.

Define an inventory of hosts for application deployment. Static or dynamic inventory files can do this.

Build a playbook to deploy and configure your application. Package installation, environment configuration, file copying, and script execution are examples.

Roles arrange playbooks into reusable and shareable code blocks. Roles coordinate similar responsibilities across projects and settings.

Install packages and configure services using Ansible modules. Ansible has many modules for automating various processes.

Test your playbook before deploying it to production.

After testing your playbook, execute it in production to automate deployment. Ansible Tower, AWX, or ansible-playbook can achieve this.

Q.18 Can you explain how to use Ansible to manage AWS resources?

Ansible can automate AWS infrastructure provisioning, configuration, and management. Ansible manages AWS resources:

Create an IAM user with AWS resource management permissions to set up your AWS setup. Ansible needs your Amazon credentials to interface with your AWS environment.

Install Ansible plugins to communicate with AWS resources. AWS interaction requires boto and boto3.

Build an inventory of Amazon hosts for infrastructure management. A dynamic inventory script can retrieve Amazon resource information from the AWS API.

Build a playbook: Define Amazon resource management tasks in a playbook. Launching EC2 instances, RDS instances, and S3 buckets are examples.

Launch EC2 instances and manage RDS instances with Ansible modules. Ansible’s AWS module library can automate many processes.

Utilize variables to setup AWS resources like EC2 instance type and region.

Test your playbook before deploying it to production.

After testing your playbook, execute it in production to automate deployment. Ansible Tower, AWX, or ansible-playbook can achieve this.

Q.19 What is the difference between idempotence and idempotency in Ansible?

Idempotence in Ansible means a job can always deliver the same output. Though often used interchangeably, the terms have significantly different meanings:

Idempotence: A task is idempotent if it may be repeated but yields the same result. Ansible tasks should only install packages if they are not already installed. If the package is already installed, the job should not install it again.

Idempotency: A system or process with idempotency remains in the same state after repeated executions. Ansible playbooks are idempotent if they always produce the same result. If the system is in the desired condition, repeating an Ansible playbook should not change it.

Q.20 How do you manage multiple environments (dev, test, prod) with Ansible?

Ansible can manage various environments like dev, test, and prod by building inventory files, variable files, and playbooks for each environment and using conditional logic and roles. Manage numerous environments with Ansible:

File inventory separately: Develop, test, and production inventory files. Each environment’s hosts and groups should be listed in these inventory files.

File variables separately: For each environment, create a variable file like dev vars.yml. Database credentials and environment-specific configuration settings should be defined in these variable files.

Dev, test, and prod playbooks: Build playbooks for each environment. Each environment’s inventory and variable files should be used in these playbooks to specify its management duties.

Conditional logic: Utilize Ansible’s conditional logic to execute tasks only on environment-specific hosts or groups. For instance, you may use the when keyword to restrict a job to hosts in the dev group.

Roles: Organize and bundle your automation code to reuse and distribute it across projects and environments. Roles let you personalise tasks for each environment using variable files and conditional logic while managing similar activities across many environments.

Use Ansible Vault to encrypt environment-specific passwords and API keys. Ansible Vault lets you store sensitive data securely and distribute playbooks across environments.

Q.21 How do you handle stateful applications in Ansible, such as databases?

To avoid data loss or corruption, Ansible processes for stateful applications like databases must be carefully planned and executed. Ansible supports stateful applications in these ways:

Before automating, backup and restore your data. This helps recover lost or corrupted data.

Manage stateful applications with Ansible modules like mysql db, postgresql db, or mongodb replicaset. These modules manage stateful applications.

Playbooks can manage stateful application provisioning, configuration, and deployment. This ensures job order and dependency management.

Ansible roles organise and package stateful application automation code. Roles assist manage dependencies and job order.

Manage stateful applications with custom scripts and tasks. Ansible’s command or shell modules can perform these scripts and activities.

Use Ansible Vault to safeguard sensitive data like database credentials for stateful apps. Ansible Vault secures and encrypts sensitive data.

Q.22 How do you use Ansible to manage and deploy containerized applications, such as Docker or Kubernetes?

Ansible playbooks and roles are used to provision, configure, and manage containerized applications like Docker and Kubernetes. Ansible manages and deploys containerized apps:

Install Docker/Kubernetes-compatible Ansible plugins. Docker-py and Kubernetes modules allow Docker and Kubernetes interaction.

Create Docker images or Kubernetes manifests to define your application’s services, containers, and other resources.

Build a host inventory for containerized infrastructure management. A static inventory file or dynamic inventory script can retrieve infrastructure data.

Build a playbook for containerized infrastructure management and deployment. Pulling Docker images, configuring Kubernetes resources, and managing containers are examples.

Roles arrange playbooks into reusable and shareable code blocks. Roles coordinate similar responsibilities across projects and settings.

Pull Docker images or configure Kubernetes resources with Ansible modules. Ansible has many modules for automating various processes.

Configure your containerized infrastructure using variables, such as image name and container configuration information.

Test your playbook before deploying it to production.

After testing your playbook, execute it in production to automate deployment. Ansible Tower, AWX, or ansible-playbook can achieve this.

Q.23 How do you manage dynamic inventory in Ansible, such as with AWS EC2 instances?

Ansible’s dynamic inventory scripts or plugins receive information about your infrastructure and produce an inventory dynamically. Ansible dynamic inventory management:

Install Ansible plugins for your dynamic inventory source. Amazon EC2 instances require boto or boto3 modules.

Build a dynamic inventory script or plugin that retrieves infrastructure data and generates an inventory. Ansible has a broad collection of dynamic inventory scripts and plugins for managing infrastructure sources.

Set up your dynamic inventory script or plugin. Set the inventory variable in your ansible.cfg file or use the ansible-playbook command to specify the inventory file.

Dynamic inventory variables configure playbooks and roles. These variables provide dynamic inventory data like EC2 instance IP addresses and hostnames.

Run ansible-inventory to test your dynamic inventory.

Run playbooks and roles on your dynamic inventory to automate deployment after testing it. Ansible Tower, AWX, or ansible-playbook can achieve this.

Q.24 How do you use Ansible to manage network devices?

Install Ansible modules, define your network infrastructure, and create playbooks and roles to automate network device configuration and management. Ansible manages network devices:

  • Install Ansible modules for network device interaction. Ansible’s huge network module library automates many network functions.
  • Create an inventory file of network devices to define your network infrastructure. A static or dynamic inventory script retrieves network device data.
  • Build a playbook: Define network device management tasks in a playbook. Configuring VLANs, interfaces, and routing protocols are examples.
  • Roles arrange playbooks into reusable and shareable code blocks. Roles manage common network tasks across devices and settings.
  • Ansible modules automate VLAN configuration and routing protocol management. Ansible has many modules to automate network functions.
  • Utilize variables to configure network devices, such as interface settings and VLAN IDs.
  • Test your playbook before deploying it to production.
  • After testing your playbook, execute it in production to automate deployment. Ansible Tower, AWX, or ansible-playbook can achieve this.

Q.25 How do you create custom modules in Ansible?

Ansible’s custom modules let you automate tasks not covered by its built-in modules. Ansible custom module creation:

  • Programming language: Write your module in a programming language. Ansible enables JSON-outputting custom modules in any programming language.
  • Set your module’s input/output parameters: Your module’s inputs and outputs. Your module’s input and output parameters are the variables it needs and returns, respectively.
  • Module writing: Write your module in your programming language. Your module must accept input parameters, perform tasks, and output JSON parameters.
  • Module save: Put your module on your Ansible control node. The location depends on your module’s programming language and Ansible’s operating system.
  • Module test: Run your module with ansible and check its output.

Call your module in a playbook using the ansible command and input arguments.

Q.26 Can you explain how to use Ansible to implement blue/green deployments?

Blue/green deployments involve constructing two identical environments, one “blue” and one “green,” and switching traffic between them. Ansible playbooks and roles are used to provision, configure, and switch traffic between blue and green environments. Ansible blue/green deployments:

  • Create an inventory file of hosts and services for your blue and green environments.
  • Establish the blue environment with a playbook: Create a playbook for blue environment provisioning and configuration. Installing dependencies, establishing services, and copying application files are examples.
  • Configure the green environment via a playbook: Provision and configure the green environment using a playbook. It should match the blue playbook.
  • Build a playbook to switch environments: Define the tasks needed to move traffic between blue and green environments. Update DNS records, configure load balancers, and test the new environment.
  • Roles arrange playbooks into reusable and shareable code blocks. Roles manage common responsibilities in both settings.
  • Test your blue and green environments: Make sure they work and are identical.
  • Deploy modifications to the green environment using the plan from step 2.
  • Test the green environment to make sure the changes work.
  • Apply the playbook from step 4 to switch traffic from blue to green.
  • Future deployments: Alternate between blue and green environments.

Q.27 How do you use Ansible to manage Windows servers?

Ansible manages Windows servers by installing modules and enabling WinRM for remote management. Ansible manages Windows servers:

  • Install Windows server-related Ansible modules. Ansible modules automate many Windows server processes.
  • Activate WinRM on Windows servers for Ansible remote management. Group Policy or winrm quickconfig can achieve this.
  • Create an inventory file to list your Windows servers.
  • Build a playbook: Define your Windows server management duties in a playbook. Installation, service management, and Windows configuration are examples.
  • Roles arrange playbooks into reusable and shareable code blocks. Roles can manage common tasks across Windows servers and environments.
  • Install applications and manage services with Ansible modules. Ansible has many modules to automate Windows tasks.
  • Use variables to configure Windows servers, such as programme installation and service setup.
  • Test your playbook before deploying it to production.
  • After testing your playbook, execute it in production to automate deployment. Ansible Tower, AWX, or ansible-playbook can achieve this.

Q.28 How do you integrate Ansible with other tools, such as Jenkins or Git?

Using Ansible with Jenkins or Git can automate tasks and ensure environment consistency, streamlining development and deployment. Jenkins/Git integration with Ansible:

  • Integrate Ansible with Jenkins: Use the Jenkins Ansible plugin. This plugin runs Ansible playbooks and roles in Jenkins builds. Install the Ansible plugin in Jenkins and configure it to use your Ansible installation.
  • Git hooks can activate Ansible playbooks and roles when your Git repository changes. When modifications are merged into the master branch, a Git hook may activate an Ansible script to deploy them to production. To use Git hooks with Ansible, develop command-line scripts that call Ansible and setup them as Git hooks.
  • Ansible Tower or AWX can centrally manage and automate your playbooks and roles. They offer a web interface for inventories, playbooks, roles, scheduling, and monitoring Ansible jobs. Jenkins and Git can automate development and deployment with Ansible Tower and AWX.

Q.29 How do you handle complex dependencies between Ansible roles and playbooks?

Ansible infrastructure management requires sophisticated role-playbook dependencies. Handling complicated Ansible role and playbook dependencies:

  • Utilize role dependencies: The meta/main.yml file in each role directory lets you declare role dependencies in Ansible. This file lists the prerequisite roles. Define role dependencies to ensure role execution order.
  • Play dependencies: Use import playbook or include playbook statements to link playbooks. These statements allow playbooks to invoke other playbooks and set their execution order.
  • Tag roles and tasks to control execution order in Ansible. Tags let you organise responsibilities and tasks and manage dependencies.
  • Use conditionals to control roles and tasks based on past tasks. Conditionals let you execute responsibilities and actions only when needed based on system state.
  • Variables can control dependencies between roles and tasks by determining their execution order. Variables let you set the order of jobs and tasks and ensure they are done correctly.

Q.30 How do you use Ansible to implement rolling updates or canary releases?

Ansible playbooks and roles describe the tasks needed to upgrade or release your application or infrastructure with minimal downtime or failures. Ansible rolling updates or canary releases:

  • Create an inventory file of hosts and services you intend to update or release.
  • Make an update or release playbook: Create a plan for updating or releasing your application or infrastructure. Stopping, starting, and copying services, application files, and configuration files are examples.
  • Roles arrange playbooks into reusable and shareable code blocks. Roles coordinate similar tasks across hosts and settings.
  • Employ variables to configure your update or release, such as programme version or configuration settings.
  • Test your update or release before releasing it to production.
  • Implement a rolling update or canary release: Deploy the new version to a subset of hosts and gradually increase the number until all hosts are running it. Your playbook can indicate the number of hosts to update or release using the serial keyword.
  • Monitor your update or release: Make sure it’s functioning well.
  • Revert if necessary: If your upgrade or release has problems, use the playbook from step 2 to roll back.

Q.31 Can you explain how to use Ansible to implement multi-node orchestration?

Ansible multi-node orchestration requires specifying and executing the sequence of tasks across several nodes or hosts. Ansible multi-node orchestration:

  • Create an inventory file with the hosts you want to orchestrate.
  • To organise the sequence of tasks across several nodes, create a playbook. Provisioning hosts, configuring services, and deploying apps are examples.
  • Roles arrange playbooks into reusable and shareable code blocks. Roles coordinate similar tasks across hosts and settings.
  • Configure your orchestration using variables to define hosts, services, and apps.
  • Conditionals and loops regulate task execution across several nodes. A conditional can verify if a host has been provisioned before provisioning it, or a loop can conduct a task on several hosts.
  • Tag jobs for multi-node execution. Tags can be used to categorise jobs or designate which hosts should run them.
  • Test your orchestration before sending it to production.
  • After testing your orchestration, execute the playbook in production to automate deployment. Ansible Tower, AWX, or ansible-playbook can achieve this.

Q.31 How do you use Ansible to manage and automate cloud infrastructure, such as AWS, Azure or GCP?

Ansible manages and automates cloud infrastructure by installing modules for your cloud provider, defining your cloud infrastructure inventory, and generating playbooks and roles to control your cloud resources. Ansible automates cloud infrastructure for AWS, Azure, and GCP:

  • Install your cloud provider’s Ansible modules, such as boto or boto3 for AWS, azure for Azure, or gcp compute for GCP. Ansible modules let you manage cloud resources.
  • Create an inventory file to define your cloud infrastructure inventory, including EC2 instances and Azure VMs. Dynamic inventory scripts can automatically produce inventory using your cloud provider’s API.
  • Cloud resource management playbook: Build a playbook to handle cloud resources including adding or deleting instances, updating security groups, and configuring load balancers.
  • Roles arrange playbooks into reusable and shareable code blocks. Roles can manage common tasks across cloud resources and contexts.
  • Utilize variables to customise cloud resources like instance type and security group rules.
  • Test your playbook before deploying it to production.
  • After testing your playbook, execute it in production to automate deployment. Ansible Tower, AWX, or ansible-playbook can achieve this.

Q.32 Can you explain how to use Ansible to implement continuous deployment?

From code updates to production release, Ansible automates continuous deployment. Continuous deployment with Ansible:

  • Set up your development environment: Use a source code management system like Git to handle code changes. Use Jenkins to build and test your code changes.
  • Application deployment playbook: Deploy application code, update configuration files, and restart services in a playbook.
  • Roles arrange playbooks into reusable and shareable code blocks. Roles can manage common duties across settings.
  • Utilize variables to configure your deployment, such as the environment or application version.
  • Conditionals can control deployment based on past tasks. Conditionals can block deployment if a test fails.
  • Use Jenkins or GitLab CI/CD to trigger deployment when code changes are merged into the master branch.
  • Monitor the deployment: Make sure the deployment is operating smoothly.
  • Roll back if needed: Use the playbook from step 2 to roll back if the deployment fails.

Q.33 How do you manage secrets in Ansible, such as passwords or API keys?

To protect passwords and API credentials, Ansible secrets must be managed. Ansible secrets recommended practises:

  • Use HashiCorp Vault to store your secrets. Encrypt and decrypt sensitive data with the ansible-vault command.
  • Use Ansible Vault to encrypt playbooks and roles with sensitive data. Encrypt and decrypt this data with ansible-vault.
  • Instead of hard-coding API keys and passwords in playbooks and roles, use environment variables. Playbooks and roles can access environment variables using the ansible env variable.
  • Use group vars or host vars to store sensitive host or group-specific information.
  • Avoid committing sensitive data to version control with Git hooks. Pre-commit hooks can check playbooks and roles for unencrypted sensitive data.

Q.34 Can you explain how to use Ansible to implement zero-downtime deployments?

Ansible zero-downtime deployments entail updating infrastructure code or configuration without disrupting service availability. Ansible zero-downtime deployments:

  • Deployment playbook: Build a playbook for code or configuration deployment. Stopping and starting services, copying new files, changing configuration files, and checking changes should be in the playbook.
  • Load balancers spread traffic across different servers or instances. This lets you deploy modifications to one server or instance at a time while the others serve traffic.
  • Roll out infrastructure updates via a rolling deployment plan. This entails applying the changes to one server or instance at a time and checking for success before going on.
  • Monitor the deployment: Make sure the deployment is operating smoothly. Ansible can monitor deployed services and applications.
  • If the deployment fails, use the playbook from step 1 to roll back.

Q.35 How do you use Ansible to manage infrastructure as code?

Playbooks and roles define your infrastructure in Ansible, while version control manages changes. Ansible manages infrastructure as code:

  • Code your infrastructure using Ansible playbooks and roles. Playbooks specify infrastructure provisioning and configuration tasks, whereas roles organise them modularly and reusable.
  • Utilize variables to configure your infrastructure, such as instance number and type. This lets you simply alter infrastructure setup without changing code.
  • Use Git to manage infrastructure code. This lets you version-control and track code changes.
  • Continuous integration and deployment: Jenkins or GitLab CI/CD can automate infrastructure code build, test, and deployment. This makes infrastructure updates fast and reliable.
  • Employ testing and validation to guarantee your infrastructure code fulfils your needs. Testinfra and Molecule automate infrastructure code testing and validation.
  • Employ infrastructure as code best practises, such as immutable infrastructure and fault tolerance, to make your infrastructure code stable and scalable.

Q.36 How do you use Ansible to implement disaster recovery or backup automation?

Playbooks and roles are used to automate disaster recovery or backup with Ansible. Ansible automates disaster recovery and backups:

  • Establish your disaster recovery plan, including methods to recover data or infrastructure after a disaster. It should encompass backup frequency, retention, and recovery.
  • Build a backup playbook: Define the tasks needed to automate data and infrastructure backups. Database, file, and configuration file backups are examples.
  • Roles arrange playbooks into reusable and shareable code blocks. Roles can manage common backup tasks across environments.
  • Variables can be used to set backup frequency and destination.
  • Restore data or infrastructure in a test environment to test your backup.
  • Write a playbook to automate recovery: Define the tasks needed to recover data or infrastructure after a disaster or data loss. Restoring backups, re-provisioning infrastructure, and changing configuration files are examples.
  • Employ variables to configure recovery, such as backup location and infrastructure settings.
  • Simulate a disaster or data loss to test your recovery method.

Q.37 Can you explain how to use Ansible to implement compliance automation?

Ansible compliance automation requires playbooks and roles to ensure your infrastructure fulfils regulatory and compliance criteria. Ansible compliance automation:

  • Specify your compliance requirements: List your regulatory and industry standards.
  • Build a playbook to audit your infrastructure for compliance. Checking configuration files, user permissions, and vulnerabilities are examples.
  • Roles arrange playbooks into reusable and shareable code blocks. Roles can manage common compliance responsibilities across environments.
  • Configure your audit using variables, such as compliance requirements and audit frequency.
  • Compliance test: Run your audit playbook and check your infrastructure for compliance.
  • Develop a playbook to fix compliance issues: Write down the steps needed to fix audit-identified compliance concerns. Update configuration files, change user rights, or address software vulnerabilities.
  • Configure your remediation using variables, such as compliance criteria and remediation approach.
  • Run your remediation playbook to verify compliance.

Q.38 How do you handle version control for Ansible playbooks and roles?

Git is used for version control of Ansible playbooks and roles. Versioning Ansible playbooks and roles:

  • Build a Git repository for Ansible playbooks and roles. This repository will store and share code.
  • Separate development and production code with branches. This lets you develop new features on a different branch without affecting production code.
  • Tags: Tag code variants. This lets you simply roll back your code.
  • Use descriptive commit messages when changing code. This helps other developers understand what changed and why.
  • Pull requests: Review changes before merging them into the main branch. Changes are evaluated and tested before being applied to production.
  • Use Git hooks to automate syntax and linting checks before committing code.

Q.39 Can you explain how to use Ansible to implement configuration drift detection and remediation?

Ansible, an open-source configuration management and automation tool, helps IT teams automate repetitive activities, manage infrastructure, and deploy applications. Developers, system administrators, and DevOps engineers use it.

Ansible describes the desired system or application state in declarative language. Users only need to indicate how they want the system to look, and Ansible will handle the rest.

Ansible runs tasks on distant systems using SSH or WinRM. The Ansible control node coordinates tasks across numerous machines in a client-server architecture.

Ansible playbooks coordinate tasks to achieve a purpose. Playbooks can manage configuration, deploy applications, and orchestrate infrastructure.

Ansible streamlines IT task automation, making teams more productive and decreasing errors and downtime.

Official Website of Ansible : https://www.ansible.com/

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