Scenario-Based Ansible Interview Questions

41. Can We Manage Windows Nano Server Using Ansible?

Yes, Ansible supports managing Windows Nano Server using the WinRM connection plugin. This allows Ansible to communicate with Windows hosts, enabling automation in Windows environments.

42. How Can You Speed Up Management Inside EC2?

Management inside EC2 can be accelerated by leveraging dynamic EC2 inventory scripts. These scripts automatically fetch information about EC2 instances, ensuring dynamic and efficient management of hosts in an Ansible environment.

43. Is It Possible To Increase The Ansible reboot Module Timeout To More Than 600 Seconds?

Yes, On adjusting the `reboot_timeout` parameter , it is possible to increase the Ansible reboot module timeout in the playbook. This parameter allows users to set a longer timeout if hosts require more time to complete the reboot process.

44. Explain How You Will Copy Files Recursively Onto a Target Host.

On using the `ansible.builtin.copy` module with the `recurse` parameter setting to true , you copy the files recursively onto the target host. It helps in ensuring the copy operation with inclusion of all files and subdirectories.

45. How Can You Access a List Of Ansible Variables?

A list of Ansible variables can be accessable within playbooks on using Jinja2 templating syntax. For instance, you can access a variable named `my_ansible_variable` as ` {{ my_ansible_variable }}` inside the playbook.

46. What Is The Difference Between a Play And a Playbook?

A Play is a set of tasks applied to a specific specified group of hosts where as Playbook is set of Plays. Plays are the individual units within a playbook that define what tasks should be executed on a specific set of hosts.

47. Can You Build Your Own Modules With Ansible?

Yes, On using Python programing ,Ansible helps in allowing users to create their own custom modules. This provides flexibility in allowing you to extend the Ansible’s functionality by writing modules tailored to specific use cases.

48. Explain Module Utilities In Ansible.

Module Utilities in Ansible are helper functions and libraries provided by Ansible for use within custom modules. They assist in common tasks such as parameter validation, result reporting, and handling complex data structures.

49. How Would You handle The Scenario Where a Playbook Task Fails, And You Need To Proceed With The Next Task?

To handle the failures of tasks and proceed for the next task, you can use the `ignore_errors` parameter in the task definition. This helps in ensuring the Ansible continuity with the playbook execution even if a particular task get fails.

50. In a Scenario Where You Need To Install Different Packages Based On The Target System’s Operating System, How Would You Approach This Using Ansible?

You can use the conditional statements in Ansible playbooks for checking the target system’s operating system and installing different packages on it accordingly. For example, on using `ansible.builtin.when` condition we can install packages based on OS types.

hosts: group_name
- name: Install packages based on OS type
   hosts: your_target_hosts
   become: true
- tasks:
   - name: Install packages for Debian-based systems (e.g., Ubuntu)
      apt:
        name: "{{ item }}"
        state: present
      loop:
       - package1_for_debian
       - package2_for_debian
      when: "ansible_distribution == 'Debian' or ansible_distribution == 'Ubuntu'"
   - name: Install packages for Red Hat-based systems (e.g., CentOS)
      yum:
        name: "{{ item }}"
        state: present
      loop:
      - package1_for_redhat
      - package2_for_redhat
      when: "ansible_distribution == 'RedHat' or ansible_distribution == 'CentOS'"
   - name: Install common packages for all systems
      package:
        name: "{{ item }}"
        state: present
      loop:
      - common_package1
      - common_package2

Ansible is a configuration management tool and an open-source product from Redhat company. Before moving into the details of Ansible, let’s explore the evolution of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). The demand for an agile nature led to the rapid rise of the DevOps culture, aiming to accelerate the time-to-market for new services or features and stay ahead of competitors. Ansible has emerged as a leading configuration management and orchestration tool in the domain of DevOps, renowned for its simplicity, flexibility, and scalability. It’s widely adopted by top companies such as Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Spotify, and more, due to its robust features and seamless automation capabilities.

Here, we have curated a list of the Top 50 Ansible interview questions and answers. These questions span various aspects of Ansible, from fundamental concepts to advanced topics like playbook development, role creation, and Ansible Tower integration. Whether you are a beginner who just starting with Ansible or you are an experienced professional (5 or 10 years of experience) gearing up for an upcoming interview, this guide provides a valuable resource to enhance your understanding and confidently tackle Ansible-related questions in your upcoming Technical interview.

Initially, automation was done through scripting to replace the manual mode of workflow. However, scripting brought out challenges such as the requirement of writing different scripts on various platforms. For example, a script written for Linux wouldn’t support Windows, and separate scripts had to be provided for different Linux distributions like Red Hat, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. The imperative nature of scripting involved specifying detailed guidelines for performing the actions making it cumbersome.

To address these challenges, configuration management tools like Ansible, Puppet and Chef have emerged. Among these such as Ansible vs Puppet, and Ansible vs Chef, Ansible gained wide popularity due to its declarative nature and its use of a push mechanism with an agentless approach. Because of the declarative nature of Ansible, Users only need to specify where to act and what action to perform through its intelligence ansible determines how to execute the action using its inbuilt callback plugins for fetching information. This approach enhances efficiency and simplifies the management of different infrastructure environments. Refer to this Terraform vs Ansible to understand the difference between configuration and Infrastructure management. The below figure illustrates the Ansible Architecture.