RHCE 9.0 Practice Exam: Configuring Ansible Collections

CloudNetOps

CloudNetOps

— 3 min read
RHCE 9.0 Practice Exam: Configuring Ansible Collections
Photo by Kevin Horvat / Unsplash

📌 Article Overview

This tutorial is designed for RHCE 9.0 certification candidates and explains in detail how to configure and install Ansible collections from local sources.

What You Will Learn:

  • How to create and configure requirements.yml for collection installation
  • How to install collections in a custom directory
  • How to verify installed collections using ansible-navigator
  • Common issues and troubleshooting tips
  • Detailed step-by-step guide with explanations

📜 1. Task Requirements

📍 1.1. Problem Statement

  1. Install the following Ansible collections:
    • redhat-insights-1.0.7.tar.gz
    • community-general-5.5.0.tar.gz
    • redhat-rhel_system_roles-1.19.3.tar.gz
  2. These collections should be installed in the directory:
    /home/greg/ansible/mycollection
  3. Verify the installed collections
  4. Check documentation for a specific module in the installed collections

📜 2. Preparing the Environment

Before proceeding, ensure that:

  • Ansible is installed on the control node (control).
  • The collections are available at http://classroom/materials/.
  • You have ansible-navigator installed for verification.

📜 3. Creating requirements.yml

vim /home/greg/ansible/requirements.yml

📄 Add the following content:

---
collections:
  - name: http://classroom/materials/redhat-insights-1.0.7.tar.gz
  - name: http://classroom/materials/community-general-5.5.0.tar.gz
  - name: http://classroom/materials/redhat-rhel_system_roles-1.19.3.tar.gz

📌 Key Points:

  • The collections: key lists all collections to be installed.
  • We provide direct URLs to .tar.gz files instead of using Ansible Galaxy.

Save and exit (ESC -> :wq)

📜 4. Installing Ansible Collections

Now, install the collections to the custom directory /home/greg/ansible/mycollection:

ansible-galaxy collection install -r /home/greg/ansible/requirements.yml -p /home/greg/ansible/mycollection

📌 Key Points:

  • -r requirements.yml: Reads the collection list from requirements.yml
  • -p /home/greg/ansible/mycollection: Installs collections in a custom directory

✅ Expected Output

Starting galaxy collection install process
Process install dependency map
Downloading http://classroom/materials/redhat-insights-1.0.7.tar.gz to /home/greg/.ansible/tmp/...
Installing collection redhat.insights:1.0.7 from /home/greg/.ansible/tmp/...
Downloading http://classroom/materials/community-general-5.5.0.tar.gz...
Installing collection community.general:5.5.0...
Downloading http://classroom/materials/redhat-rhel_system_roles-1.19.3.tar.gz...
Installing collection redhat.rhel_system_roles:1.19.3...

📜 5. Verifying Installed Collections

To confirm the collections were installed correctly:

ansible-navigator collections

📌 Expected Output

ansible_collections:
  community.general
  redhat.insights
  redhat.rhel_system_roles

✅ If the collections are listed, the installation was successful!

📜 6. Checking Collection Documentation

To view documentation for a specific module, such as community.general.filesystem:

ansible-navigator doc community.general.filesystem -m stdout

📌 Expected Output

> FILESYSTEM (MODULE)
  Manage filesystems on remote machines

EXAMPLES:
  - name: Create a new ext4 filesystem
    community.general.filesystem:
      fstype: ext4
      dev: /dev/vdb1

✅ If the documentation is displayed, the module is correctly installed.

📜 7. Scoring Criteria

Step Description Score
1. Create requirements.yml Defines collections with correct URLs 5 points
2. Install collections to a custom path Ensures correct directory installation 10 points
3. Verify collections with ansible-navigator Confirms successful installation 10 points
4. Check module documentation Ensures collection modules are accessible 10 points

✅ Total Score: 35 points

📜 8. Common Questions & Troubleshooting

❓ Q1: How do I remove a collection if something goes wrong?
✅ Run:

ansible-galaxy collection remove <collection_name>

For example:

ansible-galaxy collection remove redhat.insights

❓ Q2: What if ansible-navigator collections does not show my collections?
✅ Ensure the collections/ansible_collections directory exists in /home/greg/ansible/mycollection:

ls /home/greg/ansible/mycollection/ansible_collections

If the directory is missing, re-run:

ansible-galaxy collection install -r /home/greg/ansible/requirements.yml -p /home/greg/ansible/mycollection

❓ Q3: How do I check the version of an installed collection?
✅ Run:

ansible-galaxy collection list

This will display the version of each installed collection.

🚀 Congratulations! You have successfully configured Ansible collections for RHCE 9.0 certification! 🚀
📢 If you found this guide helpful, share it with your RHCE 9.0 study group! 📢

Read more