EX294 (RHCE) exam environment

[morbius]

Hi, I need some information on what I have available to me during the EX294 exam. Does Ansible controller host have on it graphical environment with an available text editor, such as gedit? Can I copy/paste text between browser with the questions and host where I'm writing playbooks?

Gedit is an excellent text editor able to detect and properly mark Ansible sintax, it would be a great help not having to edit playbooks in nano, or god forbid vi. My RHCSA exam was a horrible experience, copy/paste didn't work. Terminal I had available couldn't connect to servers, so I had to do everything from VM terminals, typing manually. Add to that that DNS didn't work, I can't believe how I managed to pass. I can't aford to lose time fighting with the exam environment again, I need to know what I can use and how.

[SubuRama]

If you know (can read) python, it's not hard to see what the lab "start/grade/finish" scripts are doing.

Also be sure to understand the differences between ansible-navigator (with the default EE image env) vs ansible-playbook (with the env on the controller). ansible-navigator --ee false will most closely resemble ansible-playbook.

Also note that ansible-config init --disabled will show you ALL the settings. Just save them in a file and study.

Similarly, (this is an additioinal config file for the ansible-navigator)

ansible-navigator settings --sample will also be useful

Do a find on the lab names under ~

For ex. let's take a look at page 53 lab start playbook-basic

So the lab start itself is just running a playbook

And here is lab finish (another playbook)

May it's the new Red Hat way but I find the insistence on using ansible-navigator ALL the time (without much reference to ansible) a disservice to learning. Straight ansible is faster and less confusing.

Learn to use ansible adhoc commands

for ex. ansible localhost -m setup can teach you all about the various "facts". @rgdacosta mentions this but he sometimes goes overboard in overlapping advanced concepts in this course   (I like it but feel it may confuse others).

@khokhaEverything is available in the environment. Repos, EEs, materials etc. You just have to do some digging, experimentation, lookup additional resources on the Internet etc.

Hope that helps

Subu

[Travis]

@SubuRama -

I agree with you on learning some of the Ansible basics such as ansible and ansible-playbook and I'm showing that as I teach the class this week. The reason for Navigator is true portability and the new automation controller. Having EEs allows a playbook to run consistently everywhere as the EE can also be specified. This eliminates the need for the various Python virtual environments and most importantly eliminates what Devs vs. Ops love to say and here ...

well it works on my machine ... not sure why it doesn't work in Production ... that's your problem.

Developing and testing on and using a consistent platform, the EEI and running the playbooks using ansible-navigator with a given execution environment image (EEI) and then turning that over to production using Ansible Automation Controller and the same execution environment image (EEI) you can be certain all OS packages, Ansible versions, Ansible collections, Python libraries, and any other things will work the exact same in the production environment when it comes to the playbook and the execution of the playbook as it did from the developer's workstation as you are using the same container image.

[SubuRama]

I agree with all your observations. I just think that Red Hatters should be familiar with BOTH ways and know the differences

Subu

[morbius]

Don't really understand why we can discuss the ins and outs of the exam's ansible environment, yet when i ask what text editor is available on the exam, everyone is worried about NDA.

[Chetan_Tiwary_]

@morbius The best way to get an official answer regarding the exam environment is to reach out to the exam support here : https://rhtapps.redhat.com/comments ( I am not sure of the answer because I dont remember it )

[morbius · Accepted solution]

And the official answer is that they can't discuss anything related to the exam architecture. And all I wanted to know is what text editors I got available.

I love RHEL and it's a joy to use, but every aspect of RH certification exams so far for me has been a horror story. I can only honestly recommend to people to stay far away from RH certs unless it's absolutely neccessary for them to acquire them.

[Trevor]

Morbius, be assured that everyone in the community has an
enthusiatic desire to assist with queries.  Some of the responses
to your query have come from seasoned veterans of this community,
as well as seasoned veterans of Red Hat exams.  I can appreciate
you wanting an answer to your query, but if these seasoned veterans
respond with a comment that suggest that your query crosses the line
of NDA violation, I would just say "thank you very much for the alert". 
Respect for the NDA is a protection of the value of the certification - that
I assume you intend to pursue.

Chetan has offered a very plausible suggestion on how you might
go about getting an answer to your query.