Expert · Certifications and career · topic 55 of 57 · 25 min
RHCE (EX294): automation with Ansible
Explanation
What changed about RHCE
Years ago RHCE meant advanced manual administration. Today it is about automation: the exam expects you to do RHCSA-level tasks, and more, with Ansible across several managed nodes. This matches how real teams work. Red Hat requires a current RHCSA to hold RHCE, so most people take EX200 first and then EX294.
What the exam covers (broadly)
| Area | Where in this course |
|---|---|
| Install and configure an Ansible control node; inventories; ansible.cfg | Module 9 |
| Prepare managed nodes: SSH keys, privilege escalation | Module 9 |
| Ad-hoc commands and the core modules | Module 9 |
| Playbooks, variables, facts, loops, conditions, handlers, error handling | Modules 9, 10 |
| Jinja2 templates | Module 10 |
| Roles and collections, Ansible Galaxy, RHEL System Roles | Module 10 |
| Ansible Vault | Module 10 |
| Using automation to do admin tasks: packages, services, firewall, storage, users, SELinux, scheduled jobs | Modules 2 to 7 via Ansible |
How it feels on the day
- You get a control node and several managed nodes. Some tasks name a file the graders will run, such as /home/student/ansible/users.yml.
- Your playbooks are checked by running them and by checking the managed nodes. They must be idempotent and must not fail.
- No internet. ansible-doc and the files under /usr/share/doc (including RHEL System Roles examples) are your references.
Building an RHCE practice lab
You need at least three machines: one control node and two or more managed nodes. On a laptop with 16 GB of RAM, four small VMs (1 to 2 GB each) work well. Give the managed nodes an extra disk each, so you can practise storage tasks through Ansible. Set up the control node once by hand (ansible-core, a project folder, ansible.cfg, inventory, an SSH key), then write a playbook that prepares managed nodes (user, key, sudo) so you can rebuild the whole lab from scratch in minutes. Rebuilding often is itself good practice.
A study plan for RHCE
- Week 1: control node, inventory, ansible.cfg, ad-hoc commands for every core module. Do every RHCSA task once as an ad-hoc command.
- Week 2: playbooks with variables, facts, loops, when, handlers and block/rescue. Turn each RHCSA practice task into a playbook.
- Week 3: templates (especially an /etc/hosts template from facts), roles with ansible-galaxy, requirements files, RHEL System Roles (timesync, selinux, storage).
- Week 4: vault, a full timed practice exam, and fixing the weak spots.
Common mistakes
- Writing playbooks that use shell for everything: they are not idempotent and often fail on the second run that graders may do.
- Leaving the vault password file or the playbook in a different path than the task asked for.
- Not running the finished playbooks one more time at the end to prove they still pass.
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RHCE (EX294): automation with Ansible · 1/6
RHCE today is about automation with Ansible. The exam code is EX294.
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In real life: From admin to automation engineer at a Hyderabad bank
Karthik, an RHCSA-certified admin at a bank's IT centre in Hyderabad, spent his evenings automating his own team's weekly checklist with Ansible. After passing RHCE, he showed his manager that patching 200 servers now took a morning instead of a week. He moved into the bank's new automation team, and his playbooks became the team's starting point.
Practice (0/2 done)
Which certification must you hold for RHCE to be valid?
Take five tasks from your RHCSA practice exam and solve each with a playbook on two managed nodes. Run each playbook twice; the second run must show changed=0 and failed=0.
Quick quiz
Read more (free)
Related help
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Questions people ask about this
Open a question to see the answer and why. The first ones are this topic's own quiz, so try the quiz above before you peek.
Which exam code is associated with RHCE on current RHEL versions?
Answer: EX294
EX294.
Why are idempotent playbooks important in the RHCE exam?
Answer: Graders run your playbooks and a second run must not fail or break things
Real automation must be safe to re-run.
Where can you find RHEL System Roles examples during the exam?
Answer: /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/
Installed with the package.
Which exam code gives the RHCSA certification?Related
Where are example playbooks for system roles on RHEL?Related
Answer: /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/
Each role has examples and a README there.
Which package gives you ansible-playbook on RHEL 9?Related
What is a collection in Ansible?Related
Answer: A package of modules, roles and plugins under a namespace, like community.general
Collections are how modules are packaged and shared, for example through Galaxy.
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Next steps
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