Ansible, Terraform, Puppet, and Chef

Question 1

What is configuration drift?

Answer 1

When individual changes made over time cause a device’s configuration to deviate from the standard/correct configurations as defined by the company

Question 2

Explain why configuration drift can lead to issues

Answer 2

As problems occur, records of individual fixes and their config changes aren’t kept, therefore it becomes hard to know what parts of the config are necessary/meaningful and which aren’t

Question 3

What is configuration provisioning?

Answer 3

How configuration changes are applied to devices. Includes configuring new devices.

Question 4

What are the two essential components of configuration provisioning?

Answer 4

1. Templates
2. Variables

Question 5

Ansible, Puppet, Chef, and Terraform are all examples of:

Answer 5

Configuration management tools

Question 6

Is Ansible agentless?

Answer 6

Yes

Question 7

What does agentless mean?

Answer 7

No special software has to be run on managed devices for the config management tool to run properly.

Question 8

Does Ansible use a push or pull model of getting updates to managed devices?

Answer 8

Push model. The Ansible server (control node) uses SSH to connect to managed devices and push config changes to them.

Question 9

Does Puppet use a push or pull model of getting updates to managed devices?

Answer 9

Pull model. Managed devices connect to the Puppet sever to get updates from it.

Question 10

Does Chef use a push or pull model of getting updates to managed devices?

Answer 10

Pull model. Managed devices connect to the Chef server to get updates from it.

Question 11

What are Ansible playbooks?

Answer 11

Files that are the “blueprints of automation tasks”. Outline the logic and actions of the tasks that Ansible should do. Written in YAML.

Question 12

What language are Ansible playbooks written in?

Answer 12

YAML

Question 13

What is an Ansible inventory?

Answer 13

File that lists the devices that will be managed by Ansible, as well as the characteristics of each device. Written in INI, YAML, or other formats

Question 14

What is an Ansible template?

Answer 14

File that represents the device’s configuration file, but without specific values for the configuration variables.

Written in Jinja2 templating lang

Question 15

What is an Ansible variable file?

Answer 15

File that lists variables and their values. Values are substituted into the templates to create complete config files. Written in YAML

Question 16

Is Puppet agentless or agent based?

Answer 16

Typically agent based. A proxy agent can be used, but at that point most people just use Ansible.

Question 17

What is a Puppet manifest file?

Answer 17

Defines the desired configuration state of a network device

Question 18

What is a Puppet template?

Answer 18

The same thing as an Ansible template. Used to generate Manifests

Question 19

Is Chef agentless or agent based?

Answer 19

Agent based. Most Cisco devices don’t support Chef agents

Question 20

What protocol and port does Puppet use for communicating between devices?

Answer 20

TCP 8140

Question 21

What protocol and port does Chef use for communicating between devices?

Answer 21

TCP 10002

Question 22

What language are Chef files written in?

Answer 22

A domain-specific lang based on Ruby

Question 23

What language are Puppet files written in?

Answer 23

Puppet proprietary lang

Question 24

What is a Chef resource file?

Answer 24

A file of configuration objects managed by chef

Question 25

What is a Chef recipe file?

Answer 25

A file that outlines the logic and actions of the tasks performed on the resources

Question 26

What is a Chef cookbook file?

Answer 26

A set of related recipe files grouped together

Question 27

What is a Chef run-list?

Answer 27

An ordered list of recipes that are run to bring a device to a desired config state

Question 28

What programming langauge is Ansible written in?

Answer 28

Python

Question 29

What programming language is Puppet written in?

Answer 29

Ruby

Question 30

What programming language is Chef written in?

Answer 30

Ruby

Question 31

How to both Puppet and Chef communicate?

Answer 31

HTTPS via their REST APIs

Question 32

How does Ansible communicate?

Answer 32

SSH

Question 33

Which of the following config management tools connects to devices using SSH?

a) Chef
b) Ansible
c) Puppet
d) None of the above

Answer 33

b) Ansible

Question 34

Which of the config management tools use a pull model (select all that apply)?

a) Chef
b) Ansible
c) Puppet
d) All of the above

Answer 34

a) Chef
c) Puppet

Question 35

Which of the following config management tools use a client-sever model?

a) Chef
b) Ansible
c) Puppet
d) All of the above

Answer 35

d) All of the above

Question 36

Which of the following config management tools are written in Ruby?

a) Chef
b) Ansible
c) Puppet
d) None of the above

Answer 36

a) Chef
c) Puppet

Question 37

Which of the following config management tools uses playbooks?

a) Chef
b) Ansible
c) Puppet
d) All of the above

Answer 37

b) Ansible

Question 38

Which of the following config management tools accepts inbound requests from agents by using HTTPS on TCP port 8140?

a) Ansible
b) Salt
c) Chef
d) Puppet

Answer 38

d) Puppet

Question 39

You are creating a Puppet DSL resource declaration for code that will ensure that members of a group named CoAdmins will be able to issue commands by using the sudo command. What would the code segment for accomplishing this look like?

Answer 39

sudo::conf { 'CoAdmins':
ensure => present,
content => '%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL',
}