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Working with Confidential Data in Ansible

The Red Hat Certified Ansible Specialist Exam (EX407) requires an understanding of working with confidential data within Ansible. This hands-on lab goes over how you can use the `ansible-vault` command to encrypt sensitive files within a vault file and also how to work with those vault files in an Ansible playbook. The exercise assumes basic proficiency with several common ansible modules and general ansible playbook use. Upon completing the lab, you will have developed an improved understanding of `ansible-vault` and vault files. *This course is not approved or sponsored by Red Hat.*

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Path Info

Level
Clock icon Intermediate
Duration
Clock icon 30m
Last updated
Clock icon Aug 28, 2025

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Table of Contents

  1. Challenge

    Encrypt `/home/ansible/secret` using the `ansible-vault` command.

    Note: Please give the lab an extra 5 minutes before connecting via SSH.

    • Switch to the ansible user with su ansible
    • Run ansible-vault encrypt /home/ansible/secret and provide a simple password of your choosing.
    • Be sure to remember the password!

  2. Challenge

    Create */home/ansible/vault* as a vault password file that may be used to access the encrypted secret file without prompt.

    • Run the command echo '<Your_Vault_Password>' > /home/ansible/vault.
    • Substitute <<Your_Vault_Password>Your_Vault_Password> with the password you chose in the previous task.

  3. Challenge

    Run the playbook */home/ansible/secPage.yml* using your *vault* password file to validate your work.

    • Run the command ansible-playbook --vault-password-file /home/ansible/vault /home/ansible/secPage.yml.
    • If your encryption was configured correctly, you should get no errors.

  4. Challenge

    Verify that the secure page deployed correctly by attempting to access http://node1/secure/classified.html as the user *bond* with the password *james*.

    • Run curl -u bond http://node1/secure/classified.html and supply the password james when prompted.
    • The command should return the contents of classified.html regarding the weather in a certain city.
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Pluralsight Skills gives leaders confidence they have the skills needed to execute technology strategy. Technology teams can benchmark expertise across roles, speed up release cycles and build reliable, secure products. By leveraging our expert content, skill assessments and one-of-a-kind analytics, keep up with the pace of change, put the right people on the right projects and boost productivity. It's the most effective path to developing tech skills at scale.

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