For general maintenance, it is often easier to use ``grep``, or similar tools, to find variables in your Ansible setup. Since vaults obscure these variables, it is best to work with a layer of indirection. When running a playbook, Ansible finds the variables in the unencrypted file and all sensitive variables come from the encrypted file.
A best practice approach for this is to start with a ``group_vars/`` subdirectory named after the group. Inside of this subdirectory, create two files named ``vars`` and ``vault``. Inside of the ``vars`` file, define all of the variables needed, including any sensitive ones. Next, copy all of the sensitive variables over to the ``vault`` file and prefix these variables with ``vault_``. You should adjust the variables in the ``vars`` file to point to the matching ``vault_`` variables and ensure that the ``vault`` file is vault encrypted.
A best practice approach for this is to start with a ``group_vars/`` subdirectory named after the group. Inside of this subdirectory, create two files named ``vars`` and ``vault``. Inside of the ``vars`` file, define all of the variables needed, including any sensitive ones. Next, copy all of the sensitive variables over to the ``vault`` file and prefix these variables with ``vault_``. You should adjust the variables in the ``vars`` file to point to the matching ``vault_`` variables using jinja2 syntax, and ensure that the ``vault`` file is vault encrypted.
This best practice has no limit on the amount of variable and vault files or their names.