diff --git a/ReleaseNotes.md b/ReleaseNotes.md
index 2feebd2f40abcae34188592c832ec1fdb84cf327..fa90a05f6f8042b6bbf3a1dfb371da7fbd928f58 100644
--- a/ReleaseNotes.md
+++ b/ReleaseNotes.md
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ The following manual pages have been updated:
 - cta/CTA#947  - cta-taped should log the FST being used for a data transfer
 - cta/CTA#1106 - "cta-admin schedulinginfo ls" returns records larger than SSI buffer size limit
 - cta/CTA#1269 - cta-restore-deleted-files injects wrong diskFileId in CTA Catalogue
+- cta/CTA#1276 - Some configuration files should be renamed from `.conf` to `.conf.example`
 - cta/CTA#1278 - Add support for reading multiple tape formats by the ReadtpCmd command
 
 ### Continuous Integration
diff --git a/catalogue/cta-catalogue.conf.example b/catalogue/cta-catalogue.conf.example
index fc86732925bad7b2eda1ded026ea22cb480b7cbb..974149035205983b99d7f2e0bb5f802576245c9c 100644
--- a/catalogue/cta-catalogue.conf.example
+++ b/catalogue/cta-catalogue.conf.example
@@ -13,28 +13,22 @@
 #               granted to it by virtue of its status as an Intergovernmental Organization or
 #               submit itself to any jurisdiction.
 
-# This file should contain one and only one connection string.  Blank lines and
-# comments are ignored.
-#
-# PLEASE NOTE that comments at the end of a line are not supported.  Only entire
-# line comments are allowed.  A comment line starts a hash '#' character.
-# Leading whitespace is permitted.
+# This file should contain a single line, with the connection string for the CTA Catalogue database.
+# Blank lines and comments are ignored. A comment line starts a hash '#' character. Comments at the
+# end of a line are not supported. Leading whitespace is permitted.
 #
 # The format of the connection string is either:
 #
-#    in_memory
-#
-# or:
-#
 #    oracle:username/password@database
 #
 # or:
 #
 #    postgresql:postgresql://username:password@hostname/database
 #
-# or:
+# There are two additional options intended for development and testing only. These should not
+# be used in a production environment:
 #
+#    in_memory
 #    sqlite:filename
 #
-# PLEASE NOTE that the "in_memory" and "sqlite:" connection strings are for
-# development and testing purposes only.
+postgresql:postgresql://username:password@hostname/database
diff --git a/cmdline/CMakeLists.txt b/cmdline/CMakeLists.txt
index 4c076b7934912326239bb8caa741515a908cb341..91d0a453fed33e091d51af35026e57ae880d7af1 100644
--- a/cmdline/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/cmdline/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -68,4 +68,4 @@ install(FILES cta-admin.1cta DESTINATION usr/share/man/man1)
 install(TARGETS cta-send-event DESTINATION usr/bin)
 install(FILES cta-send-closew.sh DESTINATION usr/bin)
 install(TARGETS cta-verify-file DESTINATION usr/bin)
-install(FILES cta-cli.conf DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_SYSCONFDIR}/cta)
+install(FILES cta-cli.conf.example DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_SYSCONFDIR}/cta)
diff --git a/cmdline/cta-admin.1cta b/cmdline/cta-admin.1cta
index 1ee9b8dc30e2c33bc1bb37f16b28174fac330a79..9b3d5c57b44ffb64dd4201f7e4ed0e8e61fe1fc8 100644
--- a/cmdline/cta-admin.1cta
+++ b/cmdline/cta-admin.1cta
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ to have a separate namespace for each Virtual Organization (VO).
 .TP
 diskinstancespace (dis)
 Add, change, remove or list the disk instance spaces. A disk instance can contain zero or more disk
-instance spaces. A disk instance space is a partition of the disk. For examples, it can be desirable
+instance spaces. A disk instance space is a partition of the disk. For example, it can be desirable
 to have separate spaces for archival and retrieval operations on each instance.
 .TP
 disksystem (ds)
@@ -161,13 +161,6 @@ Sets the client log level (see \fBXrdSsiPbLogLevel\fR below).
 .TP
 cta.log.hiRes (default: \fIfalse\fR)
 Specify whether log timestamps should have second (\fIfalse\fR) or microsecond (\fItrue\fR) resolution.
-.SS Example configuration file
-.P
-.RS
-cta.endpoint cta-frontend.cern.ch:10955
-.br
-cta.resource.options Reusable
-.RE
 
 .SH EXIT STATUS
 \fBcta-admin\fP returns 0 on success.
@@ -230,7 +223,7 @@ number of retries.
 .SH FILES
 .TP
 .BI /etc/cta/cta-cli.conf
-Configuration file. See \fBCONFIGURATION\fP, above.
+See \fBCONFIGURATION\fP above, and \fI/etc/cta/cta-cli.conf.example\fR.
 .TP
 .BI /etc/cta/eos.grpc.keytab
 gRPC keys for each instance, used by \fBcta-admin tapefile ls\fP to display disk metadata associated with
diff --git a/cmdline/cta-cli.conf b/cmdline/cta-cli.conf
deleted file mode 100644
index 734377fc574cefcdf5b36887918bea4efc96a8e2..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/cmdline/cta-cli.conf
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-# The CTA frontend address in the form <FQDN>:<TCPPort>
-cta.endpoint <host>.cern.ch:10955
-
-# Options for cta-send-event
-eos.instance eosctapps
-eos.endpoint localhost:1094
-eos.requester.user ctaops
-eos.requester.group it
diff --git a/cmdline/cta-cli.conf.example b/cmdline/cta-cli.conf.example
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c2903929753823dbc15551e188822fb80fb8dfb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmdline/cta-cli.conf.example
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+#
+# CTA client options
+#
+
+# CTA Frontend hostname (FQDN) and TCP port
+cta.endpoint ctafrontend.cern.ch:10955
+
+# CTA user/group to use for tape verification jobs
+eos.requester.user verification
+eos.requester.group it
+
+#
+# XRootD client options
+#
+
+# XRootD SSI resource options. Defaults to none. Set to Reusable to use use XRootD SSI reusable
+# resources. Documentation at http://xrootd.org/doc/dev49/ssi_reference-V2.htm#_Toc506323429.
+# cta.resource.options none
+
+# Client log level. Can be overridden by setting environment variable XrdSsiPbLogLevel. See
+# cta-admin(1cta) man page for details.
+# cta.log none
+
+# Specify whether log timestamps should have second (false) or microsecond (true) resolution.
+# cta.log.hiRes false
diff --git a/xroot_plugins/cta-frontend-xrootd.conf b/continuousintegration/docker/ctafrontend/cc7/etc/cta/cta-frontend-xrootd.conf
similarity index 100%
rename from xroot_plugins/cta-frontend-xrootd.conf
rename to continuousintegration/docker/ctafrontend/cc7/etc/cta/cta-frontend-xrootd.conf
diff --git a/cta.spec.in b/cta.spec.in
index 83c981f51e19e97141ae267b9616638f73794931..287ddfd4941526e74279c09b4e28563542b0dda0 100644
--- a/cta.spec.in
+++ b/cta.spec.in
@@ -157,7 +157,7 @@ The xroot plugin
 %defattr(0755,root,root)
 %{_libdir}/libXrdSsiCta.so*
 %attr(0644,root,root) %config(noreplace) /etc/logrotate.d/cta-frontend
-%attr(0644,root,root) %config(noreplace) %{_sysconfdir}/cta/cta-frontend-xrootd.conf
+%attr(0644,root,root) %config(noreplace) %{_sysconfdir}/cta/cta-frontend-xrootd.conf.example
 %attr(0644,root,root) %config(noreplace) /etc/sysconfig/cta-frontend
 %attr(0644,cta,tape) /etc/systemd/system/cta-frontend.service
 
@@ -222,7 +222,7 @@ The command line utilities
 %attr(0755,root,root) %{_bindir}/cta-send-event
 %attr(0755,root,root) %{_bindir}/cta-send-closew.sh
 %attr(0755,root,root) %{_bindir}/cta-verify-file
-%attr(0644,root,root) %config(noreplace) %{_sysconfdir}/cta/cta-cli.conf
+%attr(0644,root,root) %config(noreplace) %{_sysconfdir}/cta/cta-cli.conf.example
 
 %package -n cta-lib-common
 Summary: CERN Tape Archive libraries
diff --git a/frontend-grpc/cta-frontend-grpc.1cta b/frontend-grpc/cta-frontend-grpc.1cta
index 957f6ff46f4c233f7f9f5e5cb8189665b98f81b1..54b153831a48033357f463b9d5ec48fa75ee92ea 100644
--- a/frontend-grpc/cta-frontend-grpc.1cta
+++ b/frontend-grpc/cta-frontend-grpc.1cta
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ Display command options and exit.
 The CTA configuration file.
 .TP
 .B /etc/cta/cta-catalogue.conf
-The CTA catalog configuration file.
+The CTA catalog configuration file. See \fI/etc/cta/cta-catalogue.conf.example\fR.
 
 .SH SEE ALSO
 .P
diff --git a/tapeserver/cta-taped.1cta b/tapeserver/cta-taped.1cta
index db1fb637b2cd059cd1bc8324662b2b90ad02ebae..be40aa492475aaf69a77869204495c17fa6674ce 100644
--- a/tapeserver/cta-taped.1cta
+++ b/tapeserver/cta-taped.1cta
@@ -213,6 +213,10 @@ DRIVE_NAME LOGICAL_LIBRARY_NAME DRIVE_DEVICE LIBRARY_SLOT
 See \fI/etc/cta/TPCONFIG.example\fR.
 .RE
 .TP
+.B /etc/cta/cta-catalogue.conf
+Usual location for the CTA Catalogue configuration file. See \fBtaped CatalogueConfigFile\fP option
+under \fBCONFIGURATION\fP, and \fI/etc/cta/cta-catalogue.conf.example\fR.
+.TP
 .B /var/log/cta/cta-taped.log
 Usual location for the tape server log file.
 
diff --git a/xroot_plugins/CMakeLists.txt b/xroot_plugins/CMakeLists.txt
index 9a7933f40ea699f2b2616968b87490ebd05bd65f..47a5d823862e0ccf830e6bb269acb9aaa6a4b8b1 100644
--- a/xroot_plugins/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/xroot_plugins/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ if (OCCI_SUPPORT)
 endif (OCCI_SUPPORT)
 
 install(TARGETS XrdSsiCta DESTINATION usr/${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR})
-install(FILES cta-frontend-xrootd.conf DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_SYSCONFDIR}/cta)
+install(FILES cta-frontend-xrootd.conf.example DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_SYSCONFDIR}/cta)
 install(FILES cta-frontend.logrotate DESTINATION /etc/logrotate.d RENAME cta-frontend)
 install(FILES cta-frontend.sysconfig DESTINATION /etc/sysconfig RENAME cta-frontend)
 install(FILES cta-frontend.service DESTINATION /etc/systemd/system)
diff --git a/xroot_plugins/cta-frontend-xrootd.conf.example b/xroot_plugins/cta-frontend-xrootd.conf.example
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..eac3b76818698fd3c61eab40998502b29f6c27b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/xroot_plugins/cta-frontend-xrootd.conf.example
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+#
+# CTA options
+#
+
+# CTA ObjectStore options
+#cta.objectstore.backendpath /tmp/jobStoreXXXXXXX
+
+# CTA Scheduler DB options
+cta.schedulerdb.numberofthreads 500
+cta.schedulerdb.threadstacksize_mb 1
+
+# CTA Catalogue options
+cta.catalogue.numberofconnections 10
+
+# Maximum file size (in GB) that the CTA Frontend will accept for archiving
+cta.archivefile.max_size_gb 1000
+
+# CTA Frontend log URL
+cta.log.url file:/var/log/cta/cta-frontend.log
+
+# CTA Logger log level
+# Valid log levels are EMERG, ALERT, CRIT, ERR, WARNING, NOTICE (==USERERR), INFO, DEBUG
+# cta.log.level DEBUG
+
+# CTA XRootD SSI Protobuf log level
+# cta.log.ssi debug protobuf
+cta.log.ssi warning
+
+# CTA Repack buffer URL
+# cta.repack.repack_buffer_url root://ctaeos//eos/ctaeos/repack
+
+# CTA Verification Mount Policy
+cta.verification.mount_policy verification
+
+# Keytab containing gRPC endpoints and tokens for each disk instance
+#cta.ns.config /etc/cta/eos.grpc.keytab
+
+#
+# XRootD/SSI options
+#
+
+# Enable SSI debug logging
+#ssi.trace debug
+
+# Load the CTA SSI plugin
+xrootd.fslib -2 libXrdSsi.so
+
+# Load the SSI module
+ssi.svclib libXrdSsiCta.so
+
+# Use the security module
+xrootd.seclib libXrdSec.so
+
+# Security protocol specification
+#
+# Note: the XRootD process needs to be able to read the keytab file
+sec.protocol krb5 /etc/cta/cta-frontend.krb5.keytab cta/cta-frontend@TEST.CTA
+sec.protocol sss -s /etc/cta/eos.sss.keytab
+
+# Only Kerberos 5 and sss are allowed
+sec.protbind * only sss krb5
+
+# Turn off asynchronous I/O
+xrootd.async off
+
+# Use a port other than 1094, already used by EOS xroot server
+xrd.port 10955
+
+# Export the SSI resource
+all.export /ctafrontend nolock r/w