Ubuntu – Ansible host “unreachable”: true

ansibleansible-playbooksshUbuntu

I just started learning the basics of Ansible. And facing some problem related to server connectivity via SSH. I created a folder named publich_html and put my code into that folder and changed the permission. When I try to execute my playbook it gives me the following error

UNREACHABLE! => {"changed": false, "msg": "SSH Error: data could not be sent to the remote host. Make sure this host can be reached over ssh", "unreachable"

Whereas when I try to ping servers from user home or root user without going into a directory it pings perfectly. Here is the verbose output :

SSH: EXEC sshpass -d15 sftp -b – -C -vvv -o ForwardAgent=yes -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o User=root -o ConnectTimeout=10

config file is:

[default]
host_key_checking = False

I don't know where I am missing something. Anyone have any idea about it?

Best Answer

I recently resolved a similar issue, where Ansible would encounter "UNREACHABLE!" errors only for tasks requiring file transfers (e.g. copy, template) while connecting just fine for anything else. I resolved it by adding the following directive to ansible.cfg, under the [ssh_connection] section:

scp_if_ssh = True

As you might guess from that fix, the issue was related to the target servers' SFTP configuration. Since Ansible uses SFTP by default to transfer files, the misconfigured servers encountered errors for any Ansible tasks that involved file transfers. So, if this change makes the errors go away, I recommend checking your target servers' sshd_config files for errors in the SFTP configuration.

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Ansible playbook running ad-hoc command

I managed to get a successful answer on the Google Group for Ansible.

The resolution was to explicitly say "no" to sudo as well as turn off gathering facts.

--- 
- hosts: vhosts 
  gather_facts: false 
  sudo: no 
  remote_user: root

Thanks to user Brian Coca at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ansible-project/7KybtGyckHk

Ssh – Ansible: Permission denied (publickey, password)

The error it returns says it all, the host is unreachable as ssh doesn't work. See what the ping command does in ansible:

ping - Try to connect to host, verify a usable python and return pong on success.

If you can do raw ssh, doesn't ensure ansible can. You need to setup key based ssh or add passowrd option:

ansible all -m ping --ask-pass

When speaking with remote machines, Ansible by default assumes you are using SSH keys. SSH keys are encouraged but password authentication can also be used where needed by supplying the option --ask-pass. If using sudo features and when sudo requires a password, also supply --ask-sudo-pass.

Ref: http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/intro_getting_started.html

Best Answer

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Ansible playbook running ad-hoc command

Ssh – Ansible: Permission denied (publickey, password)

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