Troubleshooting fetch_module executed from Ansible Tower (awx) - ansible

Question

I'm trying to do a very simple fetch file from remote host. Somehow I've never gotten this to work.
Fetching from a remote Linux box to the Ansible Tower (awx) host which is also a Linux box.
Here's the Ansible code:
---
- name: get new private key for user
hosts: tag_Name_ansible_kali
become: yes
gather_facts: no
- name: fetch file
fetch:
src: /tmp/key
dest: /tmp/received/
flat: yes
Here's the result which makes it appear like the fetch worked:
{
"changed": true,
"md5sum": "42abaa3160ba875051f2cb20be0233ba",
"dest": "/tmp/received/key",
"remote_md5sum": null,
"checksum": "9416f6f64b94c331cab569035fb6bb825053bc15",
"remote_checksum": "9416f6f64b94c331cab569035fb6bb825053bc15",
"_ansible_no_log": false
}
However, going to the /tmp/received directory and ls -lah shows...
[root#ansibleserver received]# ls -lah
total 4.0K
drwxr-xr-x. 2 awx awx 6 Mar 12 15:48 .
drwxrwxrwt. 10 root root 4.0K Mar 12 15:49 ..
I've tested and if I choose a target src file that doesn't exist it won't work, so it's clearly connecting to the remote host. The problem is no matter where I point dest on the Ansible server the file doesn't actually write there. Not even sure how it can have a checksum of a file that doesn't exist. I've searched the entire drive and that file does not exist. Is there another log somewhere I can look at where it's actually writing the file? It's not on the remote host either.
Any advice would be appreciated. Seriously scratching my head here.

Answer 1

On a RHEL 7.9.9 system with Ansible 2.9.25, Python 2.7.5, Ansible Tower 3.7.x the output from an ad-hoc fetch task on CLI for a user on the Tower Server looks like
ansible test --user ${USER} --ask-pass --module-name fetch --args "src=/home/{{ ansible_user }}/test.txt dest=/tmp/ flat=yes"
SSH password:
test1.example.com | CHANGED => {
"changed": true,
"checksum": "4e1243bd22c66e76c2ba9eddc1f91394e57f9f83",
"dest": "/tmp/test.txt",
"md5sum": "d8e8fca2dc0f896fd7cb4cb0031ba249",
"remote_checksum": "4e1243bd22c66e76c2ba9eddc1f91394e57f9f83",
"remote_md5sum": null
}
test2.example.com | FAILED! => {
"ansible_facts": {
"discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
},
"changed": false,
"msg": "file not found: /home/user/test.txt"
}
and the file was left there. But the command was initiated and executed under user.
The same executed from Ansible Tower as ad-hoc command with arguments src=/home/user/test.txt dest=/tmp/ flat=yes reported
test2.example.com | FAILED! => {
"ansible_facts": {
"discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
},
"changed": false,
"msg": "file not found: /home/user/test.txt"
}
test1.example..com | CHANGED => {
"changed": true,
"checksum": "4e1243bd22c66e76c2ba9eddc1f91394e57f9f83",
"dest": "/tmp/test.txt",
"md5sum": "d8e8fca2dc0f896fd7cb4cb0031ba249",
"remote_checksum": "4e1243bd22c66e76c2ba9eddc1f91394e57f9f83",
"remote_md5sum": null
}
And your observation was right, there was no file on the Ansible Tower (awx) server. Changing the destination directory to the user reported, if there is an file already
}
test1.example.com | FAILED! => {
"changed": false,
"checksum": null,
"dest": "/home/user/test.txt",
"file": "/home/user/test.txt",
"md5sum": null,
"msg": "checksum mismatch",
"remote_checksum": "4e1243bd22c66e76c2ba9eddc1f91394e57f9f83",
"remote_md5sum": null
}
that there is an file already. However, it failed also if there was no file.
After changing the destination directory to the user under the Ansible Tower is running (awx) via arguments src=/home/user/test.txt dest=/home/awx/ flat=yes
test1.example.com | CHANGED => {
"changed": true,
"checksum": "4e1243bd22c66e76c2ba9eddc1f91394e57f9f83",
"dest": "/home/awx/test.txt",
"md5sum": "d8e8fca2dc0f896fd7cb4cb0031ba249",
"remote_checksum": "4e1243bd22c66e76c2ba9eddc1f91394e57f9f83",
"remote_md5sum": null
}
the file was left there correctly
ls -al /home/awx/
-rw-r--r--. 1 awx awx 5 Nov 6 10:42 test.txt
Regarding
The problem is no matter where I point dest on the Ansible server the file doesn't actually write there. ... Any advice would be appreciated. ...
it looks like it is caused by the user context and missing access/write rights and maybe other observations like "It turns out that Ansible Tower doesn't actually fetch the files to itself, but just copies them to a temporary directory on the remote server".

Answer 2

you can try
validate_checksum: no