How to detect UNREACHABLE HOSTS in Ansible - ansible

Question

Below is my playbook
- name: Play 1.5 - Check each target
hosts: all_hosts
ignore_unreachable: yes
ignore_errors: yes
gather_facts: true
tasks:
- raw: "echo {{ inventory_hostname }} is UNREACHABLE"
delegate_to: localhost
when: <Need help with the when condition here>
I need help with the when condition in the above playbook.
When i run the play against unreachable hosts the debug output clearly shows that the output is in JSON format and there must a variable that captures inventory_host connection status
Please see the output below:
TASK [Gathering Facts] *************************************************************************************************************************************************
task path: /app/Ansible/playbook/check/check.yml:55
<10.9.80.111> Attempting python interpreter discovery
<10.9.80.111> ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: root
<10.9.80.111> SSH: EXEC ssh -o 'IdentityFile="/app/automation/ssh_keys/id_rsa"' -o KbdInteractiveAuthentication=no -o PreferredAuthentications=gssapi-with-mic,gssapi-keyex,hostbased,publickey -o PasswordAuthentication=no -o 'User="root"' -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no 10.9.80.111 '/bin/sh -c '"'"'echo PLATFORM; uname; echo FOUND; command -v '"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'/usr/bin/python'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'; command -v '"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'python3.7'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'; command -v '"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'python3.6'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'; command -v '"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'python3.5'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'; command -v '"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'python2.7'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'; command -v '"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'python2.6'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'; command -v '"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'/usr/libexec/platform-python'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'; command -v '"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'/usr/bin/python3'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'; command -v '"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'python'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'; echo ENDFOUND && sleep 0'"'"''
<10.9.80.111> (255, '', 'ssh: connect to host 10.9.80.111 port 22: Connection timed out\r\n')
[WARNING]: Unhandled error in Python interpreter discovery for host 10.9.80.111: Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: connect to host 10.9.80.111 port 22:
Connection timed out
Using module file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible/modules/system/setup.py
Pipelining is enabled.
<10.9.80.111> ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: root
<10.9.80.111> SSH: EXEC ssh -o 'IdentityFile="/app/axmw/misc_automation/ssh_keys/axmw_id_rsa"' -o KbdInteractiveAuthentication=no -o PreferredAuthentications=gssapi-with-mic,gssapi-keyex,hostbased,publickey -o PasswordAuthentication=no -o 'User="root"' -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no 10.9.80.111 '/bin/sh -c '"'"'/usr/bin/python && sleep 0'"'"''
fatal: [10.9.80.111]: UNREACHABLE! => {
"changed": false,
"msg": "Data could not be sent to remote host \"10.9.80.111\". Make sure this host can be reached over ssh: ssh: connect to host 10.9.80.111 port 22: Connection timed out\r\n",
"skip_reason": "Host 10.9.80.111 is unreachable",
"unreachable": true
}
META: ran handlers
From the output above i want to get the variable that has the below values:
fatal: [10.9.80.111]: UNREACHABLE! => {
"changed": false,
"msg": "Data could not be sent to remote host \"10.9.80.111\". Make sure this host can be reached over ssh: ssh: connect to host 10.9.80.111 port 22: Connection timed out\r\n",
"skip_reason": "Host 10.9.80.111 is unreachable",
"unreachable": true
Thus, I wish to capture the unreachable": true status from there.
Can someone please guide ?

Answer 1

you can use changed_when , when the changed is false, get the unreachable host
- name: Test connection and gather facts
hosts: all
serial: 1
gather_facts: true
ignore_unreachable: yes
become: false
tasks:
- name: Test connection
shell: hostname
register: connection_output
ignore_unreachable: yes
- debug: var=connection_output.changed
ignore_errors: yes
- name: print the list of unreachable servers
lineinfile:
line: "{{ connection_output.msg }}"
dest: "/tmp/AnsibleConnectionCheck.txt"
insertafter: EOF
become: false
delegate_to: 127.0.0.1
run_once: true
ignore_errors: yes
changed_when: False
Today I just finished this playbook :) Hope it will helpful for you!

Answer 2

Thank you so much Yvette Lau! I've been looking for this everywhere. Here is my implementation of the same logic with win_ping:
---
- hosts: all
gather_facts: no
become: yes
tasks:
- name: Win_Ping
win_ping:
register: WinPingResult
ignore_unreachable: yes
- debug: var=WinPingResult.changed
ignore_errors: yes
- name: Printing errors
debug:
msg: "{{ WinPingResult.msg }}"
run_once: yes
changed_when: False