Windows Server 2012 R2 and AWS S3 Download from Ansible - windows

Question

I'm trying to download some files from AWS S3 with IAM Role for EC2 but Ansible is getting an error. Other Ansible win_* modules works great.
Windows Server has Python2 and Python3, and also boto and boto3 modules. Cmd is responding to python command. It opens Python3 when it is executed. I also tested the 'import boto' command when the Python3 is opened to be sure that module is installed.
Ansible Playbook is configured like:
- name: test s3 module
hosts: windows
tasks:
- name: get s3 file
aws_s3:
bucket: drktests3
object: /test
dest: C:\tests3.txt
mode: get
When i run this configuration, the output is like that:
root#ip-172-31-22-4:/etc/ansible/playbooks# ansible-playbook s3test
PLAY [test s3 module] *******************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ******************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [38.210.201.10]
TASK [get s3 file] **********************************************************************************************************************************************
[WARNING]: FATAL ERROR DURING FILE TRANSFER:
fatal: [38.210.201.10]: FAILED! => {"msg": "winrm send_input failed; \nstdout: Unable to initialize device PRN\r\nUnable to initialize device PRN\r\nUnable to initialize device PRN\r\n\nstderr ANSIBALLZ_WRAPPER : The term 'ANSIBALLZ_WRAPPER' is not recognized as the name \r\nof a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of \r\nthe name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try \r\nagain.\r\nAt line:1 char:1\r\n+ ANSIBALLZ_WRAPPER = True # For test-module script to tell this is a \r\nANSIBALLZ_WR ...\r\n+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\r\n + CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (ANSIBALLZ_WRAPPER:String) [], C \r\n ommandNotFoundException\r\n + FullyQualifiedErrorId :
The same script works on the Master server(Linux Ubuntu) if i change the hosts value to localhost. Why Ansible cannot execute the python code on the Windows server?

Answer 1

I found that there is a section about the problem in Ansible Docs.
Can I run Python modules?
No, the WinRM connection protocol is set to use PowerShell modules, so Python modules will not work. A way to bypass this issue to use delegate_to: localhost to run a Python module on the Ansible controller. This is useful if during a playbook, an external service needs to be contacted and there is no equivalent Windows module available.
So if you want to do such a process, you have to workaround the problem.
I solved it with suggestion that Ansible Documentation gives.
- name: test s3 module
hosts: windows
tasks:
- name: get s3 file
aws_s3:
bucket: bucketname
object: /filename.jpg
dest: /etc/ansible/playbooks/test.jpg
mode: get
delegate_to: localhost
- name: copy to win server
win_copy:
src: /etc/ansible/playbooks/test.jpg
dest: C:/test.jpg
When you use these sample codes, firstly you are downloading the files to Master Ansible server with delegate_to. And after then that you are copying the files to Windows host.