Ansible for Windows: Cannot access Windows machine via WinRM - windows

Question

I have installed Ansible on my Linux (14.04) workstation, along with Python (2.7.6), ansible (2.3.0), pywinrm (0.2.1). I want to use Ansible to configure my Windows VMs. I have a Windows VM (Win2k12r2) in Azure. I have opened all ports in the Azure network security group, and I have opened ports in the Windows Firewall for WinRM (5985 and 5986).
I also ran the script located at https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/examples/scripts/ConfigureRemotingForAnsible.ps1, in my Windows VM to ensure that WinRM is enabled.
I am able to RDP into the Windows VM, so I know that its public network interface is working.
As per the ansible docs (http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/intro_windows.html) I have an inventory file inventories/test1
[windows]
<azure_ip_address>
And I have a file group_vars/windows.yml
ansible_user: <my_user_id>
ansible_password: <azure_vm_password>
ansible_port: 5986
ansible_connection: winrm
# The following is necessary for Python 2.7.9+ when using default WinRM self-signed certificates:
ansible_winrm_server_cert_validation: ignore
ansible_winrm_scheme: https
When I run the command:
ansible windows -i inventories/test1 -m win_ping --ask-vault-pass -vvvvv
I get the following response:
No config file found; using defaults
Vault password:
Loading callback plugin minimal of type stdout, v2.0 from /home/jgodse/ansible/lib/ansible/plugins/callback/__init__.pyc
Using module file /home/jgodse/ansible/lib/ansible/modules/core/windows/win_ping.ps1
<azure_vm_ip_address> ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: None
<azure_vm_ip_address> SSH: ansible.cfg set ssh_args: (-C)(-o)(ControlMaster=auto)(-o)(ControlPersist=60s)
<azure_vm_ip_address> SSH: ansible_password/ansible_ssh_pass not set: (-o) (KbdInteractiveAuthentication=no)(-o)(PreferredAuthentications=gssapi-with-mic,gssapi-keyex,hostbased,publickey)(-o)(PasswordAuthentication=no)
<azure_vm_ip_address> SSH: ANSIBLE_TIMEOUT/timeout set: (-o)(ConnectTimeout=10)
<azure_vm_ip_address> SSH: PlayContext set ssh_common_args: ()
<azure_vm_ip_address> SSH: PlayContext set ssh_extra_args: ()
<azure_vm_ip_address> SSH: found only ControlPersist; added ControlPath: (-o)(ControlPath=/home/jgodse/.ansible/cp/ansible-ssh-%h-%p-%r)
<azure_vm_ip_address> SSH: EXEC ssh -vvv -C -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s -o KbdInteractiveAuthentication=no -o PreferredAuthentications=gssapi-with-mic,gssapi-keyex,hostbased,publickey -o PasswordAuthentication=no -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o ControlPath=/home/jgodse/.ansible/cp/ansible-ssh-%h-%p-%r <azure_vm_ip_address> '/bin/sh -c '"'"'( umask 77 && mkdir -p "` echo $HOME/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1477490434.84-228998637685624 `" && echo ansible-tmp-1477490434.84-228998637685624="` echo $HOME/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1477490434.84-228998637685624 `" ) && sleep 0'"'"''
<azure_vm_ip_address> | UNREACHABLE! => {
"changed": false,
"msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: OpenSSH_6.6.1, OpenSSL 1.0.1f 6 Jan 2014\r\ndebug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config\r\ndebug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 19: Applying options for *\r\ndebug1: auto-mux: Trying existing master\r\ndebug1: Control socket \"/home/jgodse/.ansible/cp/ansible-ssh-<azure_vm_ip_address>-22-jgodse\" does not exist\r\ndebug2: ssh_connect: needpriv 0\r\ndebug1: Connecting to <azure_vm_ip_address> [<azure_vm_ip_address>] port 22.\r\ndebug2: fd 3 setting O_NONBLOCK\r\ndebug1: connect to address <azure_vm_ip_address> port 22: Connection timed out\r\nssh: connect to host <azure_vm_ip_address> port 22: Connection timed out\r\n",
"unreachable": true
}
I tried telnetting to the machine as follows:
$ telnet <azure_vm_ip_address> 5986
Trying <azure_vm_ip_address>...
Connected to <azure_vm_ip_address>.
Escape character is '^]'.
This tells me that telnet worked to 5986, and therefore my firewall rules were OK.
Do I have to do something to tell Ansible that I'm trying to connect to a Windows VM using WinRM? Or am I missing something to help my Ansible workstation connect to my Windows VM via WinRM?

Answer 1

It turns out that putting the connection variables in group_vars/windows.yml didn't work. I got rid of that file completely, and edited inventories/test1 to look like this:
[windows]
<azure_ip_address>
[windows:vars]
ansible_user=<my_user_id>
ansible_password=<azure_vm_password>
ansible_port=5986
ansible_connection=winrm
ansible_winrm_server_cert_validation=ignore
Running the command worked, and running win_ping worked successfully.
I then tried encrypting inventories/test1, and I got:
[WARNING]: No hosts matched, nothing to do
And win_ping didn't run.
My guess at this point is that variables needed for connection initialization have to be in an inventory file, and are read before encrypted variables are decrypted and used.