Ansible version :1.9.4, 1.9.3, 1.9.1,
Using ec2, so specifying pem key in ansible.cfg
I have used Ansible for while, but this error is strange.
Copy module works fine when executing in ad-hoc like the snippet below. The below line is just an example.
Ansible instance123 -m copy - a "src= dest= mode ="
But gives "host not found" while executing the same module in playbook.
The playbook:
---
- hosts: all
sudo: yes
tasks:
- name: copy
copy: src=./ansible.cfg dest=/home/ubuntu/ mode=0644
I checked command module both in playbooks and trying it in ad-hoc also. That works fine. I found that version 1.8.2 had this error, and I tried all state versions of 1.9.
The culprit was a var named inventory_hostname. So this was the var that was conflicting.
Related
Worked on another machine with Ansible 2.9.27. It is installed on a new machine ansible [core 2.12.2].I assume that the problem is the difference in versions.
[root#localhost ansible]# ansible-playbook test.yml
ERROR! couldn't resolve module/action 'synchronize'. This often indicates a misspelling, missing collection, or incorrect module path.
The error appears to be in '/root/ansible/test.yml': line 4, column 7, but may
be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.
The offending line appears to be:
tasks:
- name: Start copy scripts
^ here
Playbook contents.
---
- hosts: gate_test
tasks:
- name: Start copy scripts
synchronize:
src: ~/ansible/build/base_ca
dest: ~/
mode: push
The task of the playbook, transferring a directory with contents from a local machine to a virtual one
How do I install/download the Ansible development modules?
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/devel/modules/list_of_windows_modules.html
# rpm -qa |grep ansib
ansible-2.6.20-1.el7ae.noarch
# cat win-list-services.yml
---
- name: Get info for all installed services
hosts: '{{ host }}'
gather_facts: no
vars:
execute: false
tasks:
- name: Get info for all installed services
win_service_info:
register: servicelist
# ansible-playbook -v win-list-services.yml
Using /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as config file
ERROR! no action detected in task. This often indicates a misspelled module name, or incorrect module path.
The error appears to be in '/root/playbook/win-list-services.yml': line 8, column 5, but may
be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.
The offending line appears to be:
tasks:
- name: Get info for all installed services
^ here
It appears that the windows modules are part of the move to ansible-collections, and thus you may be able to run them using a "normal" ansible 2.9 install after following the collection install instructions
The pragmatic implication is that it is unlikely you can follow Zeitounator's instructions since those windows modules no longer live in the ansible repo, so using pip install -e will not provide them (unless you use a git sha earlier than the current devel)
However, either way, being on ansible 2.6 as shown in your question is quite old, so you will want to get on a modern version anyway
So far, I found out that we can download from Ansible Galaxy.
win_service_info is available from below.
https://galaxy.ansible.com/ansible/windows
It require Ansible 2.9 as described by mdaniel.
I am trying to get an Ansible task to print the version used while running on Windows 10.
I am currently trying something like this:
---
# Source: https://serverfault.com/a/695798
- name: Get version
win_shell: ansible --version
register: ansibleVersion
# How I chose to expose the version collected
- name: Display version
win_msg:
msg: "Ansible Version: {{ ansibleVersion.stdout }}"
display_seconds: 30
However, I am getting this output:
"stderr": "ansible : The term 'ansible' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. \r\nCheck the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.\r\n
Full disclosure, I am new to Ansible. I have tried win_command, win_shell, and am not really sure what all to try next.
The Windows machines can be provisioned using ansible but not installed on Windows.
You can configure the Windows machine from a Linux machine as the controller host.
And you can run the ansible-playbook from this controller host which will run on the windows machine.
---
- hosts: all
tasks:
- name: Get Windows version
win_shell: "systeminfo /fo csv | ConvertFrom-Csv | select OS*, System*, Hotfix* | Format-List"
register: windows_version
- name: Print Windows host information
debug:
msg: "{{ windows_version }}"
Save this as main.yml
Add the Windows host IP in hosts file
[win]
172.16.*.*
[win:vars]
ansible_user=user
ansible_password=password
ansible_connection=winrm
ansible_winrm_server_cert_validation=ignore
Run the playbook using the following command
ansible-playbook -i hosts main.yml
If you want ansible on Windows, then there are other installation methods to run it on Windows.
Also mentioned in the comments.
I have attached some links to setup ansible on Windows 10 subsytem for Linux,
Ansible - Windows Frequently asked questions
Using Ansible through Windows 10's Subsystem for Linux
Hope it solves your issue.
Thank you to all those who answered and commented. The articles were very informative, and I learned a much more about Ansible. The answers put me on the scent of the actual task I made.
To restate my comment on the original question, I had a misunderstanding. Because on my Windows machine I had to add a user ansible, I thought it was being run locally somehow. However, it turns out, Ansible deploys are being run from a Linux VM.
Once I had this misunderstanding cleared up, I realized I needed to use delegate_to: 127.0.0.1 in my Ansible task. Here is my Check Ansible version task:
---
# SEE: https://serverfault.com/a/695798/514234
- name: Check Ansible version
command: ansible --version
register: ansibleVersion
delegate_to: 127.0.0.1
- name: Print version
debug:
msg: "Ansible Version: {{ ansibleVersion.stdout }}"
Ansible shows an error:
ERROR! no action detected in task. This often indicates a misspelled module name, or incorrect module path.
What is wrong?
The exact transcript is:
ERROR! no action detected in task. This often indicates a misspelled module name, or incorrect module path.
The error appears to have been in 'playbook.yml': line 10, column 3, but may
be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.
The offending line appears to be:
---
- name: My task name
^ here
Reason #1
You are using an older version of Ansible which did not have the module you try to run.
How to check it?
Open the list of modules module documentation and find the documentation page for your module.
Read the header at the top of the page - it usually shows the Ansible version in which the module was introduced. For example:
New in version 2.2.
Ensure you are running the specified version of Ansible or later. Run:
ansible-playbook --version
And check the output. It should show something like:
ansible-playbook 2.4.1.0
Reason #2
You tried to write a role and put a playbook in my_role/tasks/main.yml.
The tasks/main.yml file should contain only a list of tasks. If you specified:
---
- name: Configure servers
hosts: my_hosts
tasks:
- name: My first task
my_module:
parameter1: value1
Ansible tries to find an action module named hosts and an action module named tasks. It doesn't, so it throws an error.
Solution: specify only a list of tasks in the tasks/main.yml file:
---
- name: My first task
my_module:
parameter1: value1
Reason #3
The action module name is misspelled.
This is pretty obvious, but overlooked. If you use incorrect module name, for example users instead of user, Ansible will report "no action detected in task".
Ansible was designed as a highly extensible system. It does not have a limited set of modules which you can run and it cannot check "in advance" the spelling of each action module.
In fact you can write and then specify your own module named qLQn1BHxzirz and Ansible has to respect that. As it is an interpreted language, it "discovers" the error only when trying to execute the task.
Reason #4
You are trying to execute a module not distributed with Ansible.
The action module name is correct, but it is not a standard module distributed with Ansible.
If you are using a module provided by a third party - a vendor of software/hardware or another module shared publicly, you must first download the module and place it in appropriate directory.
You can place it either in modules subdirectory of the playbook or in a common path.
Ansible looks ANSIBLE_LIBRARY or the --module-path command line argument.
To check what paths are valid, run:
ansible-playbook --version
and check the value of:
configured module search path =
Ansible version 2.4 and later should provide a list of paths.
Reason #5
You really don't have any action inside the task.
The task must have some action module defined. The following example is not valid:
- name: My task
become: true
I can't really improve upon #techraf answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/47159200/619760.
I wanted to add reason #6 my special case
Reason #6
Incorrectly using roles: to import/include roles as a subtask.
This does not work, you can not include roles in this way as subtasks in a play.
---
- hosts: somehosts
tasks:
- name: include somerole
roles:
- somerole
Use include_role
According to the documentation
you can now use roles inline with any other tasks using import_role or include_role:
- hosts: webservers
tasks:
- debug:
msg: "before we run our role"
- import_role:
name: example
- include_role:
name: example
- debug:
msg: "after we ran our role"
Put the roles at the right place inline with hosts
Include the roles at the top
---
- hosts: somehosts
roles:
- somerole
tasks:
- name: some static task
import_role:
name: somerole
hosts: some host
- include_role:
name: example
You need to understand the difference between import/include static/dynamic
I got this error when I referenced the debug task as ansible.builtin.debug
Causes a syntax failure in CI (but worked locally):
- name: "Echo the jenkins job template"
ansible.builtin.debug:
var: template_xml
verbosity: 1
Works locally and in CI:
- name: "Echo the jenkins job template"
debug:
var: template_xml
verbosity: 1
I believe - but have not confirmed - that the differences in local vs CI was ansible versions.
Local : 2.10
CI : 2.7
Explanation of the error :
No tasks to execute means it can not do the action that was described in your playbook
Root cause:
the installed version of Ansible doesn't support it
How to check :
ansible --version
Solution:
upgrade Ansible to a version which supports the feature you are trying to use
How to upgrade Ansible:
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/installation_guide/intro_installation.html#selecting-an-ansible-version-to-install
Quick instruction for Ubuntu :
sudo apt update
sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo apt-add-repository --yes --update ppa:ansible/ansible
sudo apt install ansible
P.S: followed this path and upgraded from version 2.0.2 to 2.9
After upgrade, same playbook worked like a charm
For me the problem occurred with "systemd" module. Turned out that my ansible --version was 2.0.0.2 and module was first introduced in version 2.2. Updating my ansible to latest version fixed the problem.
playbook.yaml
- name: "Enable and start docker service and ensure it's not masked"
systemd:
name: docker
state: started
enabled: yes
masked: no
Error
ERROR! no action detected in task
etc..
etc..
etc..
- name: "Enable and start docker service and ensure it's not masked"
^ here
In my case this was fix:
ansible-galaxy collection install ansible.posix
Consider the following Ansible playbook code...
# provisioning/roles/operations/tasks/vagrant.yml
---
- block:
- name: Copy vagrantfile onto dev machine
local_action:
template src=Vagrantfile.j2
dest={{playbook_dir}}/../Vagrantfile
- name: Boot up VMs
local_action:
command vagrant up
environment:
VAGRANT_VAGRANTFILE: "{{playbook_dir}}/../Vagrantfile"
register: vagrantUpResults
- debug: msg="{{vagrantUpResults}}"
tags:
- vagrant
This will correctly generate a valid Vagrantfile and will successfully run the "vagrant up" command. However, by doing this through ansible it seems it will not register the created newly created VMs. I know this because when I run...
vagrant status
I see lines that declare "VM (not started)".
Turns out that the correct ".vagrant" directory was being generated in ./provisioning whereas the Vagrantfile was generated to ./Vagrantfile. Although "VAGRANT_VAGRANTFILE" was correctly pointing to a generated file, ".vagrant" dir was being generated inside my playbook directory (./provisioning).
After further research into available environment variables, I found a variable that was more useful; "VAGRANT_CWD". This will locate the generated Vagrantfile as well as generate a correct ".vagrant" directory. "vagrant status" now detects the running VMs correctly.
Here is what my code looks like now:
---
- block:
- name: Copy vagrantfile onto dev machine
local_action:
template src=Vagrantfile.j2
dest={{playbook_dir}}/../Vagrantfile
- name: Boot up VMs
local_action:
command vagrant up
environment:
VAGRANT_CWD: "{{playbook_dir}}/.."
register: vagrantUpResults
- debug: msg="{{vagrantUpResults}}"
tags:
- vagrant