Unable to connect to Ansible via SSH

Question

I create a host file with the below content

[web]
167.172.xxx.xxx

I have a user root and dojo360 on the web server and the public key has also been added to authorized_keys file.

When I run the command ansible web -m ping -i hosts I get the below error

167.172.xxx.xxx | UNREACHABLE! => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: connect to host 167.172.xxx.xxx port 22: Operation timed out",
    "unreachable": true
}

I have tried other variations of the hosts file, below is another one I have tried that also doesn't work

[web]
167.172.xxx.xxx ansible_connection=ssh ansible_user=user ansible_ssh_private_key_file=~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

However, I can ssh into the server using ssh [email protected] with no problem, I am new to Ansible, but this shouldn't take over 24 hours, please help, I am stuck.

Running with -vvv I get

ansible 2.9.6
  config file = None
  configured module search path = ['/Users/g.james/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /Users/g.james/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /Users/g.james/Library/Python/3.7/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.7.6 (default, Dec 30 2019, 19:38:26) [Clang 11.0.0 (clang-1100.0.33.16)]
No config file found; using defaults
setting up inventory plugins
host_list declined parsing /Users/g.james/dojo360/d3-scripts/server/hosts as it did not pass its verify_file() method
script declined parsing /Users/g.james/dojo360/d3-scripts/server/hosts as it did not pass its verify_file() method
auto declined parsing /Users/g.james/dojo360/d3-scripts/server/hosts as it did not pass its verify_file() method
Parsed /Users/g.james/dojo360/d3-scripts/server/hosts inventory source with ini plugin
Loading callback plugin minimal of type stdout, v2.0 from /Users/g.james/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/ansible/plugins/callback/minimal.py
META: ran handlers
<67.172.xxx.xxx> ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: root
<67.172.xxx.xxx> SSH: EXEC ssh -vvv -C -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s -o 'IdentityFile="/Users/g.james/.ssh/id_rsa.pub"' -o KbdInteractiveAuthentication=no -o PreferredAuthentications=gssapi-with-mic,gssapi-keyex,hostbased,publickey -o PasswordAuthentication=no -o 'User="root"' -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o ControlPath=/Users/g.james/.ansible/cp/5d3d6b8351 67.172.xxx.xxx '/bin/sh -c '"'"'echo ~root && sleep 0'"'"''
<67.172.xxx.xxx> (255, b'', b'OpenSSH_7.9p1, LibreSSL 2.7.3\r\ndebug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config\r\ndebug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 48: Applying options for *\r\ndebug2: resolve_canonicalize: hostname 67.172.xxx.xxx is address\r\ndebug1: auto-mux: Trying existing master\r\ndebug1: Control socket "/Users/g.james/.ansible/cp/5d3d6b8351" does not exist\r\ndebug2: ssh_connect_direct\r\ndebug1: Connecting to 67.172.xxx.xxx [67.172.xxx.xxx] port 22.\r\ndebug2: fd 3 setting O_NONBLOCK\r\ndebug1: connect to address 67.172.xxx.xxx port 22: Operation timed out\r\nssh: connect to host 67.172.xxx.xxx port 22: Operation timed out\r\n')
67.172.xxx.xxx | UNREACHABLE! => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: OpenSSH_7.9p1, LibreSSL 2.7.3\r\ndebug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config\r\ndebug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 48: Applying options for *\r\ndebug2: resolve_canonicalize: hostname 67.172.xxx.xxx is address\r\ndebug1: auto-mux: Trying existing master\r\ndebug1: Control socket \"/Users/g.james/.ansible/cp/5d3d6b8351\" does not exist\r\ndebug2: ssh_connect_direct\r\ndebug1: Connecting to 67.172.xxx.xxx [67.172.xxx.xxx] port 22.\r\ndebug2: fd 3 setting O_NONBLOCK\r\ndebug1: connect to address 67.172.xxx.xxx port 22: Operation timed out\r\nssh: connect to host 67.172.xxx.xxx port 22: Operation timed out",
    "unreachable": true
}

Answer 1

Try to connect using the same command used by ansible:

ssh -vvv -C -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s -o 'IdentityFile="/Users/g.james/.ssh/id_rsa.pub"' -o KbdInteractiveAuthentication=no -o PreferredAuthentications=gssapi-with-mic,gssapi-keyex,hostbased,publickey -o PasswordAuthentication=no -o 'User="root"' -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o ControlPath=/Users/g.james/.ansible/cp/5d3d6b8351 67.172.xxx.xxx

Then if it fail, try to remove arguments from the command in order to isolate the problem's cause

Answer 2

In general first row in inventory file is a hostname, not an ip address. So you have to say 167.172.xxx.xxx ansible_host=167.172.xxx.xxx

Answer 3

In general we should use domain credentials not the key based authentication to run playbook from control node to any of your remote server.

But in your case you are trying to authenticate using the root user and the key. So follow the below steps:

1. Create an user named ansible & Create key at control node ( ansible master server) for user “ansible”.
2. If you created keys for this user will get two files private-key & public-key.

3. Copy the public key content into remote servers “/home/ansible/.ssh/authorized_keys” which you want to manage via an ansible control node.

4. Now check the SSH using below command ssh -i /path/to/private-key ansible@<remoteserverip>

   Hope this helps.

Answer 4

I had the same issue and direct SSH connection (without arguments) worked, but not with ansible. It turned out to be a networking issue as I was connected to the network by ethernet cable and also by WLAN, and at that time the WLAN was under maintenance and some connections were routed over WLAN and could never be established.