Ansible setting up indempotent playbook with nonstandard ssh port

Question

I set up my servers with non-standard ssh port. I would like to find a way to build an indempotent master playbook, but I seem to have trouble with an UNREACHABLE error while gathering facts.

I have been trying to use this post as a guide: https://dmsimard.com/2016/03/15/changing-the-ssh-port-with-ansible/

However, I am not even able to get to that first step if my port is configured differently.

My master playbook looks like this:

# master playbook
---
- name: Install all the packages for a server
  hosts: test-collection-01
  vars_files:
    - vars/test_collection.yml
  remote_user: foo_user
  roles:
    - debugger

Then, the debug playbook contains pretty much what the aforementioned blog post contains.

---
- name: DEBUG FACTS
  debug:
    msg: 'ansible port: {{ ansible_port }}\,Configured Hostname: {{ inventory_hostname }}'


- name: Try initial ssh port
  set_fact:
    ansible_port: 22

...

However, If my server has already had its ssh port changed to something else, the playbook wont even run and it fails in the "Gathering Facts" step.

TASK [Gathering Facts] 
***
fatal: [198.199.x.x]: UNREACHABLE! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: connect to host 198.199.x.x port 22: Connection refused\r\n", "unreachable": true}

Is there a way to run the port checking code during "Gathering Facts" or before?

Answer 1

Before any of your tasks, Ansible by default, implicitly runs a setup task (gathering facts) which uses the default connection parameters and this is where your play fails.

Add gather_facts: false to your play to avoid that:

---
- name: Install all the packages for a server
  hosts: test-collection-01
  gather_facts: false
  vars_files:
    - vars/test_collection.yml
  remote_user: foo_user
  roles:
    - debugger

Then, if you need the facts, explicitly add setup task after you established the correct port.