Ansible is giving below error - consul1 | UNREACHABLE!

Hello all and welcome again into my DevSecOps Blog!!

I am getting the below error while running the ansible consul1 -m ping on my Debian controller and host..

consul1 | UNREACHABLE! => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "Failed to create temporary directory.In some cases, you may have been able to authenticate and did not have permissions on the target directory. Consider changing the remote tmp path in ansible.cfg to a path rooted in \"/tmp\", for more error information use -vvv. Failed command was: ( umask 77 && mkdir -p \"` echo /home/ansible/.ansible/tmp `\"&& mkdir \"` echo /home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1723792189.0846684-1866486-106472010969667 `\" && echo ansible-tmp-1723792189.0846684-1866486-106472010969667=\"` echo /home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1723792189.0846684-1866486-106472010969667 `\" ), exited with result 127",
    "unreachable": true
}

....

As I could figure out a way to result from this - I consulted ChatGPT to help work around this..

Here is My prompt.

Prompt: 

[ Hey Brian, good morning .. I am getting below error while running the ansible consul1 -m ping on my debian controller and host. consul1 | UNREACHABLE! => { "changed": false, "msg": "Failed to create temporary directory.In some cases, you may have been able to authenticate and did not have permissions on the target directory. Consider changing the remote tmp path in ansible.cfg to a path rooted in \"/tmp\", for more error information use -vvv. Failed command was: ( umask 77 && mkdir -p \" echo /home/ansible/.ansible/tmp \"&& mkdir \" echo /home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1723792189.0846684-1866486-106472010969667 \" && echo ansible-tmp-1723792189.0846684-1866486-106472010969667=\" echo /home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1723792189.0846684-1866486-106472010969667 \" ), exited with result 127", "unreachable": true }" , can you please help me troubleshoot this and suggest me solutions for this problem?  ]

- I have made this GPT Myself and if you are into Code for Ansible you can find it here - Brian YML CODER. 

Ok, here is the output result.

The error message you're encountering suggests that Ansible is unable to create a temporary directory on the remote host. This issue is often related to permissions or the remote user not having the necessary privileges to create directories in the specified path.

Here’s a breakdown of the possible causes and steps you can take to troubleshoot and resolve this issue:

1. Permission Issues on the Remote Host

• Issue: The user under which Ansible is executing commands (likely ansible based on the paths) might not have the necessary permissions to create directories in the /home/ansible/.ansible/tmp directory.
• Solution: Ensure that the remote user has appropriate permissions to write to the /home/ansible/.ansible/tmp directory. You can do this by connecting to the remote host and manually checking the permissions:

  bash
  ssh user@remote_host
  mkdir -p /home/ansible/.ansible/tmp

  If the ansible user cannot create the directory, adjust the permissions or use sudo as needed.

2. Insufficient Space or Quota Limits

• Issue: The remote system might be out of disk space, or the user might have hit their quota limit, preventing directory creation.
• Solution: Check the available disk space on the remote host with:

  bash
  df -h
  

  Also, check if there are any quota limits set for the user:

  bash
  quota -v ansible
  

  Ensure that there is sufficient space, and no quota limits are being exceeded.

3. Invalid or Non-Standard Shell Environment

• Issue: The shell environment might not be set up correctly, or the shell is non-standard, which might cause issues with command execution.
• Solution: Verify the shell environment for the user, and ensure that it’s a standard shell like bash or sh. You can also check if the shell initialization files (.bashrc, .profile, etc.) are misconfigured or not being executed properly.

4. Change the Remote Temporary Directory Path

• Issue: The default temporary directory might not be accessible or appropriate.
• Solution: Change the temporary directory to a path under /tmp in your ansible.cfg. You can do this by adding or updating the following setting in your ansible.cfg:

  ini
  [defaults]
  remote_tmp = /tmp/.ansible/tmp
  

  This setting will ensure that the temporary directory is created in /tmp, which is generally accessible by all users.

5. Verbose Output for Detailed Error Information

• Issue: The error message might not provide enough details.
• Solution: Run the Ansible command with the -vvv flag for verbose output to get more detailed information:

  bash
  ansible consul1 -m ping -vvv
  

  This will give you more insight into what’s failing and why.

By following these steps, you should be able to identify the root cause of the issue. Let me know if any particular step is unclear, or if you encounter any additional errors while troubleshooting!