Ansible troubleshooting - Destination does not exist rc 257
How to troubleshoot the error “Destination does not exist”, return code 257 enabling PasswordAuthentication for SSH using Ansible lineinfile module.


Today we’re going to talk about Ansible troubleshooting, specifically about the “Destination does not exist” message, “return code 257”.
This fatal error message happens when we are trying to edit a file that doesn’t exist on the target file system. The root cause could be a misspelled file or not existing at all.
These circumstances are usually related to Ansible Playbook or Ansible configuration.
I’m Luca Berton and welcome to today’s episode of Ansible Pilot.
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demo
The best way of talking about Ansible troubleshooting is to jump in a live demo to show you practically the “Destination does not exist”, return code 257, and how to solve it!
This demo is going to try to edit a configuration file “/etc/ssh/sshd_config” misspelled on our target system.
error code
- destinationdoesnotexist_257_error.yml
---
- name: PasswordAuthentication enabled
hosts: all
become: true
gather_facts: false
tasks:
- name: ssh PasswordAuthentication
ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
dest: /etc/ssh/sshd_config2
regexp: '^PasswordAuthentication'
line: "PasswordAuthentication yes"
state: present
notify: ssh restart
handlers:
- name: ssh restart
ansible.builtin.service:
name: sshd
state: restarted
error execution
$ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/demo/inventory troubleshooting/destinationdoesnotexist_257_error.yml
PLAY [PasswordAuthentication enabled] *************************************************************
TASK [ssh PasswordAuthentication] *****************************************************************
fatal: [demo.example.com]: FAILED! => {"ansible_facts": {"discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/libexec/platform-python"}, "changed": false, "msg": "Destination /etc/ssh/sshad_config2 does not exist !", "rc": 257}
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com : ok=0 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=1 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
fix code
- destinationdoesnotexist_257_fix.yml
---
- name: PasswordAuthentication enabled
hosts: all
become: true
gather_facts: false
tasks:
- name: ssh PasswordAuthentication
ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
dest: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
regexp: '^PasswordAuthentication'
line: "PasswordAuthentication yes"
state: present
notify: ssh restart
handlers:
- name: ssh restart
ansible.builtin.service:
name: sshd
state: restarted
fix execution
$ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/demo/inventory edit\ single-line\ text/enable_password_auth.yml
PLAY [PasswordAuthentication enabled] *************************************************************
TASK [ssh PasswordAuthentication] *****************************************************************
changed: [demo.example.com]
RUNNING HANDLER [ssh restart] *********************************************************************
changed: [demo.example.com]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com : ok=2 changed=2 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
verification
$ ssh [email protected]
[devops@demo ~]$ sudo su
[root@demo devops]# grep 'PasswordAuthentication yes' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
#PasswordAuthentication yes
PasswordAuthentication yes
[root@demo devops]# systemctl status sshd
● sshd.service - OpenSSH server daemon
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/sshd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2022-07-11 08:49:05 UTC; 56s ago
Docs: man:sshd(8)
man:sshd_config(5)
Main PID: 5106 (sshd)
Tasks: 1 (limit: 4952)
Memory: 2.8M
CGroup: /system.slice/sshd.service
└─5106 /usr/sbin/sshd -D -u0 -oCiphers=[email protected],chacha20-poly1305@openssh>
Jul 11 08:49:05 demo.example.com systemd[1]: sshd.service: Succeeded.
Jul 11 08:49:05 demo.example.com systemd[1]: Stopped OpenSSH server daemon.
Jul 11 08:49:05 demo.example.com systemd[1]: Starting OpenSSH server daemon...
Jul 11 08:49:05 demo.example.com sshd[5106]: Server listening on 0.0.0.0 port 22.
Jul 11 08:49:05 demo.example.com sshd[5106]: Server listening on :: port 22.
Jul 11 08:49:05 demo.example.com systemd[1]: Started OpenSSH server daemon.
Jul 11 08:49:29 demo.example.com sshd[5123]: Accepted publickey for devops from 192.168.43.5 port >
Jul 11 08:49:29 demo.example.com sshd[5123]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session opened for user devop>
[root@demo devops]#
Recap
Now you know better how to troubleshoot the Ansible destination does not exist error
, return code 257 and solve it!
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