Ansible troubleshooting - Failed to connect to the host via ssh host localhost port 22

How to solve the error connection failed fatal error when connecting via ssh host localhost port 22 when testing your code on your local machine using ansible_connection local parameter.

October 12, 2022

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#ansible #troubleshooting #error #connection #ssh #localhost #error #fatal

Today we’re going to talk about Ansible troubleshooting, specifically about the failed connection to the host via ssh localhost error. I’m Luca Berton, and welcome to today’s episode of Ansible Pilot.

demo

A live demo of the Ansible connection failed problem and fixed in the inventory file. The exact error on the terminal is:

fatal: [localhost]: UNREACHABLE! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: connect to host localhost port 22: Connection refused", "unreachable": true}

error code

ping.yml

---
- name: ping module demo
  hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: test connection
      ansible.builtin.ping:

inventory

localhost

error execution

ansible-playbook -i inventory ping.yml
PLAY [ping module demo] *****************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ******************************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: UNREACHABLE! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: connect to host localhost port 22: Connection refused", "unreachable": true}
PLAY RECAP ******************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=0    changed=0    unreachable=1    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

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fix code

ping.yml

---
- name: ping module demo
  hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: test connection
      ansible.builtin.ping:

inventory

localhost ansible_connection=local

fix execution

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory ping.yml
PLAY [ping module demo] *****************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ******************************************************************
[WARNING]: Platform darwin on host localhost is using the discovered Python interpreter
at /opt/homebrew/bin/python3.10, but future installation of another Python interpreter
could change the meaning of that path. See https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-
core/2.13/reference_appendices/interpreter_discovery.html for more information.
ok: [localhost]
TASK [test connection] ******************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
PLAY RECAP ******************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

Recap

Now you know better how to troubleshoot the most common Ansible error about failed to connect to the host via ssh host localhost port 22. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, Medium, Website, Twitter, and Substack to not miss the next episode of the Ansible Pilot.