Ansible Pilot

Ansible troubleshooting - Module Failure on Windows-target

How to reproduce, troubleshoot, and fix the Module Failure Ansible fatal error on Windows-target. Demo code included for download file example.

February 8, 2022
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Today we’re going to talk about Ansible troubleshooting, specifically about the Module Failure on Windows-target. I’m Luca Berton and welcome to today’s episode of Ansible Pilot.

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How to troubleshoot the Module Failure on Windows-target.

error code

---
- name: win_get_url module demo
  hosts: all
  become: false
  vars:
    myurl: "https://releases.ansible.com/ansible/ansible-2.9.25.tar.gz"
    mydest: 'C:\Users\vagrant\Desktop\ansible-2.9.25.tar.gz'
  tasks:
    - name: download file
      ansible.builtin.get_url:
        url: "{{ myurl }}"
        dest: "{{ mydest }}"

error execution

ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/win/inventory troubleshooting/get_url_error.yml
PLAY [win_get_url module demo] ********************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
TASK [download file] ******************************************************************************
[WARNING]: No python interpreters found for host WindowsServer (tried ['python3.10', 'python3.9',
'python3.8', 'python3.7', 'python3.6', 'python3.5', '/usr/bin/python3', '/usr/libexec/platform-
python', 'python2.7', 'python2.6', '/usr/bin/python', 'python'])
fatal: [WindowsServer]: FAILED! => {"ansible_facts": {"discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"}, "changed": false, "module_stderr": "Exception calling \"Create\" with \"1\" argument(s): \"At line:4 char:21\r\n+ def _ansiballz_main():\r\n+                     ~\r\nAn expression was expected after '('.\r\nAt line:8 char:19\r\n+         os.getcwd()\r\n+                   ~\r\nAn expression was expected after '('.\r\nAt line:20 char:27\r\n+     except (AttributeError, OSError):\r\n+                           ~\r\nMissing argument in parameter list.\r\nAt line:22 char:29\r\n+     excludes = set(('', '.', scriptdir))\r\n+                             ~\r\nMissing expression after ','.\r\nAt line:22 char:30\r\n+     excludes = set(('', '.', scriptdir))\r\n+                              ~~~~~~~~~\r\nUnexpected token 'scriptdir' in expression or statement.\r\nAt line:22 char:29\r\n+     excludes = set(('', '.', scriptdir))\r\n+                             ~\r\nMissing closing ')' in expression.\r\nAt line:22 char:39\r\n+     excludes = set(('', '.', scriptdir))\r\n+                                       ~\r\nUnexpected token ')' in expression or statement.\r\nAt line:22 char:40\r\n+     excludes = set(('', '.', scriptdir))\r\n+                                        ~\r\nUnexpected token ')' in expression or statement.\r\nAt line:29 char:7\r\n+     if sys.version_info < (3,):\r\n+       ~\r\nMissing '(' after 'if' in if statement.\r\nAt line:29 char:30\r\n+     if sys.version_info < (3,):\r\n+                              ~\r\nMissing expression after ','.\r\nNot all parse errors were reported.  Correct the reported errors and try again.\"\r\nAt line:10 char:1\r\n+ $exec_wrapper = [ScriptBlock]::Create($split_parts[0])\r\n+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\r\n    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException\r\n    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParseException\r\n \r\nThe expression after '&' in a pipeline element produced an object that was not valid. It must result in a command \r\nname, a script block, or a CommandInfo object.\r\nAt line:11 char:2\r\n+ &$exec_wrapper\r\n+  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~\r\n    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException\r\n    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : BadExpression\r\n ", "module_stdout": "", "msg": "MODULE FAILURE\nSee stdout/stderr for the exact error", "rc": 1}
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
WindowsServer              : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
ansible-pilot $

fix code

---
- name: win_get_url module demo
  hosts: all
  become: false
  vars:
    myurl: "https://releases.ansible.com/ansible/ansible-2.9.25.tar.gz"
    mydest: 'C:\Users\vagrant\Desktop\ansible-2.9.25.tar.gz'
  tasks:
    - name: download file
      ansible.windows.win_get_url:
        url: "{{ myurl }}"
        dest: "{{ mydest }}"

fix execution

ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/win/inventory troubleshooting/get_url_fix.yml
PLAY [win_get_url module demo] ********************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
TASK [download file] ******************************************************************************
changed: [WindowsServer]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
WindowsServer              : ok=2    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
ansible-pilot $

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Recap

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