Ansible troubleshooting - Permission denied Errno 13

How to troubleshoot the Permission denied Errno 13 Ansible fatal error and workaround the problem using the privilege escalation on Ansible Playbook.

February 22, 2022

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#ansible #troubleshooting #permisison #denied #linux #error #fatal #13

Today we’re going to talk about Ansible troubleshooting, specifically about permission denied [Errno 13]. I’m Luca Berton and welcome to today’s episode of Ansible Pilot.

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How to troubleshoot the Ansible fatal error[Errno 13] Permission denied and fix in Ansible Playbook code.

error code

---
- name: set environment demo
  hosts: all
  gather_facts: false
  vars:
    os_environment:
      - key: EDITOR
        value: vi
  tasks:
    - name: customize /etc/environment
      ansible.builtin.lineinline:
        dest: "/etc/environment"
        state: present
        regexp: "^{{ item.key }}="
        line: "{{ item.key }}={{ item.value }}"
      with_items: "{{ os_environment }}"

error execution

ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/demo/inventory troubleshooting/permissiondenied_error.yml
PLAY [set environment demo] ***********************************************************************
TASK [customize /etc/environment] *****************************************************************
An exception occurred during task execution. To see the full traceback, use -vvv. The error was: PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: b'/home/devops/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1645543127.772594-89712-144540003805636/tmpvhoh4q83' -> b'/etc/environment'
failed: [demo.example.com] (item={'key': 'EDITOR', 'value': 'vi'}) => {"ansible_facts": {"discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/libexec/platform-python"}, "ansible_loop_var": "item", "changed": false, "item": {"key": "EDITOR", "value": "vi"}, "msg": "The destination directory (/etc) is not writable by the current user. Error was: [Errno 13] Permission denied: b'/etc/.ansible_tmp_hwdwg3denvironment'"}
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com           : ok=0    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
ansible-pilot $

fix code

---
- name: set environment demo
  hosts: all
  gather_facts: false
  become: true
  vars:
    os_environment:
      - key: EDITOR
        value: vi
  tasks:
    - name: customize /etc/environment
      ansible.builtin.lineinline:
        dest: "/etc/environment"
        state: present
        regexp: "^{{ item.key }}="
        line: "{{ item.key }}={{ item.value }}"
      with_items: "{{ os_environment }}"

fix execution

ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/demo/inventory troubleshooting/permissiondenied_fix.yml
PLAY [set environment demo] ***********************************************************************
TASK [customize /etc/environment] *****************************************************************
changed: [demo.example.com] => (item={'key': 'EDITOR', 'value': 'vi'})
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com           : ok=1    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
ansible-pilot $

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Recap

Now you know better how to troubleshoot the Ansible[Errno 13] Permission denied error. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, Medium, Website, Twitter, and Substack to not miss the next episode of the Ansible Pilot.