Introduction

Today we’re going to talk about Ansible troubleshooting, specifically about the “This command has to be run under the root user” message. This fatal error message happens when we are trying to execute a module that requires more privilege during module execution. These circumstances are usually related to Ansible Playbook or Ansible configuration. I’m Luca Berton and welcome to today’s episode of Ansible Pilot.

Playbook

The best way of talking about Ansible troubleshooting is to jump in a live Playbook to show you practically the “This command has to be run under the root user” and how to solve it! This Playbook is going to try to install the “rsync” package on our target system.

error code

---
- name: Troubleshooting under the root user
  hosts: all
  become: false
  tasks:
    - name: rsync installed
      ansible.builtin.package:
        name: rsync
        state: present

error execution

ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/demo/inventory troubleshooting/under_root_user_error.yml
PLAY [Troubleshooting under the root user] ********************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [rsync installed] ****************************************************************************
fatal: [demo.example.com]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "msg": "This command has to be run under the root user.", "results": []}
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com           : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
ansible-pilot $

fix code

---
- name: Troubleshooting under the root user
  hosts: all
  become: true
  tasks:
    - name: rsync installed
      ansible.builtin.package:
        name: rsync
        state: present

fix execution

ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/demo/inventory troubleshooting/under_root_user_fix.yml
PLAY [Troubleshooting under the root user] ********************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [rsync installed] ****************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com           : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
ansible-pilot $

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Conclusion

Now you know better how to troubleshoot the Ansible “This command has to be run under the root user.” message. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, Medium, and Website, X (formerly Twitter) to not miss the next episode of the Ansible Pilot.

Academy

Learn the Ansible automation technology with some real-life examples in my

My book Ansible By Examples: 200+ Automation Examples For Linux and Windows System Administrator and DevOps

BUY the Complete PDF BOOK to easily Copy and Paste the 250+ Ansible code

Want to keep this project going? Please donate

Patreon Buy me a Pizza