Ansible troubleshooting - This command has to be run under the root user

Permission error messages are annoying Ansible problems. In a live demo, we are going to troubleshoot starting from the error message. We are going to investigate the root cause of the problem and fix using the package module.

March 28, 2022

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#ansible #troubleshooting #permission #linux

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.

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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 “This command has to be run under the root user” and how to solve it! This demo 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

Recap

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, Website, Twitter, and Substack to not miss the next episode of the Ansible Pilot.