topic Re: Ansible ping module returns wrong results. Pong even if host is down in Controllers

Ansible ping module returns wrong results. Pong even if host is down

Stephan Grohmann — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 07:53:44 GMT

Hello there,

this is my very first post here in the Devnet Community. Hope you are all well..

I am just getting my feet wet with ansible, and keep running into all sorts of issues.

Some of them I could fix myself but thisone really gets me..

I have a ansible 2.9.9 running on Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS

My host file is rather simple:

[all:vars]
# these defaults can be overridden for any group in the [group:vars] section
ansible_connection=local
ansible_network_os=ios

[hosts]
TEST-HOST ansible_host=10.10.10.4

If i now try to ping this host group it seems to work:

$ ansible hosts -m ping
TEST-HOST | SUCCESS => {
"ansible_facts": {
"discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
},
"changed": false,
"ping": "pong"

So I thought - sweet this is working.. But than i wanted to test further and changed the IP of the test host to somehtign that will NOT respond. i.e. 5.5.5.5

[all:vars]
# these defaults can be overridden for any group in the [group:vars] section
ansible_connection=local
ansible_network_os=ios

[hosts]
TEST-HOST ansible_host=5.5.5.5

If I try to ping 5.5.5.5 from the Ansible server it fails

ping 5.5.5.5
PING 5.5.5.5 (5.5.5.5) 56(84) bytes of data.
^C
--- 5.5.5.5 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 4031ms

But using the ansible ping module this still returns pong 😞

$ ansible hosts -m ping
TEST-HOST | SUCCESS => {
"ansible_facts": {
"discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
},
"changed": false,
"ping": "pong"

I tried messing with the connection types, i.e. setting it to local. But that doesnt help.

If I remove the connection type ping doesnt work at all - even againt the correct IP address..

Can you guys push me in the right direction?

Thanks a lot and greetings from Munich

Kibo

Re: Ansible ping module returns wrong results. Pong even if host is down

omz — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 06:32:35 GMT

Ping is used to verify the ability to login and that a usable Python is configured.
This is NOT ICMP ping, this is just a trivial test module that requires Python on the remote-node.
For Windows targets, use the win_ping module instead.
For Network targets, use the net_ping module instead.

Regarding ansible_connection see all the connection types - https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/plugins/connection.html

ansible_connection=local with run the ping on the localhost.

ansible_connection=ssh will target the host in the inventory.

[all:vars]
# these defaults can be overridden for any group in the [group:vars] section
ansible_connection=ssh
ansible_network_os=ios

[hosts]
TEST-HOST ansible_host=10.10.10.4

I don't have 10.10.10.4 on my network

neteng@neteng-dev:~$ ansible -i hosts all -m ping
TEST-HOST | UNREACHABLE! => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: connect to host 10.10.10.4 port 22: No route to host",
    "unreachable": true
}
neteng@neteng-dev:~$

Changed ansible_connection from ssh to local

neteng@neteng-dev:~$ ansible -i hosts all -m ping
TEST-HOST | SUCCESS => {
    "ansible_facts": {
        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
    },
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"
}
neteng@neteng-dev:~$

Hope this helps

Re: Ansible ping module returns wrong results. Pong even if host is down

Stephan Grohmann — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 08:36:14 GMT

Thanks a lot for your feedback. That did already help me understand this a lot better..

I still run into problems though...

I tried changing the connection to ssh before - but when I did so, I got this SSH error message when trying to use the ping module. $ ansible hosts -m ping
TEST-HOST | UNREACHABLE! => {
"changed": false,
"msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: connect to host 10.10.10.4 port 22: Connection timed out",
"unreachable": true
}

When I try to use a net_ping I get this error

ansible hosts -m net_ping
TEST-HOST | FAILED! => {
"changed": false,
"msg": "Connection type ssh is not valid for this module"
}

Thanks a lot again

Kibo

Re: Ansible ping module returns wrong results. Pong even if host is down

omz — Sat, 20 Jun 2020 11:44:50 GMT

Example hosts file with connection local. Test-Host is a reachable Cisco router, Ubuntu is a reachable VM and NoHost doesn't exist on the network. Both Ubuntu and Cisco have ssh enabled and able to ssh with a valid user from cli or putty.

[all:vars]
# these defaults can be overridden for any group in the [group:vars] section
ansible_connection=local
ansible_network_os=ios

[hosts]
TEST-HOST ansible_host=192.168.106.142
Ubuntu ansible_host=192.168.106.152
NoHost ansible_host=192.168.200.200

Result - all hosts ping:pong. Even NoHost because the connection is local.

neteng@neteng-dev:~$ ansible -i hosts all -m ping
TEST-HOST | SUCCESS => {
    "ansible_facts": {
        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
    },
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"
}
NoHost | SUCCESS => {
    "ansible_facts": {
        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
    },
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"
}
Ubuntu | SUCCESS => {
    "ansible_facts": {
        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
    },
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"
}

Result with connection ssh. All come up Unreachable ... because Ansible is using the currently logged in user "neteng" to connect that is not a valid user configured on the devices.

neteng@neteng-dev:~$ ansible -i hosts all -m ping
Ubuntu | UNREACHABLE! => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: neteng@192.168.106.152: Permission denied (publickey,password).",
    "unreachable": true
}
TEST-HOST | UNREACHABLE! => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: Warning: Permanently added '192.168.106.142' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.\r\nneteng@192.168.106.142: Permission denied (publickey,keyboard-interactive,password).",
    "unreachable": true
}
NoHost | UNREACHABLE! => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: connect to host 192.168.200.200 port 22: Connection timed out",
    "unreachable": true
}

hosts file with username and password. I have different users .. if the same user has access to both devices, username and password can be given only once under [all:vars]

[all:vars]
ansible_connection=ssh
[hosts]
TEST-HOST ansible_host=192.168.106.142 ansible_user=admin ansible_ssh_pass=cisco
Ubuntu ansible_host=192.168.106.152 ansible_user=neteng ansible_ssh_pass=neteng
NoHost ansible_host=192.168.200.200

Result - Ubuntu is Success as it can ssh with a valid user. Cisco is now Failed vs Unreachable earlier. Cisco router dint recognise bash command - /bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/python

ansible -i hosts all -m ping

Ubuntu | SUCCESS => {
    "ansible_facts": {
        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
    },
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"
}
TEST-HOST | FAILED! => {
    "ansible_facts": {
        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
    },
    "changed": false,
    "module_stderr": "Shared connection to 192.168.106.142 closed.\r\n",
    "module_stdout": "\r\nLine has invalid autocommand \"/bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/python '\"'\"'Line has invalid autocommand \"/bin/sh -c '\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'( umask 77 && mkdir -p \"` echo Line has invalid autocommand \"/bin/sh -c '\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'echo ~admin && sleep 0'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"'\"",
    "msg": "MODULE FAILURE\nSee stdout/stderr for the exact error",
    "rc": 0
}
NoHost | UNREACHABLE! => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: connect to host 192.168.200.200 port 22: Connection timed out",
    "unreachable": true
}

with connection - ssh and using net_ping. All failed because ssh is not valid for net_ping module we need to use local

ansible -i hosts all -m net_ping
NoHost | FAILED! => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "Connection type ssh is not valid for this module"
}
TEST-HOST | FAILED! => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "Connection type ssh is not valid for this module"
}
Ubuntu | FAILED! => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "Connection type ssh is not valid for this module"
}

with connection - local

Ubuntu | FAILED! => {
    "ansible_facts": {
        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
    },
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "missing required arguments: dest"
}
TEST-HOST | FAILED! => {
    "ansible_facts": {
        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
    },
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "missing required arguments: dest"

net_ping module for network devices requires an additional parameter dest=192.168.106.142.

For multiple hosts we can give dest like this

net_ping:
    dest: 10.10.10.10

more info - https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/modules/net_ping_module.html

For my one host, I can pass an additional argument to the module from cli using -a dest=192.168.106.142

ansible -i hosts TEST-HOST -m net_ping -a dest=192.168.106.142

TEST-HOST | SUCCESS => {
    "ansible_facts": {
        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
    },
    "changed": false,
    "commands": [
        "ping 192.168.106.142"
    ],
    "packet_loss": "0%",
    "packets_rx": 5,
    "packets_tx": 5,
    "rtt": {
        "avg": 1,
        "max": 1,
        "min": 1
    }
}

Hope this helps

Please dont forget to hit the Helpful button for any helpful posts.

Re: Ansible ping module returns wrong results. Pong even if host is down

Stephan Grohmann — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 08:40:53 GMT

Thanks @omz for your detailed feedback.

Is it just me - Or should this ping module be much more simple.

There should be an easy way to just ping all devince in the hosts file and see if they are up...

Anyway - I am happy to see it's not just me... Your results are similar to my findings/experience.

Bottom line - this is all very confusing - being new to the world of ansible 🙂

Thanks a bunch.

Kibo