Shell module commands runs on Local Controller

[Harry Clendening]

Good morning,

I am attempting to use the (shell:) command to obtain the disk space for a remote host.  Once I get the command working, I'll then use AWK to filter the output.

However, the below example playbook insists on running the (shell:) command on the local Ansible control machine, and not the remote host (server1).  Thus, I end up with disk space (/var) for the Ansible machine, and NOT the remote host (server1).  Does anyone know how what I may be doing wrong?  Other commands for example (bigip_command:) run on the remote host fine.

If I enter a directory (chdir:) that only exists on the remote host, Ansible throws an error like "Directory does not exist", which is true, as it is looking on the local machine.

Thank you!

- name: Test Playbook
  hosts: server1
  connection: local
  gather_facts: true
   

  - name: Display Disk Space

    shell:

      cmd: df /var
      chdir: /var
    register: disk_space_output

[Brian Coca]

That is becase 'connection: local' forces using the 'local' connection
plugin, which means that instead of executing on the target it 'forks
locally' to execute the module.
Just remove it, 99% of the time you do not need to specify `connection`.

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Brian Coca

[Rowe, Walter P. (Fed)]

Just remove it, 99% of the time you do not need to specify `connection`.

.. and you still can delegate individual tasks to localhost when needed ..

Walter
--
Walter Rowe, Division Chief
Infrastructure Services, OISM
Mobile: 202.355.4123

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[Harry Clendening]

Hello Brian.  Thank you for your reply.  Please all me to provide some additional context based on your suggestion (I should have mentioned this on my initial post):

We are working with F5 BIG-IP devices and using REST API  (443) (https://clouddocs.f5.com/products/orchestration/ansible/devel/usage/playbook_tutorial.html) for the remote device connection, and not SSH (22).  If I remove (connection: local), Ansible try's to connect using SSH (22) (which is blocked).  Since the (shell:) module does not appear to support the F5 (provider:) credentials/connection (please see example below), I'm not sure how to get (shell:) to connect to a remote host.  I have tried adding (delegate_to: server1) to the (shell:) command and it simply ignores it.

vars:
  provider:
    password: password
    server: 1.1.1.1
    user: admin_name
    validate_certs: no
    server_port: 443

[Harry Clendening]

I can get the basic disk space command (df) to work when using a F5 module (bigip_command:) (which does use provider:).  However, the F5 modules do not support (AWK, GREP, SED, etc.) (which is a bummer), like (shell:) and (command:) do.  I may end up having to use (bigip_command:) to grab the disk space, and then use a separate Ansible (regex_search) task to filter for what I want, which is what I have done in the past (albeit this is an extra step).

[Rowe, Walter P. (Fed)]

If the F5 is returning structured data (ie. JSON), then set_fact tasks with filters can help you get to what you need.

Walter
--
Walter Rowe, Division Chief
Infrastructure Services, OISM
Mobile: 202.355.4123

[Harry Clendening]

Agreed.  This is essentially what I am doing now and it does work (pipe var to regex_search, etc.).  I was just hoping to get the (shell:) command to work in our environment, but with our setup, it does not appear to be possible.  I should also be to take the (bigip_command:) output, write the JSON to file, and then run AWK against the file.  I have not tried this yet.  I'll probably just stick with (regex_search) for now.  Thanks!

[Brian Coca]

shell and command require python on the remote, try raw instead

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Brian Coca