Mail Module: "Connection unexpectedly closed: timed out"

[Bharath Kumar]

Hello Ansible Team/Users,

I have a Playbook which is expected to send an email, as below. When run, it errors out with "Unable to Connect mailer.domain.com:25: Connection unexpectedly closed: timed out".

---
- hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: yes

  vars_prompt:
    - name: file
      prompt: "Please enter the name of the .zip file to email!"
      private: no

  tasks:

  - name: Sending Email
    mail:
      host: mailer.domain.com
      port: 25
      subject: Ansible Test
      from: FromAddress@DOMAIN.COM
      to:
      - ToAddress@DOMAIN.COM
      cc:
      - CCAddress@DOMAIN.COM
      subtype: html
      secure: starttls
      timeout: 120
      attach:
      - "~/{{ file }}.zip"

Returns the below ERROR.

[bharath@acm ~]$ ansible-playbook test.yml -vvvv
ansible-playbook 2.7.4
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/home/nfs-home/bharath/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible-playbook
  python version = 2.7.5 (default, Sep 12 2018, 05:31:16) [GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-36)]
Using /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as config file
setting up inventory plugins
/home/nfs-home/bharath/hosts did not meet host_list requirements, check plugin documentation if this is unexpected
/home/nfs-home/bharath/hosts did not meet script requirements, check plugin documentation if this is unexpected
Parsed /home/nfs-home/bharath/hosts inventory source with ini plugin
Loading callback plugin default of type stdout, v2.0 from /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible/plugins/callback/default.pyc

PLAYBOOK: test.yml ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
1 plays in test.yml
Please enter the name of the .zip file to email!!: test

PLAY [localhost] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
task path: /home/nfs-home/bharath/test.yml:2
<127.0.0.1> ESTABLISH LOCAL CONNECTION FOR USER: bharath
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '( umask 77 && mkdir -p "` echo /tmp/.ansible-${USER}/ansible-tmp-1545085312.03-180815852497310 `" && echo ansible-tmp-1545085312.03-180815852497310="` echo /tmp/.ansible-${USER}/ansible-tmp-1545085312.03-180815852497310 `" ) && sleep 0'
Using module file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible/modules/system/setup.py
<127.0.0.1> PUT /home/nfs-home/bharath/.ansible/ansible-local-53102i8q99p/tmpDy7Vr0 TO /tmp/.ansible-bharath/ansible-tmp-1545085312.03-180815852497310/AnsiballZ_setup.py
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c 'chmod u+x /tmp/.ansible-bharath/ansible-tmp-1545085312.03-180815852497310/ /tmp/.ansible-bharath/ansible-tmp-1545085312.03-180815852497310/AnsiballZ_setup.py && sleep 0'
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/python2 /tmp/.ansible-bharath/ansible-tmp-1545085312.03-180815852497310/AnsiballZ_setup.py && sleep 0'
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c 'rm -f -r /tmp/.ansible-bharath/ansible-tmp-1545085312.03-180815852497310/ > /dev/null 2>&1 && sleep 0'
ok: [localhost]
META: ran handlers

TASK [Sending Email] **********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
task path: /home/nfs-home/bharath/test.yml:12
<127.0.0.1> ESTABLISH LOCAL CONNECTION FOR USER: bharath
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '( umask 77 && mkdir -p "` echo /tmp/.ansible-${USER}/ansible-tmp-1545085313.79-80160480232068 `" && echo ansible-tmp-1545085313.79-80160480232068="` echo /tmp/.ansible-${USER}/ansible-tmp-1545085313.79-80160480232068 `" ) && sleep 0'
Using module file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible/modules/notification/mail.py
<127.0.0.1> PUT /home/nfs-home/bharath/.ansible/ansible-local-53102i8q99p/tmpACwk7J TO /tmp/.ansible-bharath/ansible-tmp-1545085313.79-80160480232068/AnsiballZ_mail.py
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c 'chmod u+x /tmp/.ansible-bharath/ansible-tmp-1545085313.79-80160480232068/ /tmp/.ansible-bharath/ansible-tmp-1545085313.79-80160480232068/AnsiballZ_mail.py && sleep 0'
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/python2 /tmp/.ansible-bharath/ansible-tmp-1545085313.79-80160480232068/AnsiballZ_mail.py && sleep 0'
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c 'rm -f -r /tmp/.ansible-bharath/ansible-tmp-1545085313.79-80160480232068/ > /dev/null 2>&1 && sleep 0'
The full traceback is:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/tmp/ansible_mail_payload_fe4hgc/__main__.py", line 263, in main
    code, smtpmessage = smtp.connect(host, port)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/smtplib.py", line 316, in connect
    (code, msg) = self.getreply()
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/smtplib.py", line 364, in getreply
    + str(e))
SMTPServerDisconnected: Connection unexpectedly closed: timed out

fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {
    "changed": false,
    "invocation": {
        "module_args": {
            "attach": [
                "~/test.zip"
            ],
            "bcc": [],
            "body": null,
            "cc": [
                "CCAd...@DOMAIN.COM"
            ],
            "charset": "utf-8",
            "from": "FromA...@DOMAIN.COM",
            "headers": [],
            "host": "mailer.domain.com",
            "password": null,
            "port": 25,
            "secure": "never",
            "sender": "FromA...@DOMAIN.COM",
            "subject": "Ansible Test",
            "subtype": "html",
            "timeout": 120,
            "to": [
                "ToAd...@DOMAIN.COM"
            ],
            "username": null
        }
    },
    "msg": "Unable to Connect mailer.domain.com:25: Connection unexpectedly closed: timed out",
    "rc": 1
}
        to retry, use: --limit @/home/nfs-home/bharath/test.retry

PLAY RECAP ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1

However, the below simple python code can send an email successfully.

#!/usr/bin/python

import smtplib
sender = 'FromA...@DOMAIN.COM'
receivers = ['ToAd...@DOMAIN.COM']

message = """
Ansible Test
"""

try:
   smtpObj = smtplib.SMTP('mailer.domain.com', 25)
   smtpObj.sendmail(sender, receivers, message)
   print "Successfully sent email"
except SMTPException:
   print "Error: unable to send email"

Can anyone please let me know where am I going wrong. Or, any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.