yum module: removing groups failing

[John Harmon]

I have the following, but it fails.  Do I have a syntax issue or something?  I can't seem to find the problem.

- hosts: "{{ host }}"
  tasks:
    - name: Remove GUI
      yum:
        name: "{{ item }}"
        state: absent
      with_items:
        - "@Console internet tools"
        - "@General Purpose Desktop"
        - "@Graphical Administration Tools"
        - "@Graphics Creation Tools"
        - "@Internet Browser"
        - "@KDE Desktop"
        - "@Legacy X Window System compatibility"
        - "@Remote Desktop Clients"
        - "@TeX support"
        - "@Technical Writing"
        - "@X Window System"
        - "@Desktop"
        - "@Desktop Debugging and Performance Tools"
        - "@Dial-up Networking Support"
        - "@Remote Desktop Clients"

Result:

TASK [Remove GUI]
failed: [ansible-oel6] (item=[u'@Console internet tools', u'@General Purpose Desktop', u'@Graphical Administration Tools', u'@Graphics Creation Tools', u'@Internet Browser', u'@KDE Desktop', u'@Legacy X Window System compatibility', u'@Remote Desktop Clients', u'@TeX support', u'@Technical Writing', u'@X Window System', u'@Desktop', u'@Desktop Debugging and Performance Tools', u'@Dial-up Networking Support', u'@Remote Desktop Clients']) => {"changed": false, "failed": true, "item": ["@Console internet tools", "@General Purpose Desktop", "@Graphical Administration Tools", "@Graphics Creation Tools", "@Internet Browser", "@KDE Desktop", "@Legacy X Window System compatibility", "@Remote Desktop Clients", "@TeX support", "@Technical Writing", "@X Window System", "@Desktop", "@Desktop Debugging and Performance Tools", "@Dial-up Networking Support", "@Remote Desktop Clients"], "msg": "", "rc": 0, "results": ["@Console internet tools is not installed", "@General Purpose Desktop is not installed", "@Graphical Administration Tools is not installed", "@Graphics Creation Tools is not installed", "@Internet Browser is not installed", "@KDE Desktop is not installed", "@Legacy X Window System compatibility is not installed", "@Remote Desktop Clients is not installed", "@TeX support is not installed", "@Technical Writing is not installed", "@X Window System is not installed", "@Desktop is not installed", "@Dial-up Networking Support is not installed", "@Remote Desktop Clients is not installed", "Loaded plugins: security\nSetting up Remove Process\nNo Packages marked for removal\n"]}

PLAY RECAP *******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ansible-oel6               : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1

[John Harmon]

anyone?

[Steve McKuhr]

On Tue Oct 31 2017 12:45:54 GMT-0700 (PDT) John Harmon <jharmon...@gmail.com> wrote:
> msg":"","rc":0,"results":
> ["@Console internet tools is not installed",
> "@General Purpose Desktop is not installed",
> "@Graphical Administration Tools is not installed",
> "@Graphics Creation Tools is not installed",
> "@Internet Browser is not installed",
> "@KDE Desktop is not installed",
> "@Legacy X Window System compatibility is not installed",
> "@Remote Desktop Clients is not installed",
> "@TeX support is not installed",
> "@Technical Writing is not installed",
> "@X Window System is not installed",
> "@Desktop is not installed",
> "@Dial-up Networking Support is not installed",
> "@Remote Desktop Clients is not installed",
> "Loaded plugins: security\nSetting up Remove Process\nNo Packages
> marked for removal\n"]}

It looks to me like that's the clue: are any of the groups in
'with_items' installed?

So although Ansible command completed successfully the yum return code
is 1 which accounts for a failure:

[root@leel ~]# dnf remove "@x" ; echo $?
Warning: Group 'x' is not installed.
Error: No groups marked for removal.
1

Does that make sense?

-Steve

[John Harmon]

All of the groups are installed on the managed server.  If I run yum groupremove <groupname> on the server it removes fine.  It is just within ansible that it is failing.  Ansible has you reference groups with @groupname in the yum module.  These aren't environment groups (referenced with @^groupname)

[John Harmon]

Is this a bug perhaps?  If I change state to present, it will install the packages just fine.  If I changed the state to absent or removed, it fails.  If I leave it at absent, and change my first with_item to include {} within the quotes, then some of the packages are removed and some fail.  This is just weird.

[Steve McKuhr]

On Fri Nov 03 2017 11:04:46 GMT-0700 (PDT) John Harmon

Same results with the DNF plugin?

--
Viorel

[John Harmon]

TASK [Remove GUI from servers] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
failed: [ansible-oel6] (item=[u'@Console internet tools', u'@General Purpose Desktop', u'@Graphical Administration Tools', u'@Graphics Creation Tools', u'@Internet Browser', u'@KDE Desktop', u'@Legacy X Window System compatibility', u'@Remote Desktop Clients', u'@TeX support', u'@Technical Writing', u'@X Window System', u'@Desktop', u'@Desktop Debugging and Performance Tools', u'@Dial-up Networking Support', u'@Remote Desktop Clients']) => {"changed": false, "cmd": "dnf install -y python2-dnf", "failed": true, "item": ["@Console internet tools", "@General Purpose Desktop", "@Graphical Administration Tools", "@Graphics Creation Tools", "@Internet Browser", "@KDE Desktop", "@Legacy X Window System compatibility", "@Remote Desktop Clients", "@TeX support", "@Technical Writing", "@X Window System", "@Desktop", "@Desktop Debugging and Performance Tools", "@Dial-up Networking Support", "@Remote Desktop Clients"], "msg": "[Errno 2] No such file or directory", "rc": 2}

[John Harmon]

dnf..... interesting.  I learned something new.

These boxes do not have dnf on then, nor do the epel-repos tied to them.  They are OEL 6.5 boxes for the most part.  Some are OEL 6.9

[John Harmon]

Anyone else?   This is still an issue.

TASK [Remove GUI from servers] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
failed: [ansible-oel6] (item=[u'@Console internet tools', u'@General Purpose Desktop', u'@Graphical Administration Tools', u'@Graphics Creation Tools', u'@Internet Browser', u'@KDE Desktop', u'@Legacy X Window System compatibility', u'@Remote Desktop Clients', u'@TeX support', u'@Technical Writing', u'@X Window System', u'@Desktop', u'@Desktop Debugging and Performance Tools', u'@Dial-up Networking Support', u'@Remote Desktop Clients']) => {"changed": false, "cmd": "dnf install -y python2-dnf", "failed": true, "item": ["@Console internet tools", "@General Purpose Desktop", "@Graphical Administration Tools", "@Graphics Creation Tools", "@Internet Browser", "@KDE Desktop", "@Legacy X Window System compatibility", "@Remote Desktop Clients", "@TeX support", "@Technical Writing", "@X Window System", "@Desktop", "@Desktop Debugging and Performance Tools", "@Dial-up Networking Support", "@Remote Desktop Clients"], "msg": "[Errno 2] No such file or directory", "rc": 2}

...ignoring

[John Harmon]

Well, the last failure is due to using dnf on this box, which doesn't exist... that makes sense.   I tried this same yml on a rhel6 box and it worked fine.... it must be something specific to OEL