Problem: Running playbook on localhost

[mlanner]

Issue

I'm deploying machines in Azure. If I run my playbooks from the CLI, it works fine. With -vvvv used on both CLI and in Semaphore I do see a discrepancy in which user is trying to connect. It looks as follows:

Running from CLI (working):

TASK [Create NIC] *****************************************************************
task path: /home/semaphore/azr/ansible/create-vm-test.yml:27
redirecting (type: modules) ansible.builtin.azure_rm_virtualmachine to azure.azcollection.azure_rm_virtualmachine
<127.0.0.1> ESTABLISH LOCAL CONNECTION FOR USER: semaphore
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c 'echo ~naa && sleep 0'

Running from Semaphore (fails):

TASK [Create NIC] **************************************************************
task path: /home/semaphore/azr/ansible/create-vm-test.yml:27
redirecting (type: modules) ansible.builtin.azure_rm_networkinterface to azure.azcollection.azure_rm_networkinterface
<127.0.0.1> ESTABLISH LOCAL CONNECTION FOR USER: root

How can I make Semaphore run as the semaphore user (instead of root), as semaphore is the user's home dir in which the playbooks are located?

Impact

Ansible (task execution)

Installation method

Package

Database

MySQL

Browser

Firefox

Semaphore Version

2.10.35

Ansible Version

ansible [core 2.14.14]

Logs & errors

No response

Manual installation - system information

Linux semaphore 5.14.0-427.40.1.el9_4.x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Wed Oct 16 14:57:47 UTC 2024 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Configuration

WebUI configuration:

• Environment

Additional information

No response

[mlanner]

Answering my own question here, although I guess I feel it's a bit of a hack to make this work ...

As described in the initial issue, Semaphore ran the playbook against localhost as root, which I don't think is right. To fix this, in your inventory (static, static yaml, file), add the following (assuming the user running the playbooks is semaphore):

127.0.0.1 ansible_user=semaphore

Then, in the root of the directory in which you're running the playbook(s), create an ansible.cfg file with the following contents:

[defaults]
collections_paths = /home/semaphore/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/

Of course, check that your collections exist in the above mentioned directory. If they're not there, but somewhere else, change the patch accordingly.

Side note: I discovered that my Ansible Core installation is old, running on Rocky Linux 9, and it appears that there's no repository I've found that actually provides RPM packages for newer versions of Ansible. Very disappointing.

If anyone has any input/comments on the above, please let me know.

[fiftin]

@mlanner You can provide username if SSH access key and it will be used for connection to the server(s).