Vagrant can't run ansible when provisioning

Question

I have created a Vagrantfile to provision a new box using Ansible. Both the Vagrantfile and the Ansible playbooks are ones I've used before, prior to an upgrade to OS X Yosemite. I can successfully vagrant up but when I try to vagrant provision I get the following error:

➜  NNL  vagrant provision
==> default: Running provisioner: ansible...
The executable 'ansible-playbook' Vagrant is trying to run was not
found in the PATH variable. This is an error. Please verify
this software is installed and on the path.

Update 2: Here's the verbose (vvvv) output for the command above:

➜  ta  vagrant provision
==> default: Running provisioner: ansible...
ANSIBLE_FORCE_COLOR=true ANSIBLE_HOST_KEY_CHECKING=false PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 ANSIBLE_SSH_ARGS='-o  
ForwardAgent=yes -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s' ansible-playbook --private-
key=/Users/mike/.vagrant.d/insecure_private_key --user=vagrant --connection=ssh --
limit='default' --inventory-file=/Users/mike/Desktop/ta/.vagrant/provisioners/ansible/inventory 
-vvvv vagrant.yml
The executable 'ansible-playbook' Vagrant is trying to run was not
found in the PATH variable. This is an error. Please verify
this software is installed and on the path.

I have already updated ansible and vagrant as part of my troubleshooting:

➜  NNL  ansible --version
ansible 1.8.1
  configured module search path = None
➜  NNL  ansible-playbook --version
ansible-playbook 1.8.1
  configured module search path = None
➜  NNL  vagrant --version
Vagrant 1.6.5

Ansible is definitely installed and /usr/local/bin is on the PATH environment variable.

➜  NNL  which ansible
/usr/local/bin/ansible
➜  NNL  echo $PATH
/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin

Update 1: Here's my Vagrantfile, I've cut it back to the bare minimum:

# -*- mode: ruby -*-
# vi: set ft=ruby :

# Vagrantfile API/syntax version. Don't touch unless you know what you're doing!
VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION = "2"

Vagrant.configure(VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION) do |config|

    config.vm.box = "precise64"
    config.vm.hostname = "NNL"
    config.vm.box_url = "http://files.vagrantup.com/precise64.box"
    config.vm.network :forwarded_port, guest: 80, host: 8080
    config.vm.network :forwarded_port, guest: 3000, host: 3000
    config.vm.network :forwarded_port, guest: 9200, host: 9200
    config.ssh.forward_agent = true
    config.vm.provision "ansible" do |ansible|
      ansible.playbook = "vagrant.yml"
    end
end

My other thought was that I'm using zsh and perhaps vagrant is executing commands through bash or some other shell, so I also tried to add a .bashrc file to ensure that /usr/local/bin was on the path for that shell too. It appears to be, but I still get the same error:

➜  NNL  bash
bash-3.2$ echo $PATH
/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin
bash-3.2$ which ansible
/usr/local/bin/ansible

I'm at a loss now as to how to proceed. As a footnote, my other vagrant boxes which I created successfully under Mavericks also now fail with the same error when I try to re-provision them.

I don't know if it'll help, but can you post your Vagrantfile? — tedder42
Add ansible.verbose = "vvvv" below the ansible.playbook setting so that we can get the full command vagrant is trying to run — codeaken

Gilles Cornu Gilles Cornu · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-28T14:02:28

I haven't used Yosemite so far, but if I understand well your same setup worked fine on a previous version of OS X.

First to collect a bit more information: when the vagrant box is up, could you please re-run the ansible-playbook command that is displayed in vagrant logs, but directly from a shell (bash or zsh should not matter):

ANSIBLE_FORCE_COLOR=true ANSIBLE_HOST_KEY_CHECKING=false PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 ANSIBLE_SSH_ARGS='-o ForwardAgent=yes -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s' ansible-playbook --private-key=/Users/mike/.vagrant.d/insecure_private_key --user=vagrant --connection=ssh --limit='default' --inventory-file=/Users/mike/Desktop/ta/.vagrant/provisioners/ansible/inventory -vvvv vagrant.yml

What is the result?

If it works fine (which I expect, based on your problem description), then we are sure that we must chase something in Vagrant internals (in combination with Yosemite environment maybe).

Vagrant can't run ansible when provisioning

3 Answers