Ansible Failed to set permissions on the temporary

Question

I am using ansible to replace the ssh keys for a user on multiple RHEL6 & RHEL7 servers. The task I am running is:

- name: private key   
  copy:
    src: /Users/me/Documents/keys/id_rsa
    dest: ~/.ssh/
    owner: unpriv
    group: unpriv
    mode: 0600
    backup: yes

Two of the hosts that I'm trying to update are giving the following error:

fatal: [host1]: FAILED! => {"failed": true, "msg": "Failed to set permissions on the temporary files Ansible needs to create when becoming an unprivileged user (rc: 1, err: chown: changing ownership of /tmp/ansible-tmp-19/': Operation not permitted\nchown: changing ownership of/tmp/ansible-tmp-19/stat.py': Operation not permitted\n). For information on working around this, see https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/become.html#becoming-an-unprivileged-user"}

The thing is that these two that are getting the errors are clones of some that are updating just fine. I've compared the sudoers and sshd settings, as well as permissions and mount options on the /tmp directory. They are all the same between the problem hosts and the working ones. Any ideas on what I could check next?

I am running ansible 2.3.1.0 on Mac OS Sierra, if that helps.

Update:

@techraf

I have no idea why this worked on all hosts except for two. Here is the original playbook:

- name: ssh_keys
  hosts: my_hosts
  remote_user: my_user
  tasks:
    - include: ./roles/common/tasks/keys.yml
      become: yes
      become_method: sudo

and original keys.yml:

- name: public key
  copy:
    src: /Users/me/Documents/keys/id_rsab
    dest: ~/.ssh/
    owner: unpriv
    group: unpriv
    mode: 060
    backup: yes

I changed the playbook to:

- name: ssh_keys
  hosts: my_hosts
  remote_user: my_user
  tasks:
    - include: ./roles/common/tasks/keys.yml
      become: yes
      become_method: sudo
      become_user: root

And keys.yml to:

- name: public key
  copy:
    src: /Users/me/Documents/keys/id_rsab
    dest: /home/unpriv/.ssh/
    owner: unpriv
    group: unpriv
    mode: 0600
    backup: yes

And it worked across all hosts.

Also... You have multiple RHEL6 and RHEL7 machines and the problem appears on two according to what you wrote. RHEL6 does not sound like a clone of RHEL7, so it's like one machine of each, or what? — techraf
I appreciate anyone who takes the time to help, but the snide comment about understanding English accomplishes nothing. I'm new to Ansible and not sure what information is relevant when asking a question. Giving too much information is just as equally likely to draw insults as not providing enough. And you're correct, about RHEL 6 and RHEL 7. The point I was trying to get at was getting different results with what seemed to be consistent configurations on my target hosts. — Alex
Well, it’s what you want to read that you read. Every error message can be understood on several levels. You can for example understand the English meaning of the error, but not understand the technical meaning (especially this one). I find no better phrasing. The English message clearly says “becoming unprivileged user”, so I asked why is there nothing in your question about ...becoming unprivileged user — a natural, and completely neutral question for me, a derogatory question for you. — techraf

nbari nbari · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-22T09:12:25

You could try something like this:

- name: private key 
  become: true
  become_user: root
  copy:
    src: /Users/me/Documents/keys/id_rsa
    dest: ~/.ssh/
    owner: unpriv
    group: unpriv
    mode: 0600
    backup: yes

Notice the:

become: true
become_user: root

Check the "become" docs for more info

Ansible Failed to set permissions on the temporary

3 Answers