Troubleshoot rulebook using CURL and extra_vars

What’s in this break-fix?

In this section, you will troubleshoot SSH authentication and user configuration issues in an Event-Driven Ansible(Automation Decisions) workflow while exploring the use of extra_vars in the rulebook.

SSH into the node1 instance from the bastion host.

ssh node1

Output

[lab-user@bastion ~]$ ssh node1
Last login: Fri Nov 29 06:30:21 2024 from 192.168.0.33
[ec2-user@node1 ~]$

Navigate to the 02-lab directory.

cd 02-lab
ls

Output

[ec2-user@node1 ~]$ cd 02-lab
[ec2-user@node1 02-lab]$ ls
hello-rh1.yml  inventory.yml  webhook-example.yml
[ec2-user@node1 02-lab]$

Review the rulebook, playbook, and inventory files in the lab directory and try to understand their purpose.
```
less webhook-example.yml
less hello-rh1.yml
less inventory.yml
```

Run the ansible-rulebook command from the lab’s directory in the terminal as shown below.

ansible-rulebook --rulebook webhook-example.yml -i inventory.yml --verbose  --print-events

Output

[ec2-user@node1 02-lab]$ ansible-rulebook --rulebook webhook-example.yml -i inventory.yml --verbose  --print-events
2024-11-29 15:24:45,039 - ansible_rulebook.app - INFO - Starting sources
2024-11-29 15:24:45,039 - ansible_rulebook.app - INFO - Starting rules
. . .
2024-12-17 16:31:17,566 - ansible_rulebook.engine - INFO - Waiting for all ruleset tasks to end
2024-12-17 16:31:17 566 [drools-async-evaluator-thread] INFO org.drools.ansible.rulebook.integration.api.io.RuleExecutorChannel - Async channel connected
2024-12-17 16:31:17,567 - ansible_rulebook.rule_set_runner - INFO - Waiting for actions on events from Listen for events on a webhook
2024-12-17 16:31:17,567 - ansible_rulebook.rule_set_runner - INFO - Waiting for events, ruleset: Listen for events on a webhook

Open another terminal on the bastion node and execute the curl command as specified.

curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"event_name": "Hello", "host_host": "node1" }' node1:5000/endpoint

In the terminal where you ran the ansible-rulebook command, observe the output.

Output

2024-11-29 15:26:18,350 - aiohttp.access - INFO - 192.168.0.18 [29/Nov/2024:15:26:18 +0000] "POST /endpoint HTTP/1.1" 200 158 "-" "curl/7.76.1"

** 2024-11-29 15:26:18.350626 [received event]

. . .

PLAY [Install tcpdump] ***********************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] *********************************************************
fatal: [node1]: UNREACHABLE! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: root@node1: Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic).", "unreachable": true}

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=2    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
node1                      : ok=0    changed=0    unreachable=1    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

. . .

2024-11-29 15:26:21,603 - ansible_rulebook.action.run_playbook - ERROR -
PLAY [create env] **************************************************************

. . .

PLAY [Install tcpdump] ***********************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] *********************************************************
fatal: [node1]: UNREACHABLE! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: root@node1: Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic).", "unreachable": true}

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=2    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
node1                      : ok=0    changed=0    unreachable=1    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

"Failed to connect to the host via ssh:" You need to solve this problem.

Break out of the rulebook by ctrl-c and note the error generated after the event is captured by the ansible-rulebook command and attempt to resolve it.

PAUSE

Before moving ahead

Please take a moment to solve the challenge on your own.

The real value of this activity lies in your effort to troubleshoot independently.

Once you have tried, continue to the next section for guided steps to verify your approach or learn an alternate solution.

CONTINUE

Guided solution

Note the error generated after the event is captured by the ansible-rulebook command
Output
```
Failed to connect to the host via ssh: root@node1: Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic).
```
This indicates a failure to connect to the node via SSH.

Copy the SSH config and key files from the lab-user on the bastion to the ec2-user on node1 to enable passwordless SSH authentication from node1 to itself.

cd ~/.ssh
ls
scp config *.p* ec2-user@node1:.ssh/

Output

[lab-user@bastion ~]$ cd .ssh/
[lab-user@bastion .ssh]$ ls
authorized_keys  config  known_hosts  known_hosts.old  xjvz8key.pem  xjvz8key.pub
[lab-user@bastion .ssh]$
[lab-user@bastion .ssh]$ scp config *.p* ec2-user@node1:.ssh/
config                                                                                                             100%  216   304.2KB/s   00:00
xjvz8key.pem                                                                                                       100% 2602     5.3MB/s   00:00
xjvz8key.pub                                                                                                       100%  552   353.7KB/s   00:00
[lab-user@bastion .ssh]$

Output

[lab-user@bastion .ssh]$ ssh node1
Last login: Fri Nov 29 16:11:55 2024 from 192.168.0.18
[ec2-user@node1 ~]$
[ec2-user@node1 ~]$ ssh node1
Last login: Fri Nov 29 16:19:17 2024 from 192.168.0.18
[ec2-user@node1 ~]$

Re-run the rulebook if it is not already running and send the event using the curl command as earlier.

Output

TASK [Gathering Facts] *********************************************************
fatal: [node1]: UNREACHABLE! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Failed to create temporary directory. In some cases, you may have been able to authenticate and did not have permissions on the target directory. Consider changing the remote tmp path in ansible.cfg to a path rooted in \"/tmp\", for more error information use -vvv. Failed command was: ( umask 77 && mkdir -p \"` echo Please login as the user \"ec2-user\" rather than the user \"root\"./.ansible/tmp `\"&& mkdir \"` echo Please login as the user \"ec2-user\" rather than the user \"root\"./.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1732897310.5139034-2830-144138432594257 `\" && echo ansible-tmp-1732897310.5139034-2830-144138432594257=\"` echo Please login as the user \"ec2-user\" rather than the user \"root\"./.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1732897310.5139034-2830-144138432594257 `\" ), exited with result 142, stdout output: Please login as the user \"ec2-user\" rather than the user \"root\".\n\n", "unreachable": true}

Note the new error captured this time.

Please login as the user \"ec2-user\" rather than the user \"root\"

Ensure you are in the 02-lab directory on node1.
Edit the hello-rh1.yml playbook and change remote_user: root to remote_user: ec2-user.
```
vi hello-rh1.yml
```
While the rulebook is still running on node1, send the event from the bastion host again.
Note that the playbook runs successfully this time, and the Install tcpdump task is executed. Ctrl-c to exit the rulebook on node1 and continue to the next section.