Ansible doesn't execute commands on remote server

Question

I am using Ansible 2.1.1.0 intalled by pip on OS X "El capitan". And I have tried with a very simple configuration:

#/etc/ansible/hosts
[webservers]
my.remote.server

Using the variable ansible_user to connect through ssh using the corresponding public key:

#/etc/ansible/group_vars/webservers
---
ansible_user: my_user

All seems to be fine when I try to ping the server ansible webservers -m ping:

my.remote.server | SUCCESS => {
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"
}

Nonetheless when I try to run any command on the remote server it gets executed on my local machine, for example running ansible webservers -m shell -a "echo $HOSTNAME" should display my.remote.server, but displays this instead:

my.remote.server | SUCCESS | rc=0 >>
my.local.server

Any idea what could be causing the issue?

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 30 '16 at 04:16

6

That's because "echo $HOSTNAME" is being evaluated in your local shell before being passed to the remote server over SSH. Try this:

ansible webservers -a hostname

Or this:

ansible webservers -m shell -a 'echo $HOSTNAME'

answered Aug 30 '16 at 04:16

mwp

8,217
20
26

That works fine @mwp, so the problem was caused by my ignorance! haha, thanks man – Ander Aug 30 '16 at 04:20
What would you say about this question? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59274380/enable-apache-site-using-ansible – Amarjit Singh Dec 10 '19 at 20:47

Ansible doesn't execute commands on remote server

1 Answers1