I am trying to run an Ansible Tower Template with a task that requires root privileges on localhost. According to RedHat's knowledgebase:
It isn't possible to use Tower with local action to escalate to the root user. It will be necessary to alter your task to connect via SSH and then escalate to root using another user(not AWX).
RedHat solution
I have already tried changing the ansible_connection host variable under localhost to ssh with no success. I also tried completely removing the variable hoping that it would default to an SSH connection which also did not work.
I realize that the variable value is probably not defined correctly but I was unable to find listed options in the documentation.
The task in question:
- name: "Ansible Create directory if not exists"
file:
path: /etc/custom-switch
state: directory
mode: 0755
group: awx
owner: awx
when: exec_dir.stat.exists == false
delegate_to: localhost
become: yes
Job fails with the following error:
`sudo: effective uid is not 0, is sudo installed setuid root`
Related
I am attempting to have playbooks that run once to set up a new user and disable root ssh access.
For now, I am doing that by declaring all of my inventory twice. Each host needs an entry that accesses with the root user, used to create a new user, set up ssh settings, and then disable root access.
Then each host needs another entry with the new user that gets created.
My current inventory looks like this. It's only one host for now, but with a larger inventory, the repetition would just take up a ton of unnecessary space:
---
# ./hosts.yaml
---
all:
children:
master_roots:
hosts:
demo_master_root:
ansible_host: a.b.c.d # same ip as below
ansible_user: root
ansible_ssh_private_key_file: ~/.ssh/id_rsa_infra_ops
masters:
hosts:
demo_master:
ansible_host: a.b.c.d # same ip as above
ansible_user: infraops
ansible_ssh_private_key_file: ~/.ssh/id_rsa_infra_ops
Is there a cleaner way to do this?
Is this an anti-pattern in any way? It is not idempotent. It would be nice to have this run in a way that running the same playbook twice always has the same output - either "success", or "no change".
I am using DigitalOcean and they have a functionality to have this done via a bash script before the VM comes up for the first time, but I would prefer a platform-independent solution.
Here is the playbook for setting up the users & ssh settings and disabling root access
---
# ./initial-host-setup.yaml
---
# References
# Digital Ocean recommended droplet setup script:
# - https://docs.digitalocean.com/droplets/tutorials/recommended-setup
# Digital Ocean tutorial on installing kubernetes with Ansible:
# - https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-create-a-kubernetes-cluster-using-kubeadm-on-debian-9
# Ansible Galaxy (Community) recipe for securing ssh:
# - https://github.com/vitalk/ansible-secure-ssh
---
- hosts: master_roots
become: 'yes'
tasks:
- name: create the 'infraops' user
user:
state: present
name: infraops
password_lock: 'yes'
groups: sudo
append: 'yes'
createhome: 'yes'
shell: /bin/bash
- name: add authorized keys for the infraops user
authorized_key: 'user=infraops key="{{item}}"'
with_file:
'{{ hostvars[inventory_hostname].ansible_ssh_private_key_file }}.pub'
- name: allow infraops user to have passwordless sudo
lineinfile:
dest: /etc/sudoers
line: 'infraops ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL'
validate: visudo -cf %s
- name: disable empty password login for all users
lineinfile:
dest: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
regexp: '^#?PermitEmptyPasswords'
line: PermitEmptyPasswords no
notify: restart sshd
- name: disable password login for all users
lineinfile:
dest: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
regexp: '^(#\s*)?PasswordAuthentication '
line: PasswordAuthentication no
notify: restart sshd
- name: Disable remote root user login
lineinfile:
dest: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
regexp: '^#?PermitRootLogin'
line: 'PermitRootLogin no'
notify: restart sshd
handlers:
- name: restart sshd
service:
name: sshd
state: restarted
Everything after this would use the masters inventory.
EDIT
After some research I have found that "init scripts"/"startup scripts"/"user data" scripts are supported across AWS, GCP, and DigitalOcean, potentially via cloud-init (this is what DigitalOcean uses, didn't research the others), which is cross-provider enough for me to just stick with a bash init script solution.
I would still be interested & curious if someone had a killer Ansible-only solution for this, although I am not sure there is a great way to make this happen without a pre-init script.
Regardless of any ansible limitations, it seems that without using the cloud init script, you can't have this. Either the server starts with a root or similar user to perform these actions, or the server starts without a user with those powers, then you can't perform these actions.
Further, I have seen Ansible playbooks and bash scripts that try to solve the desired "idempotence" (complete with no errors even if root is already disabled) by testing root ssh access, then falling back to another user, but "I can't ssh with root" is a poor test for "is the root user disabled" because there are plenty of ways your ssh access could fail even though the server is still configured to allow root to ssh.
EDIT 2 placing this here, since I can't use newlines in my response to a comment:
β.εηοιτ.βε responded to my assertion:
"but "I can't ssh with root" is a poor test for "is the root user disabled" because there are plenty of ways your ssh access could fail even though the server is still configured to allow root to ssh
with
then, try to ssh with infraops and assert that PermitRootLogin no is in the ssh daemon config file?"
It sounds like the suggestion is:
- attempt ssh with root
- if success, we know user/ssh setup tasks have not completed, so run those tasks
- if failure, attempt ssh with infraops
- if success, go ahead and run everything except the user creation again to ensure ssh config is as desired
- if failure... ? something else is probably wrong, since I can't ssh with either user
I am not sure what this sort of if-then failure recovery actually looks like in an Ansible script
You can overwrite host variables for a given play by using vars.
- hosts: masters
become: 'yes'
vars:
ansible_ssh_user: "root"
ansible_ssh_private_key_file: "~/.ssh/id_rsa_infra_ops"
tasks:
You could only define the demo_master group and alter the ansible_user and ansible_ssh_private_key_file at run time, using command flags --user and --private-key.
So with an host.yaml containing
all:
children:
masters:
hosts:
demo_master:
ansible_host: a.b.c.d # same ip as above
ansible_user: infraops
ansible_ssh_private_key_file: ~/.ssh/id_rsa_infra_ops
And run on - hosts: master, the first run would, for example be with
ansible-playbook initial-host-setup.yaml \
--user root \
--private-key ~/.ssh/id_rsa_root
When the subsequent runs would simply by
ansible-playbook subsequent-host-setup.yaml
Since all the required values are in the inventory already.
I'm executing ansible playbook with appuser whereas I wish to create folder with user webuser on localhost.
ssh keys are setup for webuser on my localhost. So after login with appuser I can simply ssh webuser#localhost to switch user to webuser.
Note: I do not have sudo priveledges so I cannot sudo to switch to webuser from appuser.
Below is my playbook that is run with user appuser but needs to create a folder 04May2020 on localhost using webuser
- name: "Play 1"
hosts: localhost
remote_user: "webuser"
vars:
ansible_ssh_extra_args: -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no
ansible_ssh_private_key_file: /app/misc_automation/ssh_keys_id_rsa
tasks:
- name: create folder for today's print
file:
path: "/webWeb/htdocs/print/04May2020"
state: directory
remote_user: webuser
However, the output shows that the folder is created with appuser instead of webuser. See output showing ssh connectivity with appuser instead of webuser.
ansible-playbook /app/Ansible/playbook/print_oracle/print.yml -i /app/Ansible/playbook/print_oracle/allhosts.hosts -vvv
TASK [create folder for today] ***********************************
task path: /app/Ansible/playbook/print_oracle/print.yml:33
Using module file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible/modules/files/file.py
Pipelining is enabled.
<127.0.0.1> ESTABLISH LOCAL CONNECTION FOR USER: appuser
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/python2 && sleep 0'
Can you please suggest if it is possible without sudo?
Putting all my comments together in a comprehensive answer.
<127.0.0.1> ESTABLISH LOCAL CONNECTION FOR USER: appuser
This is indicating that you are connecting to localhost through the local connection plugin, either because you explicitelly re-declared the host as such or because you are using the implicit localhost. From discussions, you are in the second situation.
When using the local connection plugin, as indicated in the above documentation, the remote_user is ignored. Trying to change the user has no effect as you can see in the below test run (user (u)ids changed):
# Check we are locally running as user1
$ id -a
uid=xxxx(user1) gid=yyy(group1) groups=yyy(group1)
# Running the same command through ansible returns the same result
$ ansible localhost -a 'id -a'
localhost | CHANGED | rc=0 >>
uid=xxxx(user1) gid=yyy(group1) groups=yyy(group1)
# Trying to change the remote user has no effect
$ ansible localhost -u whatever -a 'id -a'
localhost | CHANGED | rc=0 >>
uid=xxxx(user1) gid=yyy(group1) groups=yyy(group1)
Without changing your playbook and/or inventory, the only solution is to launch the playbook as the user who needs to create the directory.
Since you have ssh available, an other solution is to declare a new host that you will use only for this purpose, which will target the local IP through ssh. (Note: you can explicitly declare localhost like this but then all connections will go through ssh which might not be what you want to do).
Somewhere at the top of you inventory, add the line:
localssh ansible_host=127.0.0.1
And in your playbook, change
hosts: localssh
Now the connection to your local machine will go through ssh and the remote_user will be obeyed correctly.
One way you can try is by setting the ansible_connection to localhost. To do this, in the directory from which you are running ansible commands, create a host_vars directory. In that sub-directory, create a file named localhost, containing the line ansible_connection: smart
I am using Ansible to provision a Vagrant environment. As part of the provisioning process, I need to connect from the currently-provisioning VM to a private external repository using an ssh key in order to use composer to pull in modules for an application. I've done a lot of reading on this before asking this question, but still can't seem to comprehend what's going on.
What I want to happen is:
As part of the playbook, on the Vagrant VM, I add the ssh key to the private repo to the ssh-agent
Using that private key, I am then able to use composer to require modules from the external source
I've read articles which highlight specifying the key in playbook execution. (E.g. ansible-play -u username --private-key play.yml) As far as I understand, this isn't for me, as I'm calling the playbook via Vagrant file. I've also read articles which mention ssh forwarding. (SSH Agent Forwarding with Ansible). Based on what I have read, this is what I've done:
On the VM being provisioned, I insert a known_hosts file which consists of the host entries of the machines which house the repos I need:
On the VM being provisioned, I have the following in ~/.ssh/config:
Host <VM IP>
ForwardAgent yes
I have the following entries in my ansible.cfg to support ssh forwarding:
[defaults]
transport = ssh
[ssh_connection]
ssh_args=-o ForwardAgent=yes -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s -o ControlPath=/tmp/ansible-ssh-%h-%p-%r
[privilege_escalation]
pipelining = False
I have also added the following task to the playbook which tries to
use composer:
- name: Add ssh agent line to sudoers
become: true
lineinfile:
dest: /etc/sudoers
state: present
regexp: SSH_AUTH_SOCK
line: Defaults env_keep += "SSH_AUTH_SOCK"
I exit the ansible provisioner and add the private key on the provisioned VM to the agent via a shell provisioner (This is where I suspect I'm going wrong)
Then, I attempt to use composer, or call git via the command module. Like this, for example, to test:
- name: Test connection
command: ssh -T git#github.com
Finally, just in case I wasn't understanding ssh connection forwarding correctly, I assumed that what was supposed to happen was that I needed to first add the key to my local machine's agent, then forward that through to the provisioned VM to use to grab the repositories via composer. So I used ssh-add on my local machine before executing vagrant up and running the provisioner.
No matter what, though, I always get permission denied when I do this. I'd greatly appreciate some understanding as to what I may be missing in my understanding of how ssh forwarding should be working here, as well as any guidance for making this connection happen.
I'm not certain I understand your question correctly, but I often setup machines that connect to a private bitbucket repository in order to clone it. You don't need to (and shouldn't) use agent forwarding for that ("ssh forwarding" is unclear; there's "authentication agent forwarding" and "port forwarding", but you need neither in this case).
Just to be clear with terminology, you are running Ansible in your local machine, you are provisioning the controlled machine, and you want to ssh from the controlled machine to a third-party server.
What I do is I upload the ssh key to the controlled machine, in /root/.ssh (more generally $HOME/.ssh where $HOME is the home directory of the controlled machine user who will connect to the third-party server—in my case that's root). I don't use the names id_rsa and id_rsa.pub, because I don't want to touch the default keys of that user (these might have a different purpose; for example, I use them to backup the controlled machine). So this is the code:
- name: Install bitbucket aptiko_ro ssh key
copy:
dest: /root/.ssh/aptiko_ro_id_rsa
mode: 0600
content: "{{ aptiko_ro_ssh_key }}"
- name: Install bitbucket aptiko_ro ssh public key
copy:
dest: /root/.ssh/aptiko_ro_id_rsa.pub
content: "{{ aptiko_ro_ssh_pub_key }}"
Next, you need to tell the controlled machine ssh this: "When you connect to the third-party server, use key X instead of the default key, and logon as user Y". You tell it in this way:
- name: Install ssh config that uses aptiko_ro keys on bitbucket
copy:
dest: /root/.ssh/config
content: |
Host bitbucket.org
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/aptiko_ro_id_rsa
User aptiko_ro
I have the following task in my ansible playbook that adds my ssh public key for a remote user pranjal that was already created by a previous task.
- authorized_key:
user: pranjal
key: "{{ lookup('file', 'pranjal.pub') }}"
When I run the ansible playbook, it runs successfully. However when I try logging in to the server using: ssh pranjal#<server_ip>
I get a Permission denied (publickey) error.
To be sure I logged into server from another user and double checked that key listed in /home/pranjal/.ssh/authorized_keys matches with my local public key that I am using to login.
The issue that I am guessing here could be a permissions issue and I understood the solution from a related question.
But how do we change permissions of authorized_key from within the Ansible task itself? (So that I don't have to separately log into the instance to modify permissions of .ssh/authorized_keys)
- file: path=/home/pranjal/.ssh state=directory owner=pranjal mode=0700
- file: path=/home/pranjal/.ssh/authorized_keys state=file owner=pranjal mode=0600
You may also want to check/verify /etc/ssh/sshd_config has the following:
PubkeyAuthentication yes
You can debug further by ssh -vvv pranjal#<server_ip>
I was testing a jenkins build job in which I was using ansible to scp a tarball to a number of servers. Below is the ansible yaml file:
- hosts: websocket_host
user: root
vars:
tarball: /data/websocket/jenkins/deployment/websocket_host/websocket.tgz
deploydir: /root
tasks:
- name: copy build to websocket server
action: copy src=$tarball dest=$deploydir/websocket.tgz
- name: untar build on websocket server
action: command tar xvfz $deploydir/websocket.tgz -C $deploydir
- name: restart websocket server
action: command /root/websocket/bin/websocket restart
The first two commands worked successfully with command /root/websocket/bin/websocket restart failing. I have since been able to log in (without a password) to any of the servers defined in my ansible host file for websocket_host. I have verified that all my permissions settings are correct on both the host and client machines. I have tested this from several client machines and they all now require me to enter a password to ssh. Yesterday I was able to ssh (via my public key) no problem. I am using the root user on the host machines and wonder if copying files to the /root directory caused this issue as it was the last command I was able to successfully run via a passwordless ssh session.
Turns out the Jenkins job changed ownership and group of my /root directory. The command: chown root.root /root fixes everything.