Ansible wait_for not response correct error - testing

Question

I trying to test a batch of connection but the connections that fail all error resposnses are "Timeout" but I know (I tested) some of them are "no route to host".
How I can do that with wait_for in ansible?
- name: Test connectivity flow
wait_for:
host: "{{ item.destination_ip }}"
port: "{{ item.destination_port }}"
state: started # Port should be open
delay: 0 # No wait before first check (sec)
timeout: 3 # Stop checking after timeout (sec)
delegate_to: "{{ item.source_ip }}"
failed_when: false
register: test_connectivity_flow_result
- name: Append result message to result list msg
set_fact:
result_list_msg: "{% if test_connectivity_flow_result.msg is defined %}{{ result_list_msg + [test_connectivity_flow_result.msg] }}{% else %}{{ result_list_msg + [ '' ] }}{% endif %}"
Current response: Timeout when waiting for 1.1.1.1:1040
Expected response: No route to host 1.1.1.1:1040

Answer 1

Quoting the title of the documentation of the wait_for module
wait_for – Waits for a condition before continuing
If I "rephrase" the condition your have written, this would give something like: "wait for host X to be a resolvable destination and for port 22 to be opened on that destination, retry with no delay and timeout after 3s".
This could typically be a test you launch because you started a new vm and registered it in a dns. So you wait for the dns to propagate AND the ssh port being available.
In your case, you get a timeout because your hostname never becomes a resolvable address.
If you specifically want to test there is no route to host and don't want to wait until the route eventually becomes available, you need to do that an other way. Here is a simple example playbook with the ping module:
---
- name: Very basic connection test
hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
tasks:
- name: Test if host is reachable (will report no route if so)
ping:
delegate_to: nonexistent.host.local
Which results in:
PLAY [Very basic connection test] *****************************************************
TASK [Test if host is reachable (will report no route if so)] *************************
fatal: [localhost]: UNREACHABLE! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: Could not resolve hostname nonexistent.host.local: Name or service not known", "unreachable": true}
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************
localhost : ok=0 changed=0 unreachable=1 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
Note that the ping module:
Will report that there is no route to host if so
Will implicitly try to connect to port 22
Will make sure that the host has python installed and is ready to be managed through ansible.
If the host you are trying to check should not meet all of the above conditions (e.g. you want the test to succeed even if python is not installed), you will need an other scenario. Running the ICMP ping through the command module is one of the multiple solutions.

Answer 2

I ended up doing something like that:
- name: Check if port {{ R_PORT }} is open. If it is, let's fail and investigate manually.
shell: ss -ltpn | grep :{{ R_PORT }} | wc -l
register: open_redis_port
- debug: msg="{{ open_redis_port.stdout }}"
- name: Fail playbook execution if port {{ R_PORT }} is open
fail:
msg: Port {{ R_PORT }} is open. Failing, please investigate manually.
when: open_redis_port.stdout == "2" or open_redis_port.stdout == "1"