"Failed to connect to the host via ssh" error Ansible - ssh

Question

I am trying to run the following playbook on Ansible:
- hosts: localhost
connection: local
remote_user: test
gather_facts: no
vars_files:
- files/aws_creds.yml
- files/info.yml
tasks:
- name: Basic provisioning of EC2 instance
ec2:
assign_public_ip: no
aws_access_key: "{{ aws_id }}"
aws_secret_key: "{{ aws_key }}"
region: "{{ aws_region }}"
image: "{{ standard_ami }}"
instance_type: "{{ free_instance }}"
key_name: "{{ ssh_keyname }}"
count: 3
state: present
group_id: "{{ secgroup_id }}"
wait: no
#delete_on_termination: yes
instance_tags:
Name: Dawny33Template
register: ec2
- name: Add new instance to host group
add_host:
hostname: "{{ item.public_ip }}"
groupname: launched
with_items: "{{ ec2.instances }}"
## Here lies the SSH code
- name: Wait for SSH to come up
wait_for:
host: "{{ item.public_ip }}"
port: 22
delay: 60
timeout: 320
state: started
with_items: "{{ ec2.instances }}"
- name: Configure instance(s)
hosts: launched
become: True
gather_facts: True
#roles:
# - my_awesome_role
# - my_awesome_test
- name: Terminate instances
hosts: localhost
connection: local
tasks:
- name: Terminate instances that were previously launched
ec2:
state: 'absent'
instance_ids: '{{ ec2.instance_ids }}'
I am getting the following error:
TASK [setup] *******************************************************************
fatal: [52.32.183.176]: UNREACHABLE! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: Warning: Permanently added '52.32.183.176' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.\r\nPermission denied (publickey).\r\n", "unreachable": true}
fatal: [52.34.255.16]: UNREACHABLE! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: Warning: Permanently added '52.34.255.16' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.\r\nPermission denied (publickey).\r\n", "unreachable": true}
fatal: [52.34.253.51]: UNREACHABLE! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: Warning: Permanently added '52.34.253.51' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.\r\nPermission denied (publickey).\r\n", "unreachable": true}
My ansible.cfg file already has the following:
[defaults]
host_key_checking = False
Yet, the playbook run is failing. Can someone help me with what I am doing wrong?

Answer 1

The answer has to lie in:
Permission denied (publickey).
You got past host key checking - your problem is with authentication.
Are you intending to use key-based authentication? If so, does
ssh <host> -l <ansible_user>
work for you, or does it produce a password prompt?
Are you trying to use password authentication? If so, it looks like your node does not allow it.
Edit:
adding -vvvv to your playbook enables SSH debugging.

Answer 2

is SSH setup properly? the logs indicate your public key isn't working