# ansible and ansible-playbook with ssh config not working... **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [March 6, 2013, 3:23am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-and-ansible-playbook-with-ssh-config-not-working/12459 "2013-03-06T03:23:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Curtis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Curtis](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Curtis)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 3:23am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-and-ansible-playbook-with-ssh-config-not-working/12459/1 "2013-03-06T03:23:23Z")
Hi, I would think this would just work? Usually I think wrong, so I guess I’m really wondering what I’ve got wrong here. 🙂 “virt-v2v” is the name of a host that is setup in .ssh/config… # ansible -c ssh -u root -m ping virt-v2v virt-v2v | success \>\> { “changed”: false, “ping”: “pong” } # ansible-playbook -c ssh -u root veewee.yml PLAY [veewee] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* GATHERING FACTS \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* fatal: [virt-v2v] =\> failed to transfer file to /setup: Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic). Connection closed TASK: [ensure correct packages are installed] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* FATAL: no hosts matched or all hosts have already failed – aborting PLAY RECAP \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* virt-v2v : ok=0 changed=0 unreachable=1 failed=0 # cat ansible\_hosts [veewee] virt-v2v ---
**Author:** ![Lorin\_Hochstein1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce73a5/32.png) [@Lorin\_Hochstein1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Lorin_Hochstein1)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 3:25am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-and-ansible-playbook-with-ssh-config-not-working/12459/2 "2013-03-06T03:25:25Z")
Curtis: Can you show the contents of your veewee.yml? Take care, Lorin ---
**Author:** ![Curtis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Curtis](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Curtis)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 3:29am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-and-ansible-playbook-with-ssh-config-not-working/12459/3 "2013-03-06T03:29:56Z")
Oh, shoot, looking at that I've set the user to something other than root which is the user I need in this case. # head veewee.yml ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca1)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 4:25am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-and-ansible-playbook-with-ssh-config-not-working/12459/4 "2013-03-06T04:25:58Z")
Ansible always specifies the user to ssh, so it will not pick it up from .ssh/config ---
**Author:** ![Curtis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Curtis](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Curtis)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 5:20am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-and-ansible-playbook-with-ssh-config-not-working/12459/5 "2013-03-06T05:20:39Z")
> Ansible always specifies the user to ssh, so it will not pick it up > from .ssh/config Is that something that was decided ansible would not do? I think it would be pretty helpful to heavy ssh users, especially those who have servers that they access through a gateway ssh server. I suppose I should search the mailing list... 🙂 Thanks, Curtis. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-and-ansible-playbook-with-ssh-config-not-working/12459/6 "2013-03-06T16:42:30Z")
> Is that something that was decided ansible would not do? I think it would be > pretty helpful to heavy ssh users, especially those who have servers that > they access through a gateway ssh server. I suppose I should search the > mailing list... 🙂 Basically Ansible is a systems management tool, not a user login tool. In a given playbook, you may wish to log in from \*multiple\* different user accounts to the same box. By ansible declaratively specifying the user, that makes this possible, and also makes it very clear from a self contained playbook what user is being used for the login, so it's repeatable -- the parameters are no longer needing the playbook \*AND\* the ssh config file, and users don't have to worry about the SSH config file unless they need, for example, jump hosts. ---
**Author:** ![Curtis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Curtis](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Curtis)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-and-ansible-playbook-with-ssh-config-not-working/12459/7 "2013-03-06T16:49:20Z")
> \> > \> Is that something that was decided ansible would not do? I think it > would be > \> pretty helpful to heavy ssh users, especially those who have servers that > \> they access through a gateway ssh server. I suppose I should search the > \> mailing list... 🙂 > \> > > Basically Ansible is a systems management tool, not a user login tool. > In a given playbook, you may wish to log in from \*multiple\* different > user accounts to the same box. > > By ansible declaratively specifying the user, that makes this > possible, and also makes it very clear > from a self contained playbook what user is being used for the login, > so it's repeatable -- the parameters > are no longer needing the playbook \*AND\* the ssh config file, and > users don't have to worry about the SSH > config file unless they need, for example, jump hosts. What would be wrong with honouring the .ssh/config if there is no user in the playbook or on the command line? Thanks, Curtis. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 5:09pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-and-ansible-playbook-with-ssh-config-not-working/12459/8 "2013-03-06T17:09:10Z")
Technically nothing, but it would need to work for /both/ SSHd and paramiko and only set things if no "-u" was specified either, and only if the user /was/ specified in the config, and not rely on a config being set. In the case where there is no user specified, it uses the current user account or what is fed to "-u". (Again, in our eyes, SSH is just the transport layer) ---
**Author:** ![Curtis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Curtis](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Curtis)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 5:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-and-ansible-playbook-with-ssh-config-not-working/12459/9 "2013-03-06T17:25:07Z")
> Technically nothing, but it would need to work for /both/ SSHd and > paramiko and only set things if no "-u" was specified either, and only > if the user /was/ specified in the config, and not rely on a config > being set. > > In the case where there is no user specified, it uses the current user > account or what is fed to "-u". > > (Again, in our eyes, SSH is just the transport layer) I definitely understand what you are saying in terms of ssh being the transport layer only. That said, as a simple ansible user who has a lot of servers and environments to work with, some behind ssh jump hosts, thus massive use of .ssh/config, I find this to be a real big pain point. But that's just me. 🙂 Thanks, Curtis. ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca1)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-and-ansible-playbook-with-ssh-config-not-working/12459/10 "2013-03-06T17:26:37Z")
I have it on my list to look into this and avoid pass -u $user to ssh if it matches current user. Should not be to hard and it would enable .ssh/config ---
**Author:** ![Seth\_Vidal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Seth\_Vidal](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Seth_Vidal)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 5:30pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-and-ansible-playbook-with-ssh-config-not-working/12459/11 "2013-03-06T17:30:45Z")
I'm confused here. You're having issues when you run with -c ssh using your .ssh/config ? or is this only when using paramiko? -sv ---
**Author:** ![Zenobius\_Jiricek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c77e96/32.png) [@Zenobius\_Jiricek](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Zenobius_Jiricek)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 4:55am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-and-ansible-playbook-with-ssh-config-not-working/12459/12 "2013-08-15T04:55:01Z")
Same here, it also makes using git hard when the git server requires access through a non standard ssh port and private key. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 12:36pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-and-ansible-playbook-with-ssh-config-not-working/12459/13 "2013-08-15T12:36:22Z")
Please look up how GIT\_SSH works and so on. This is basically just a function of git and not ansible. You may wish to checkout your repositories over https:// to make things much easier for you, or deploy using packages, tarballs, or another mechanism if you wish to simplify the SSH checkout.