# Ansible hangs on package installation for hours before connection to host is lost

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-hangs-on-package-installation-for-hours-before-connection-to-host-is-lost/33787>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Tags:** azure\
**Created:** [September 10, 2020, 3:29pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-hangs-on-package-installation-for-hours-before-connection-to-host-is-lost/33787 "2020-09-10T15:29:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pankaj\_Basnal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c67d28/32.png) [@Pankaj\_Basnal](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Pankaj_Basnal)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 3:29pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-hangs-on-package-installation-for-hours-before-connection-to-host-is-lost/33787/1 "2020-09-10T15:29:25Z")

</div>

Hi,  
I’m new to ansible and I’m facing an issue with executing our playbook.

Setup-

- For 10 hosts on azure

- all hosts are identical and newly created

- ansible.cfg-  
[defaults]  
host\_key\_checking = False

- portion of playbook that is installing packages

- name: Set Initscripts to be Installed  
set\_fact:  
packages\_to\_install: “{{ packages\_to\_install | default() + [‘initscripts’] }}”  
tags:

- common  
when: ansible\_distribution\_major\_version is version\_compare(‘7’, ‘\<’)

- name: Set Java to be Installed  
set\_fact:  
packages\_to\_install: “{{ packages\_to\_install | default() + [jboss\_java\_pkg\_name] }}”  
when: install\_java|bool  
tags:

- common

- name: Set Unzip to be Installed  
set\_fact:  
packages\_to\_install: “{{ packages\_to\_install | default() + [‘unzip’] }}”  
tags:

- common

- name: Install packages  
package:  
name: “{{ packages\_to\_install }}”  
state: present  
register: packages\_result  
retries: 5  
until: packages\_result is success

At the step of package installation, ansible will freeze without any log output for 2 hours and then finally it will throw ssh connection error that host is unreachable.

Logs of the run

- 9/8/2020 8:18:08 PM : “download\_only”: false,
- 9/8/2020 8:18:20 PM : 17403 1599576500.81986: \_low\_level\_execute\_command(): executing: /bin/sh -c ‘rm -f -r /home/wbuser/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1599576402.5-17403-228811267706642/ \> /dev/null 2\>&1 && sleep 0’
- 9/8/2020 8:18:20 PM : \>\>\>\<\<\<
- 9/8/2020 8:18:20 PM : 17403 1599576500.86101: attempt loop complete, returning result
- 9/8/2020 8:18:20 PM : 17403 1599576500.86111: dumping result to json
- 9/8/2020 8:18:20 PM : “invocation”: {
- 9/8/2020 8:18:20 PM : “update\_cache”: false,
- 9/8/2020 8:18:20 PM : “unzip-6.0-21.el7.x86\_64 providing unzip is already installed”,
- 9/8/2020 10:28:42 PM : 17410 1599584322.50669: stderr chunk (state=3):
- 9/8/2020 10:28:42 PM : \>\>\>Shared connection to 52.225.188.39 closed.
- 9/8/2020 10:28:42 PM : \<\<\<
- 9/8/2020 10:28:42 PM : 17410 1599584322.50769: stderr chunk (state=3):
- 9/8/2020 10:28:42 PM : \>\>\>\<\<\<
- 9/8/2020 10:28:42 PM : 17410 1599584322.50780: stdout chunk (state=3):
- 9/8/2020 10:28:42 PM : \>\>\>\<\<\<
- 9/8/2020 10:28:42 PM : \<52.225.188.39\> (255, ‘’, ‘Shared connection to 52.225.188.39 closed.\r\n’)
- 9/8/2020 10:28:42 PM : 17410 1599584322.50832: \_low\_level\_execute\_command(): starting
- 9/8/2020 10:28:42 PM : 17410 1599584322.50843: \_low\_level\_execute\_command(): executing: /bin/sh -c ‘rm -f -r /home/wbuser/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1599576402.86-17410-193336400580842/ \> /dev/null 2\>&1 && sleep 0’
- 9/8/2020 10:28:42 PM : \<52.225.188.39\> ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: wbuser
- 9/8/2020 10:28:42 PM : \<52.225.188.39\> SSH: EXEC ssh -C -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o Port=33000 -o ‘IdentityFile=“/tmp/AnsibleFiles/id\_rsa”’ -o KbdInteractiveAuthentication=no -o PreferredAuthentications=gssapi-with-mic,gssapi-keyex,hostbased,publickey -o PasswordAuthentication=no -o ‘User=“wbuser”’ -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o ControlPath=/root/.ansible/cp/cccd982d88 52.225.188.39 ‘/bin/sh -c ‘"’“‘rm -f -r /home/wbuser/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1599576402.86-17410-193336400580842/ \> /dev/null 2\>&1 && sleep 0’”’"‘’
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : 17410 1599584323.14653: stderr chunk (state=2):
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : \>\>\>\<\<\<
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : 17410 1599584323.14667: stdout chunk (state=2):
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : \>\>\>\<\<\<
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : \<52.225.188.39\> (0, ‘’, ‘’)
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : 17410 1599584323.14703: \_low\_level\_execute\_command() done: rc=0, stdout=, stderr=
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : 17410 1599584323.14742: \_execute() done
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : 17410 1599584323.14745: dumping result to json
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : 17410 1599584323.14750: done dumping result, returning
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : 17410 1599584323.14777: done running TaskExecutor() for JbossEAP-26/TASK: jboss\_common\_role : Install packages [000d3ae7-f205-69c8-6cc1-0000000000c9]
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : 17410 1599584323.14799: sending task result for task 000d3ae7-f205-69c8-6cc1-0000000000c9
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : 17410 1599584323.15331: done sending task result for task 000d3ae7-f205-69c8-6cc1-0000000000c9
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : 17410 1599584323.15339: WORKER PROCESS EXITING
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : fatal: [JbossEAP-26]: UNREACHABLE! =\> {
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : “changed”: false,
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : “msg”: “Failed to connect to the host via ssh: Shared connection to 52.225.188.39 closed.”,
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : “unreachable”: true
- 9/8/2020 10:28:43 PM : }

Can anyone help in understanding why this would be happening and what measures I can take to prevent this?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![racke](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/racke/32/4767_2.png) [@racke](https://forum.ansible.com/u/racke)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 3:49pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-hangs-on-package-installation-for-hours-before-connection-to-host-is-lost/33787/2 "2020-09-10T15:49:07Z")

</div>

> Hi,  
> I'm new to ansible and I'm facing an issue with executing our playbook.
> 
> Setup-  
> \* For 10 hosts on azure  
> \* all hosts are identical and newly created  
> \* ansible.cfg-  
> [defaults]  
> host\_key\_checking = False
> 
> \* portion of playbook that is installing packages
> 
> - name: Set Initscripts to be Installed  
> set\_fact:  
> packages\_to\_install: "{{ packages\_to\_install | default() + ['initscripts'] }}"  
> tags:  
> - common  
> when: ansible\_distribution\_major\_version is version\_compare('7', '\<')
> 
> - name: Set Java to be Installed  
> set\_fact:  
> packages\_to\_install: "{{ packages\_to\_install | default() + [jboss\_java\_pkg\_name] }}"  
> when: install\_java|bool  
> tags:  
> - common
> 
> - name: Set Unzip to be Installed  
> set\_fact:  
> packages\_to\_install: "{{ packages\_to\_install | default() + ['unzip'] }}"  
> tags:  
> - common
> 
> - name: Install packages  
> package:  
> name: "{{ packages\_to\_install }}"  
> state: present  
> register: packages\_result  
> retries: 5  
> until: packages\_result is success

There is really no point to retrying package installation. Better look at the output when it fails first.

Also your until: condition compares a dict with a variable named success. So it will never return a true  
value.

Regards  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Racke

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 3:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-hangs-on-package-installation-for-hours-before-connection-to-host-is-lost/33787/3 "2020-09-10T15:51:27Z")

</div>

IIRC this should not work - it will get into an endless loop.

This may or may not be your problem.  
It occurs elsewhere below as well.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pankaj\_Basnal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c67d28/32.png) [@Pankaj\_Basnal](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Pankaj_Basnal)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 4:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-hangs-on-package-installation-for-hours-before-connection-to-host-is-lost/33787/4 "2020-09-10T16:37:42Z")

</div>

This playbook works with less number of hosts. As the number of hosts increase the probability of error increases. There are a few runs which have completed successfully with less number of hosts. Though I don’t have logs for them.  
I’ll take your suggestions and try without until and retry. But if the problem is with the dictionary check then it would have failed for all the hosts. But it failed for only 1 host and completed for the other 9.

I can attach the complete log file if that helps

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Prasad\_Shetty](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/prasad_shetty/32/4913_2.png) [@Prasad\_Shetty](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Prasad_Shetty)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 5:28pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-hangs-on-package-installation-for-hours-before-connection-to-host-is-lost/33787/5 "2020-09-10T17:28:09Z")

</div>

There are multiple way to improve the performance. I have noticed multiple time yum ansible module slow down the performance.

Try to use the pipelining or mitogen

Please refer the below URL

[https://www.toptechskills.com/ansible-tutorials-courses/speed-up-ansible-playbooks-pipelining-mitogen/#](https://www.toptechskills.com/ansible-tutorials-courses/speed-up-ansible-playbooks-pipelining-mitogen/#)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![racke](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/racke/32/4767_2.png) [@racke](https://forum.ansible.com/u/racke)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 8:50am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-hangs-on-package-installation-for-hours-before-connection-to-host-is-lost/33787/6 "2020-09-11T08:50:08Z")

</div>

> This playbook works with less number of hosts. As the number of hosts increase the probability of error increases. There  
> are a few runs which have completed successfully with less number of hosts. Though I don't have logs for them.  
> I'll take your suggestions and try without until and retry. But if the problem is with the dictionary check then it  
> would have failed for all the hosts. But it failed for only 1 host and completed for the other 9.

Yes that is correct .. success is a builtin test in Ansible.

But at any rate when the package install fails, that's a problem of the host (e.g. lack of resources,  
installation problems) which need to be addressed instead of retrying the installation.

Regards  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Racke

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pankaj\_Basnal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c67d28/32.png) [@Pankaj\_Basnal](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Pankaj_Basnal)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 7:06am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-hangs-on-package-installation-for-hours-before-connection-to-host-is-lost/33787/7 "2020-09-29T07:06:03Z")

</div>

I logged in to the VMs when ansible got stuck and here are my findings -

1. I was able to login from the same container using same ssh keys.
2. The packages were installed successfully on the host machines and yet not confirmation was given from ansible on the host machine.

I’m using the [redhat-cop](https://github.com/redhat-cop)/**[ansible-role-jboss-common](https://github.com/redhat-cop/ansible-role-jboss-common)** repo for setting up the host machine.

Any specific logs that I should look for?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pankaj\_Basnal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c67d28/32.png) [@Pankaj\_Basnal](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Pankaj_Basnal)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 7:06am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-hangs-on-package-installation-for-hours-before-connection-to-host-is-lost/33787/8 "2020-09-29T07:06:55Z")

</div>

Any reason why this would get stuck in endless loop?

I’m using the [redhat-cop](https://github.com/redhat-cop)/**[ansible-role-jboss-common](https://github.com/redhat-cop/ansible-role-jboss-common)** repo for setting up the host machine.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 7:31am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-hangs-on-package-installation-for-hours-before-connection-to-host-is-lost/33787/9 "2020-09-29T07:31:02Z")

</div>

I would try getting help from the authors of the redhat-cop repository first, if only to make sure things can actually work (this is not known).