# Ansible Tower Copy Module can't find file on Ansible Controller

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-tower-copy-module-cant-find-file-on-ansible-controller/33941>\
**Category:** Ansible Developer\
**Created:** [October 1, 2020, 12:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-tower-copy-module-cant-find-file-on-ansible-controller/33941 "2020-10-01T12:56:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![td784](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@td784](https://forum.ansible.com/u/td784)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 12:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-tower-copy-module-cant-find-file-on-ansible-controller/33941/1 "2020-10-01T12:56:17Z")

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Hi all,

Hoping to get some feedback and help here as I am lost on this one…

Issue:  
When running the below code through Tower:

- name: “Copy cert file to target host”  
become: yes  
copy:  
src: “/tmp/my.jks”  
dest: “{{ mule\_home }}/certs/”  
owner: serviceaccountuser  
group: serviceaccountgroup

I get the following error:  
“msg”: “Could not find or access ‘/tmp/apiint\_medica\_com.jks’ on the Ansible Controller.\nIf you are using a module and expect the file to exist on the remote, see the remote\_src option”

When I run the same task on the same tower execution node via the CLI it works no problem.

I’ve tried using delegate\_to as well to ensure force find of the file on the specific node in question and still no luck.

I also used the find module, and the find module can find the file with no problems.

I am at a loss of what the problem here his when the same code works on the CLI but fails when ran through Tower.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!  
Tom

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**Author:** ![john.westcott.iv](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/john.westcott.iv/32/95_2.png) [@john.westcott.iv](https://forum.ansible.com/u/john.westcott.iv)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 1:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-tower-copy-module-cant-find-file-on-ansible-controller/33941/2 "2020-10-01T13:08:13Z")

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Tower runs Ansible through bubble wrap which is like a chroot jail.  
The /tmp available in the bubble wrap environment may not be the same /tmp on the actual Tower server.  
If you need a directory exposed to the bubble wrap container look in settings =\> jobs =\> path to expose to isolated jobs.

-John

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**Author:** ![td784](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@td784](https://forum.ansible.com/u/td784)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 1:23pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-tower-copy-module-cant-find-file-on-ansible-controller/33941/3 "2020-10-01T13:23:57Z")

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Many thanks John. That is great to know. Always learning something new 🙂 I changed the path of the download from /tmp to /opt and it worked like a charm. Will keep the paths to expose in mind for the future!

Tom