# ansible windows error

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-windows-error/17291>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Tags:** windows\
**Created:** [January 16, 2015, 7:40am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-windows-error/17291 "2015-01-16T07:40:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lozair31](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f08c70/32.png) [@lozair31](https://forum.ansible.com/u/lozair31)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 7:40am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-windows-error/17291/1 "2015-01-16T07:40:28Z")

</div>

We attempt to use here ansible 1.8.2 to manage windows servers 2008 → 2012.  
We attempt to test actually on windows 2012 server with PowerShell 4 and using french LangPack  
We have followed the ansible documentation for windows server configuration and winrm module installation on ansible server.

When we attempt to launch the win-ping module on this server, the ansible server attempt to gather facts using a script named setup.ps1.

Ansible break on this fact gathering with the following error :

$ ansible-playbook --limit test-windows2 windows\_inventory.yml -vv

PLAY [grp-windows] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

GATHERING FACTS \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*  
 REMOTE\_MODULE setup  
fatal: [test-windows2] =\> Traceback (most recent call last):  
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/ansible/runner/ **init**.py”, line 590, in \_executor  
exec\_rc = self.\_executor\_internal(host, new\_stdin)  
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/ansible/runner/ **init**.py”, line 792, in \_executor\_internal  
return self.\_executor\_internal\_inner(host, self.module\_name, self.module\_args, inject, port, complex\_args=complex\_args)  
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/ansible/runner/ **init**.py”, line 1025, in \_executor\_internal\_inner  
result = handler.run(conn, tmp, module\_name, module\_args, inject, complex\_args)  
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/ansible/runner/action\_plugins/normal.py”, line 57, in run  
return self.runner.\_execute\_module(conn, tmp, module\_name, module\_args, inject=inject, complex\_args=complex\_args)  
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/ansible/runner/ **init**.py”, line 555, in \_execute\_module  
res = self.\_low\_level\_exec\_command(conn, cmd, tmp, sudoable=sudoable, in\_data=in\_data)  
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/ansible/runner/ **init**.py”, line 1173, in \_low\_level\_exec\_command  
in\_data=in\_data)  
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/ansible/runner/connection\_plugins/winrm.py”, line 153, in exec\_command  
return (result.status\_code, ‘’, result.std\_out.encode(‘utf-8’), result.std\_err.encode(‘utf-8’))  
UnicodeDecodeError: ‘ascii’ codec can’t decode byte 0x8a in position 53: ordinal not in range(128)

I attempt to run directly the setup.ps1 script on the server which generate error.  
This error is printed with french characters which perhaps generate the UnicodeDecodeError.

Anyone can confirm it use ansible on windows servers with non english langpack ?

Thanks for your help

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chris\_Church1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac8455/32.png) [@Chris\_Church1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Chris_Church1)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 6:11pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-windows-error/17291/2 "2015-01-16T18:11:53Z")

</div>

> 

I’m working on a fix, and trying to determine if it’s really an ansible or pywinrm issue.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chris\_Church1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac8455/32.png) [@Chris\_Church1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Chris_Church1)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 7:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-windows-error/17291/3 "2015-01-16T19:22:05Z")

</div>

I've found and submitted a fix:  
[https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/10024](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/10024)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lozair31](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f08c70/32.png) [@lozair31](https://forum.ansible.com/u/lozair31)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 10:33pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-windows-error/17291/4 "2015-01-28T22:33:32Z")

</div>

Thks for your help !  
I will make a try