# Cisco.ios.ios\_config module reporting odd local path error

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/cisco-ios-ios-config-module-reporting-odd-local-path-error/8074>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Tags:** cisco, playbook, ansible, ubuntu\
**Created:** [August 23, 2024, 8:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cisco-ios-ios-config-module-reporting-odd-local-path-error/8074 "2024-08-23T20:39:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Moridn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aca169/32.png) [@Moridn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Moridn)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 8:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cisco-ios-ios-config-module-reporting-odd-local-path-error/8074/1 "2024-08-23T20:39:43Z")

</div>

I have a weird issue that I have been on 3-4 forums so far and no one (so far) has any idea what could be the issue.

I have an existing playbook that suddenly seems to be having an odd problem out of the blue. It was working just last week.

I have a series of API calls from our password manager to gather some data, then a play to set some facts related to those fields, and then this play that is failing:

```auto
- name: Backup configuration from switch stacks....
  cisco.ios.ios_config:
    backup: true
    backup_options:
      filename: "{{ file_string }}.txt"
      dir_path: "/home/user_account/backups/{{ inventory_hostname }}"

```

The traceback is very non-specific, and occurs with a single host or multiple. Other playbooks running different modules are unaffected and I have removed and redownloaded the cisco.ios collection.

```auto
fatal: [hostname]: FAILED! => changed=false
msg: socket path /home/user_account/.ansible/pc/e1b79382e1 does not exist or cannot be found. See Troubleshooting socket path issues in the Network Debug and Troubleshooting Guide

```

I have read this guide it mentions and have enabled the network verbose logging, and there is nothing obvious or anything pointing in a direction to troubleshoot from.

I have seen a couple suggestions to downgrade Ansible to 2.14 where similar issues don’t happen, but that forum was very non-specific on why. Then another suggestion to try LibSSH over Paramiko, but I have had other issues with LibSSH before on Cisco playbooks.

I am currently running Ansible core 2.17.0, with Python 3.10.12, on Ubuntu 22.04.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nsavich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d78d45/32.png) [@nsavich](https://forum.ansible.com/u/nsavich)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 8:54pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cisco-ios-ios-config-module-reporting-odd-local-path-error/8074/2 "2024-08-23T20:54:23Z")

</div>

If you’re using Ansible navigator you might verify that your running that task on localhost and its not searching for the path within an EE container.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Moridn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aca169/32.png) [@Moridn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Moridn)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 4:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cisco-ios-ios-config-module-reporting-odd-local-path-error/8074/3 "2024-08-26T16:52:05Z")

</div>

The catch is this playbook was working at one point. For months.

I am thinking its either update related, or something got corrupted. But I am not finding any direction to troubleshoot which is the issue.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Denney-tech](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/denney-tech/32/1556_2.png) [@Denney-tech](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Denney-tech)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 9:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cisco-ios-ios-config-module-reporting-odd-local-path-error/8074/4 "2024-08-26T21:37:50Z")

</div>

I have seen this issue occur on long-running tasks. Ansible creates a control socket on the control node to maintain active SSH sessions for a period of time to reduce the performance overhead of having to frequently authenticate with remote hosts between commands sent over ssh. The default value is `ControlPersist=60s`, so one minute before the socket expires due to inactivity.

The solution in my case was to increase the control persist value to 600s.

ansible.cfg

```auto
[ssh_connection]
ssh_args = -C -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=600s -o ControlPath=%d/.ansible/ssh/%r@%h

```

I use OpenSSH though, not LibSSH or paramiko, and I don’t manage network devices, so your mileage may vary.