# Delegate\_to fails if host is referenced by non-inventory name **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Tags:** ubuntu\ **Created:** [February 1, 2016, 5:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/delegate-to-fails-if-host-is-referenced-by-non-inventory-name/20405 "2016-02-01T17:03:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Davison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5ac83/32.png) [@Andrew\_Davison](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Andrew_Davison)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2016, 5:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/delegate-to-fails-if-host-is-referenced-by-non-inventory-name/20405/1 "2016-02-01T17:03:17Z")
I’m not sure if this is a bug in Ansible 2.0.0.2 or an intended change in behaviour, so I’m asking here before filing any bug report 🙂 **Ansible version:** ansible 2.0.0.2 config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg configured module search path = Default w/o overrides **Ansible configuration:** Default **Environment:** Ubuntu 14.04 **Summary:** If I have an inventory file that contains hosts listed only by their IP, but I use the DNS name in delegate\_to, then the delegate\_to command runs with no ssh user (it outputs “ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: None”). In Ansible 1.9 it worked fine, but since upgrading to Ansible 2.0 it does not work. Our inventory file is created by the ec2.py script at [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ansible/ansible/devel/contrib/inventory/ec2.py](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ansible/ansible/devel/contrib/inventory/ec2.py) **Steps to reproduce:** I used vagrant to launch two boxes for testing (vagrantfile below) and added box2 to my hosts file: 192.168.120.12 box2 Given an inventory file: [tag\_hosttype\_box1] 192.168.120.11 [tag\_hosttype\_box2] 192.168.120.12 and a playbook: - name: whoami command: whoami - name: IP Delegate whoami (works) command: whoami delegate\_to: 192.168.120.12 - name: Name Delegate whoami (fails) command: whoami delegate\_to: box2 Ansible output (summarized): ansible-playbook -i inventory.yml box1.yml --extra-vars=“ansible\_ssh\_user=vagrant” -vvvv --private-key=~/.vagrant.d/insecure\_private\_key Using /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as config file Loaded callback default of type stdout, v2.0 1 plays in box1.yml PLAY \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* TASK [setup] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* \<192.168.120.11\> ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: vagrant TASK [box1 : whoami] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* task path: /home/adavison/vagrant/ansible-test/roles/box1/tasks/main.yml:4 \<192.168.120.11\> ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: vagrant TASK [box1 : IP Delegate whoami] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* task path: /home/adavison/vagrant/ansible-test/roles/box1/tasks/main.yml:7 \<192.168.120.12\> ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: vagrant TASK [box1 : Name Delegate whoami] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* task path: /home/adavison/vagrant/ansible-test/roles/box1/tasks/main.yml:11 ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: None PLAY RECAP \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* 192.168.120.11 : ok=3 changed=2 unreachable=1 failed=0 Note the “ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: **None** ” in the last task. Simply adding “box2” to the inventory file resolves the problem, but I can’t easily do this for our EC2 hosts as the inventory is auto-generated each time. I can work around this for now by changing the “delegate\_to” value to the IPs of the hosts in our playbooks, but wanted to check if this is an intended change in behaviour since 1.9 or a bug? Kind regards Andrew **Vagrantfile** # -_- mode: ruby -_- # vi: set ft=ruby : # Vagrantfile API/syntax version. Don’t touch unless you know what you’re doing! VAGRANTFILE\_API\_VERSION = “2” Vagrant.configure(VAGRANTFILE\_API\_VERSION) do |config| config.ssh.insert\_key = false config.vm.define “box1” do |box1| box1.vm.provider “virtualbox” do |v| v.memory = 512 end box1.vm.box = “ubuntu/trusty64” box1.vm.hostname = “box1” box1.vm.network “private\_network”, ip: “192.168.120.11”, netmask: “255.255.255.0” end config.vm.define “box2” do |box2| box2.vm.provider “virtualbox” do |v| v.memory = 512 end box2.vm.box = “ubuntu/trusty64” box2.vm.hostname = “box2” box2.vm.network “private\_network”, ip: “192.168.120.12”, netmask: “255.255.255.0” end end ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2016, 6:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/delegate-to-fails-if-host-is-referenced-by-non-inventory-name/20405/2 "2016-02-01T18:43:34Z")
since box2 does not have an inventory reference it is not picking up the need to login as vagrant user, does setting `remote_user: vagrant` fix this? ---
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Davison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5ac83/32.png) [@Andrew\_Davison](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Andrew_Davison)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 12:06pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/delegate-to-fails-if-host-is-referenced-by-non-inventory-name/20405/3 "2016-02-02T12:06:25Z")
Hi, thanks for the reply. Setting remote\_user: vagrant does not appear to fix this I’m afraid. I ran the command as: ansible-playbook -i inventory.yml box1.yml --extra-vars=“ansible\_ssh\_user=vagrant remote\_user=vagrant” -vvvv – private-key=~/.vagrant.d/insecure\_private\_key and there was no change, the last task still outputs “ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: None”. Kind regards Andrew ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 1:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/delegate-to-fails-if-host-is-referenced-by-non-inventory-name/20405/4 "2016-02-02T13:39:18Z")
remote\_user is not a variable, its a directive, ansible\_ssh\_user would override it anyways. ---
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Davison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5ac83/32.png) [@Andrew\_Davison](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Andrew_Davison)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 2:24pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/delegate-to-fails-if-host-is-referenced-by-non-inventory-name/20405/5 "2016-02-02T14:24:32Z")
Aha, sorry. I created an ~/.ansible.cfg file and placed the remote\_user directive in it: [defaults] remote\_user=vagrant Then ran the command again: ansible-playbook -i inventory.yml box1.yml --extra-vars=“ansible\_ssh\_user=vagrant” -vvvv --private-key=~/.vagrant.d/insecure\_private\_key This time it worked! However, we run our ansible playbooks from a Tower host and have other jobs which don’t run as that user, so this solution is not good if it sets it for all playbooks. As you mentioned ansible\_ssh\_user should override remote\_user I tried setting remote\_user to vagrant2 as a test, but the delegate\_to command still tried to ssh as vagrant2 (so ansible\_ssh\_user=vagrant was not overriding it). Is there a way to set remote\_user per playbook (or task?). Kind regards Andrew ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 2:32pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/delegate-to-fails-if-host-is-referenced-by-non-inventory-name/20405/6 "2016-02-02T14:32:10Z")
remote\_user is ONLY in play or task, in ansible.cfg has a 'user' option, again, all overridden by ansible\_ssh\_user ---
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Davison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5ac83/32.png) [@Andrew\_Davison](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Andrew_Davison)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 2:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/delegate-to-fails-if-host-is-referenced-by-non-inventory-name/20405/7 "2016-02-02T14:43:02Z")
Well now I’m more confused, because setting remote\_user in ansible.cfg did “fix” the problem and also the documentation does list remote\_user as a config file setting: [http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/intro\_configuration.html#remote-user](http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/intro_configuration.html#remote-user) If I set remote\_user at the task level: - name: Name Delegate whoami command: whoami delegate\_to: box2 remote\_user: vagrant It does not work, I still get “ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: None”. If I set remote\_user at the playbook level: - hosts: tag\_hosttype\_box1 roles: - role: box1 remote\_user: vagrant it does not work, I still get “ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: None”. So is this a bug or am I still misunderstanding? Kind regards Andrew ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 6:54pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/delegate-to-fails-if-host-is-referenced-by-non-inventory-name/20405/8 "2016-02-09T18:54:16Z")
I was wrong, it used to be "user" on the PLAY not in config ... my bad ....