# Difficulties using jump host, ssh demands for password of unexpected user

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/difficulties-using-jump-host-ssh-demands-for-password-of-unexpected-user/26369>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [December 22, 2017, 9:40am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/difficulties-using-jump-host-ssh-demands-for-password-of-unexpected-user/26369 "2017-12-22T09:40:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Urs\_Lamprecht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/41988e/32.png) [@Urs\_Lamprecht](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Urs_Lamprecht)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2017, 9:40am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/difficulties-using-jump-host-ssh-demands-for-password-of-unexpected-user/26369/1 "2017-12-22T09:40:22Z")

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I took inspiration from the [FAQ](http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/faq.html#how-do-i-configure-a-jump-host-to-access-servers-that-i-have-no-direct-access-to)which describes how to use jump hosts / ssh proxies in combination with ansible playbooks.

In order to connect to servers I have to use a syntax like this:  
ssh myuser@technicaluser@targethost@jumphost  
This works fine on all of my machines and also on that where I run ansible from. I only need to enter the password of myuser which is just fine.

To get ansible working I created an inventory file called inventory with this content:  
[category]  
targethost ansible\_user=myuser

In the host\_vars of targethost I have  
ansible\_ssh\_common\_args: ‘-o ProxyCommand=“ssh -vvvv -W %h:%p technicaluser@jumphost”’

Then I run  
ansible -i inventory category -m ping

But in contrast to the regular ssh command I am being asked for the password of the technical user  
technicaluser@jumphost’s password:

The problem with this is that by design I do not know the password of the technical user and therefore I am lost.

Where is my mistake ?  
I am on Ansible 2.4.2.0, OpenSSH 7.4p1 and CentOS 7.4.1708